Skylark: Clear Voices In The Dark
Sono Luminus

In hearing daily about the lives lost in Ukraine and the Middle East, we're reminded anew of the monumental human toll exacted by war and conflict. Not that we should need reminders: countless others preceded those two, with all implicitly arguing in support of George Santayana's contention that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Perhaps it was these most recent events, however, that got Skylark's Artistic Director Matthew Guard thinking the time was ripe for his renowned vocal ensemble to record Figure Humaine. Created during a period of immense upheaval and turmoil, the work was composed by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) in occupied France during 1943 and was inspired by resistance poems by the surrealist Paul Éluard. Poulenc's plan was to prepare the work in secret and then have it performed on the longed-for day of liberation. Scored for double choir in six parts each, the piece, which fittingly ends with the movement “LIBERTÉ,” is also one of the most challenging pieces in the a cappella choral repertoire.

Figure Humaine is also only twenty minutes long, which prompted Guard to ponder what might effectively pair with it on Clear Voices In The Dark. The answer came to him when he realized that the respective 150th and seventieth anniversaries of the ends of the Civil War and WWII were imminent and so set about gathering Civil War songs from the 1860s. Ones such as “Johnny, I hardly knew ye,” “Soldier's Memorial Day,” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” were natural picks, while others, including “When this Cruel War is Over – Weeping, Sad and Lonely” and “Break it Gently to my Mother,” accentuate the grief experienced by those left behind.

One of the key decisions Skylark had to make involved the presentation of the material. Should Figure Humaine and the other songs be presented as distinct pieces or should the set-list alternate between them with each part of Poulenc's work followed by one of the others? Choosing the first scenario would have resulted in a recording of two very contrasting halves, but it also would have allowed Figure Humaine to be experienced without interruption. In opting for the second scenario, Guard and company facilitate a to-and-fro between the ethereal austerity of the Poulenc work and the emotional immediacy of the Civil War songs. Further to that, each song selection acts as a commentary of sorts on the Poulenc movement it follows. When credible arguments can be made for both approaches, one's reminded of Joni Mitchell's “Well, something's lost, but something's gained …”

Whereas existing arrangements were used for three of the Civil War songs, Guard created arrangements for the five others. The artistry he brought to the task is illustrated by the tremendous one he created for Henry L. Tucker's touching lament “When this Cruel War is Over – Weeping, Sad and Lonely,” which begins with a magnificent unaccompanied solo by alto Carrie Cheron and then expands in two stages to include more singers and then the full ensemble. With its lead vocal rendered beautifully by tenor Nathan Hodgson, Frederick Buckley's “Break it Gently to my Mother” grew out an incident that occurred on the battle-field of Gettysburg when a dying soldier imparted the title's words to his comrades. The beloved hymn “Abide with me” is elevated by its haunting melodies and a lovely solo by alto Clare McNamara. In all such cases, Guard's carefully considered choices as an arranger maximize the impact of the songs and reinforce the authenticity of their expressions. It also would be hard to present a stronger argument for the artistry of the vocal ensemble than these spectacular performances. Not all Civil War songs, incidentally, came from the United States, an example being the plaintive “Johnny has gone for a soldier,” which originated as an eighteenth-century Irish folk song before migrating overseas and which stirringly conveys the loss and anxiety felt when loved ones leave to fight. Moving in the opposite direction, “Johnny, I hardly knew ye,” a re-purposing of the 1863 American Civil War Song “When Johnny Came Marching Home,” was published four years later in London and adopts a clear anti-war position.

In Guard's description, Figure Humaine “sets forth an intense emotional progression, cycling between despair and optimism against a backdrop of gathering madness.” In the opening "De tous les printemps du monde…,” two choirs alternate to mirror the internal struggle between the brutal reality of the present and the hope for a projected future. Hushed episodes alternate with declamatory ones as the group's luxuriant voices essay the intro's divergent moods. Agitation marks the opening of “En chantant les servantes s'élancent…" with its horrific image of young women cleaning up a battlefield, though some modicum of relief arrives when the movement resolves on a tentatively peaceful note. In stark contrast, “Aussi bas que le silence…” starts with a hush though swells dramatically thereafter and features the two choirs singing separately, a gesture perhaps meant to emphasize the chasm between those at home and those away at battle. “Toi ma patiente…” revisits the two-choir dichotomy between present reality and future hope in offsetting the angelic vocalizations of the optimistic sub-group with the harsher vision of its reality-focused counterpart. Battle is evoked during “Riant du ciel et des planètes…” when the two choirs engage in combat throughout the movement, each delivering its part with fury and at high velocity. Action-packed too is the work's sixth and penultimate movement, “La menace sous le ciel rouge…,” whose vocal parts spiral downwards and make the unsettling music feel like it's being drawn into a subterranean vortex—even if the movement resolves triumphantly with the voices singing in unison. Understandably uplifting and celebratory, the concluding “LIBERTÉ” is the only one in Poulenc's manuscript that sports a genuine title as the others simply use the opening words of their respective poems as shorthand titles.

Guard's in-depth commentaries on the material, the Poulenc work in particular, are illuminating. It's the splendour of the group's singing, however, that recommends the release most. In combining such contrasting material, Skylark demonstrates the versatility for which it's become known and shows again why this thrice Grammy-nominated American ensemble is so admired. This latest innovative collection serves as a valuable if sad reminder that war and conflict are with us still and that countless lives continue to be lost when countries inflict devastation on each other. On a more uplifting note, Clear Voices In The Dark also champions the resilience of the human spirit and its refusal to succumb to despair.

July 2024