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Six days in London

Mid-December is a great time to be in London, where Christmas is taken very seriously. It’s impossible to navigate around the city without bumping into carol singers, twinkling lights or “drinks parties”, and there’s plenty of sumptuous music going on. I heard the choir of Westminster Abbey sing a Christmas concert to a sold out crowd of about 2000, a dress rehearsal at Handel House of Messiah performed by my friends Trevor and Gitai, I Fagiolini singing “The Little Match Girl Passion” by David Lang at the Spitalfields festival, Paul MacCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort with Britten’s “A boy was… Read More »Six days in London

Legend of the Bird

One last musical composition for me to chase down this season is the Legend of the Bird which I’ve written for the Anglican cathedral choir in Victoria, British Columbia. This carol for a cappella choir and children’s choir will be sung at the Nine Lessons and Carols service on Sunday Dec. 23, in the cathedral at 4:30 pm. When I was asked to write the piece, I recalled a very small sculpture of a bird high on top of one of the stone pillars in the south aisle of the cathedral. I have been fascinated by this little stone robin… Read More »Legend of the Bird

The Portinari Nativity

THE PORTINARI NATIVITY        Cori Martin (2012) The ruined stable’s open to the air, a stage on which the rustic scene plays out. Here stumbling shepherds fix their gaping faces, their brothers rushing from the hill behind where heavenly hosts have choired goodwill to them. More angels, anxious, hover in the roof or roost below in feathered flocks. All keep respectful distance, hanging back, the uncertain parents, too, unmoving. All awestruck, dumb with wonder, cluster in a perfect circlet round the little one. He wears no swaddling clothes; bare skin’s exposed to winter’s chill. Only his holy glow… Read More »The Portinari Nativity

Winter Nights II

The premiere of a new piece is always an exciting event, but let me tell you, for a “modern” composer, it’s actually more thrilling when your work gets a second performance. It means you were not totally off base when you wrote the thing, and some courageous conductor will risk performing an unknown piece that the audience has never heard of. Mark Vuorinen is the brave conductor who undertakes this task in Kitchener-Waterloo this Sunday afternoon, with the Grand Philharmonic Choir and orchestra, and my old friend Michael Colvin as the tenor soloist. Winter Nights is a four movement cantata… Read More »Winter Nights II

PPS (Post performance syndrome)

We put a name to this back in university days. We were learning the tools of the musical trade and wondered why we felt such a let down after a successful musical performance. If you are a performer, maybe you have experienced this feeling? Say that you have spent several weeks or even months preparing an amazing piece of music. Just as the performance is culminating, you experience a tremendous high. You’ve accomplished all you set out to do and you feel good about what you have done. But then, a bit a later, you feel lousy. Perhaps it’s because… Read More »PPS (Post performance syndrome)

The Rheinberger affair

Why on earth have we not sung Josef Rheinberger’s Christmas cantata before? Read Wholenote Magazine and you will stand in thankful awe of the zillion performances of Handel’s Messiah in Toronto; yet I mourn the 50 odd Christmases that have passed without any knowledge of Rheinberger’s wonderful work, “The Star of Bethlehem.” Pax Christi Chorale is polishing up our performances of this piece for next weekend at Grace Church on-the-Hill, and the more we sing it, the more we appreciate this masterwork of high romantic art: a work that paints the intimacy of the nativity, romanticized pastoral scenes, and the grandeur… Read More »The Rheinberger affair

Sacred Feast

Sacred feast?

       We had just come from singing the morning service at the Anglican church in Picton, on Canada Day, 2012, when the Gallery Choir stopped at this sunlit restaurant at Huff Estate Winery in Prince Edward County. We continued on to the house of generous friends and swam in Lake Ontario before returning home to Toronto. This event was emblematic of  this group of people. We have worked fairly hard at singing marvelous choral music, but there has always been a more profound element to this group. We have formed friendships that are enriched by music-making and we… Read More »Sacred feast?

Colors of Music Festival

Colours of Music

This is the 10th year for the Colours of Music Festival in Barrie, Ontario. This small city north of Toronto hosts a very ambitious festival every September where you can not only hear classical music beautifully played and sung, but also enjoy the glorious Autumn colours offered up by local trees, free of charge. I have the great pleasure of being composer in residence this year, and I thought you’d like to know what I’ve written. First off, on Monday Sept 24 the MacMillan Singers from the University of Toronto will sing “Rise up my Love,” a motet on the… Read More »Colours of Music

St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church

…there is a season

Another Michaelmas rolls around; soon All Souls, Advent, Christmas, Candlemas. Six years of music-making seems like a blip in time considering the thousand years of tradition that flow through our liturgy and song at St. Mary Magdalene’s. In the next two months I’ll prepare to throw the torch to another musician who will keep this wonderful tradition burning bright. All of the choirs at SMM express such dedication and joy in their singing, and the congregation is deeply appreciative of their work. I will always hold the parish close to my heart and support the community’s work however I can, but… Read More »…there is a season