CD Review from The Arts Fuse
CD Review from The Arts Fuse
“New Hampshire’s Heather Gilligan is a composer to watch.”
Heather Gilligan’s Living in Light, a collection of six relatively short song cycles by the New Hampshire-based composer, is a new album that capably demonstrates that the art song is not only alive and well but thriving in the early decades of the 21st century.
The title song cycle, a setting of four Sara Teasdale poems for voice and cello, gives a good sense of Gilligan’s style as far as it’s represented on this album: emotionally direct; filled with sweeping, lyrical gestures; and unafraid to venture into the occasionally unexpected sound world.
The piece itself covers a fairly wide expressive range. Its first song, “Buried Love,” has soprano Margot Rood and cellist Patrick Owen echoing long-breathed phrases. The second, “I Shall Not Care,” is packed with jazzy rhythmic cells; the third, “June Night,” alternates mysterious gestures (cello harmonics, “seagull effects”) with, over its last verse, warm, diatonic gestures. And the last, “A Little While,” almost sounds like a folk hymn, with rich cello double-stops accompanying Rood’s soaring melodic line.
The outer settings in Garden Songs, Gilligan’s adaptations of three short William Blake poems for voice, trumpet, and piano, are (appropriately) a bit more ironic in character. The middle one, “Garden of Love,” is appropriately searching; Gilligan’s writing for voice and trumpet alone in it is particularly striking.
There’s plenty of rhythmic energy to be found in Mixed Metaphors and Winged Reflections, settings of poems by Lisa DeSiro and Mimi White. In the latter set of three songs, Rood and pianist Damien Francoeur-Krzyzek are joined by saxophonist Kenneth Radnofsky, whose dolorous tone add a warm glow to the proceedings.
Comfort, though, is noticeably lacking in Battlegrounds, Gilligan’s setting of four E. Ethelbert Miller poems for voice and string quartet on themes of death, suffering, and violence. Plaintive falling gestures mark her setting of “carlos,” while “Rebecca Lets Her Hair Down” packs an understated punch. “Honey & Watermelon,” about a suicide bomber, is pocked by plaintive, Eastern-sounding wails, and “Liberia Fever, 1877” rocks gently but ominously. The Apple Hill Quartet accompanies Rood with commanding energy, excellent intonation, and richly-hued colors.
Finer Points, a set of three songs for voice and percussion, completes the disc. Here, Gilligan’s sense of instrumental color is on full display, lending Lisa DeSira’s poems an epic, ritualistic energy. Caleb Heron capably and sensitively executes the involved percussion part.
Throughout the disc, Rood sings with bright, clear tone; marvelously clear diction; impeccable intonation; and a total embrace of Gilligan’s idiomatic vocal style. Pianist Francouer-Krzyzek and trumpeter Seelan Manickam acquit themselves excellently in their respective appearances, playing with rhythmic energy and lots of color. In sum, this is a composer – and an impressive roster of performers – worth watching closely.
Jonathan Blumhofer is a composer and violist who has been active in the greater Boston area since 2004. His music has received numerous awards and been performed by various ensembles, including the American Composers Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic, Camerata Chicago, Xanthos Ensemble, and Juventas New Music Group. Since receiving his doctorate from Boston University in 2010, Jon has taught at Clark University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and online for the University of Phoenix, in addition to writing music criticism for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.