Nonsense & Nursery Rhymes

By Robert Macdermid

This is not your normal choir concert…

Nonsense: impudent, foolish, fatuous, absurd, sometimes objectionable, with playful and sardonic intent.

Think Dr. Seuss or Jabberwocky, trumpery or balderdash. Music too can be nonsensical, harmony and form upended and distended with humorous and perplexing results. And some of that will be on display in early March when Seventeen Voyces takes the stage at St. Matthew’s Church for their concert Nonsense and Nursery Rhymes.

“The main work is called “My Briefcase” by English composer John Kilpatrick, written for choir and wind quintet,” says choir director Kevin Reeves. “It is autobiographical because the composer actually had his briefcase stolen and decided to write about it. There is a narrator sung by a tenor in the manner of Bach’s Evangelists, a Gesualdo or Monteverdi-like introduction, a wonky fugue and a chorus of barking dogs. I just hope Seventeen Voyces is up to the task.

“I’m very excited to have a wind quintet from the University of Ottawa joining us, especially since it will provide so many variations of instrumental colour. This will be the first time our ensemble has ever teamed up with a wind quintet and my first time conducting one.”

The quintet will consist of Keren Xu, flute; Kira Shiner, oboe; Jingtao Yan, clarinet; Nadia Ingalls, bassoon; and Taran Plamondon, French horn.

Thanks to the Ontario Arts Council, Reeves has written a new work for choir and wind quintet, one that skewers nursery rhymes. “It actually offended some of the choristers, so I knew we were on the right track, but I’ve decided to change some of the words because I want our audiences to return.”

Interestingly, the choir won’t know what the work really sounds like until the wind quintet joins them the week of the performance.

Seventeen Voyces also welcomes guest soprano Whitney Sloan, who moved to Ottawa recently from Edmonton. Sloan has been praised for her clear, lyrical voice and ability to take full advantage of both the light and shade in a score. She is an avid performer with a passion for communicating the narratives of the operatic and concert genres as well as the musical intimacy of art song and small ensembles. She will sing a Reeves composition entitled “As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed,” “The Ragwort” by Sir Arthur Bliss and Aaron Copland’s “I Bought Me a Cat.”

Other works will include “Monday’s Child,” “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “Sing a Song of Sixpence” by popular English composer John Rutter, “Three Nursery Rhymes” by Robert Hall, interim music director at St. Matthew’s, and “The Humpty Dumpty Blues” by Reeves.

There will also be a lively rendition of “Happy Feet” by Andrew Ager, fresh off the success of New Opera Lyra’s production of Dracula. Ager will accompany Sloan and Seventeen Voyces on the Steinway, and he has also written a sprightly wind quintet for the occasion.

Expect the unexpected and be entertained, because it’s all nonsense.

Robert MacDermid is a tenor in Seventeen Voyces and a member of the board.

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