Composer(s): Chambers, Evan
Conductor(s): Kiesler, Kenneth
Label: Sono Luminus
Genre: Vocal Ensemble
Period: 20th Century
Catalogue No: DSL-92113
Barcode: 053479211323
Release Date: 01/2010

CHAMBERS, E.: Old Burying Ground (The), Books 1-2 (Eriksen, Phan, Bird, Premo, University of Michigan Symphony, Kiesler)

Tracklist

Chambers, Evan
Taylor, Keith - Lyricist
Lynch, Thomas - Lyricist
Tillinghast, Richard - Lyricist
Meehan, Paula - Lyricist
Hirshfield, Jane - Lyricist
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
1No. 1. Introduction: All the Time You Want (poem)02:21
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
2No. 2. And Pass from Hence Away03:34
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
3No. 3. O Say Grim Death05:42
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
4No. 4. O Say Grim Death (poem)02:09
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
5No. 5. A Bar So Pure02:43
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
6No. 6. Uncut Grass (poem)01:36
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
7No. 7. Oh Drop on my Grave04:16
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
Chambers, Evan
Taylor, Keith - Lyricist
Lynch, Thomas - Lyricist
Hirshfield, Jane - Lyricist
Meehan, Paula - Lyricist
Tillinghast, Richard - Lyricist
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
8No. 1. This Transitory Scene09:11
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
9No. 2. Her Void (poem)01:19
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
10No. 3. Nancy Eliza04:07
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
11No. 4. Pompeii (poem)01:50
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
12No. 5. Emma05:39
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
13No. 6. Relentless Death03:16
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)
14No. 7. Paths of Peace (poem)08:19
Eriksen, Tim (vocals)
Phan, Nicholas (tenor)
Bird, Anne Carolyn (soprano)
Premo, Evan (bass)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)
Kiesler, Kenneth (Conductor)

Total Playing Time: 56:02

As anyone who shares composer Evan Chambers’s interest in historic cemeteries knows, there is often a very rich world on display just inside the gates. A catalog of family histories, and often their tragedies, is carved into the stonework.

Chambers took his experience of these gravesites, particularly a visit to The Old Burying Ground in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and set a collection of epitaphs and new poems reflecting the suffering and the peace he found there. The resulting composition is a nearly hour-long work for orchestra and three vocalists—one a folksinger and the other two singing in a classical style.

“The piece is folk-inspired classical done really, really right,” Tim Eriksen, the folksinger featured in this recording, says of the piece in the video embedded above. “I sort of hear it as half way between Rite of Spring and Appalachian Spring.”

Indeed, the classical voices travel comfortably alongside the sweeping strings, and the folksinger (American folk style/Sacred Harp) seems to stir the orchestra, the slight tension in the uncommon juxtaposition agitating the sonic field to intriguing effect. Eriksen’s striking performance proves to be a disc highlight, though the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Anne-Carolyn Bird, and Nicolas Phan all turn in excellent performances. There’s an echo audible in the recording of the solo narrator, his voice likely left to ring through the performance hall, but the intimacy of the text might have been better served by a closer mic’ing.

Chambers’s score is generally lush and sweepingly cinematic, the orchestra allowed to step forward as an equal partner with the narrators and singers. In two of the work’s stand-out sections—“O Say Grim Death” and “Oh Drop On My Grave”—the ensemble shows some percussive bite, pulling the work away from its more reflective course. I found the emotional variety of these darker, sharper expressions particularly engaging.

The selected texts themselves avoid clichés, and instead illustrate a poetic sadness and stoic practicality in the face of death and the indifference of passing of time. “Whatever thoughts there may have been,/whatever worries and struggles—/are lost in the uncut grass,” the narrator says, reciting a poem by Richard Tillinghast. “…The stones yield their names to the weather.”


Evan Chambers’s orchestral song cycle takes its inspiration from “Americans” in a different way. He uses epitaphs in The Old Burying Ground in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. With Irish and American folksong structures he creates powerfully moving pieces. …emotional and cathartic powerhouse.

To read the complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.


Cemeteries may not be the subject of many epic-scale compositions, but the graveyard of Jaffrey, NH, inspired Evan Chambers’ song cycle, The Old Burying Ground, and it is indeed a work of immense proportions. In setting epitaphs he discovered on a walk in 1998 and connecting them with commissioned poems by five poets, Chambers created a reverent meditation on death and memory that touches on musical traditions close to his heart. Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of this piece is the folk element, which is strongly conveyed through the plangent voice of Tim Eriksen; the epitaphs he sings have the authentic tang of rustic New England. More in the classical European tradition are the songs performed by tenor Nicholas Phan and soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, yet these also summon up the flavor of modern Americana, particularly the lyrical styles of Aaron Copland or Samuel Barber. The 2007 performance by Kenneth Kiesler and the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra is steadily paced and consistently subdued in expression, and the moods that linger after hearing this 2010 Dorian release are somber and serious, owing to the elegiac tone of the whole work. Sustaining this mode of expression for nearly an hour requires control, which the performers plainly have. However, listeners who grow restless may choose to select a few songs at a time, because absorbing the cycle in one sitting requires a commitment of time and a quiet space for reflection.



Kiesler, Kenneth