reviewvancouver: into light

Reviewer Ed Farolan

This fabulous choir has come up with a new CD, into light, which was inspired after performing in the Polyfollia festival in France in 2006. The Canadian selections were well-received and because of this, Canadian composers made their mark in the international choral scene.

What's unique about this group which was founded in 1992 is they rehearse and perform without a conductor. I had a chance to see them in concert during the Winter Olympics when they performed with other choral groups in Welcome World. I was impressed by their movements as they sang mostly a capella.

The CD comprises 14 compositons: Ave Verum Corpus (1983) from Canadian-Latvian composer Imant Raminish (1943- ); Three Hymns (2002), R. Murray Schafer (1933- ), Agneau de Dieu (1998) and Earth Teach Me (2006), Rupert Lang (1948- ); Jesus Erbarme Dich, Claude Vivier (1948-83); Exaudi (2003), Jocelyn Morlock (1969- ); Salish Song and Inuit Hunting Song (1973), Derek Healey; Ice (1999), Bruce Sled (1975- ); On Monsieur's Departure (2008), Jeffrey Ryan (1962- ); Love (2002), Rodney Sharman (1958- ); and Le Pont Mirabeau (1977), Lionel Daunais (1901-82).

The first seven songs are religious in nature, and can be easily identified when sung in a Catholic Mass. Following these are two Canadian folk songs from inspired by the Inuit and Salish First Nations of Canada.

Sled's Ice reflects the Canadian landscape, evoking , in Sled's own words, "the melting of an icy winter lake". Ryan's On Monsieur's Departure was inspired by Queen Elizabeth I's original poem ("I grieve and dare not show my discontent,/ I love and yet am forced to seem to hate...."), expressing the duality of the Queen as a woman of wild passion and a virgin queen of "regal reservation".

Sharman's Love is a short a capella piece inspired from Ovid in George Sandy's translation: "Fire, Aire, Earth, Water, all the opposites/ That strove in Chaos, powerful Love unites...."

And finally, Daunais' Le Pont Mirabeau' is based on Guillaume Apollinaire's poem recalling past loves: "Sous le pont Mirabeau coule le Seine/Et nos amours/ Fault-ilqu'il m'en souvienne..."

This is a fine CD ($20) and can be purchased through their site musica intima..