Contemporary American
composer Phillip Schroeder impressed
me with his excellent All
Rivers At Once disc, which focused
on his instrumental muse. This pair
of discs devoted to vocal settings is
equally attractive and stimulating,
while, perhaps inevitably, bringing
a slightly more traditional/conventional
element to the fore. As well as the
composer's own keyboard contributions,
the common feature here is the grateful
baritone of Robert Best, ideally suited
to these often self-effacing but evocative
pieces. The choice of texts is,
on both selections, almost as visionary
in its own way as the texts themselves.
I was particularly taken with the juxtaposition
of Whitman, Twain and Rumi on Turning
to the Center. All hark back to
a more intelligent, more intuitive and
less materialistic/dogmatic phase in
their respective cultural histories.
Whitman's inspired muse is much beloved
in America and beyond, as aficionados
of Delius, VW and Holst will be well
aware. Twain's freedom of an American
(Pudd'nhead!) to laugh at himself and
his fellow Americans in a (semi) reverential
way is perhaps too close to the bone
these days but all power to Schroeder
for having the gall to set it:-
"It is by the goodness
of God that in our country we have
those three unspeakably precious
things; freedom of speech, freedom
of conscience, and the prudence
to practice either of them"
While the Whitman and
Twain settings are of a fairly spare
clarinet and piano accompanied cast,
the Rumi piece has a definite kinship
with the ambient/improv/jazz leanings
of All Rivers At Once, and demonstrates
the flowing, ebbing and eddying nature
of this highly organic music.
Songs of My Affinities
is perhaps an even more accomplished
effort than Turning to the Center,
with some additional instrumentation,
e.g. cello, and the pointed humour of
the terse Ogden Nash settings and the
gloom ridden (how else could it be,
as American Gothic goes?) Edgar Allen
Poe's Spirits of the Dead, contrasting
with the more expected transcendence
of the Whitman and Emerson pieces. For
this listener, Schroeder seems more
at home with Poe than Nash. However,
like Ives and Rorem, his forte appears
to lie with the superlative and undeniably
visionary age of American East Coast
literature. The beautiful closing Emerson
setting, a duet between the baritone
of Best and the composer's synthesised
accompaniment, provides a magnificent
conclusion. I look forward, very much,
to being reacquainted in future with
this composer's activities. Admittedly,
the creative star of John Adams (with
whom there are similarities, in the
fondness for popular music and jazz,
use of synthesisers etc) burns somewhat
brighter. These discs come highly recommended
nonetheless.
Neil Horner
Robert Best, baritone and percussion