Is there a food that you could imagine voluntarily binging on for two weeks? That gallon of chocolate almond fudge ice cream left over from the community picnic? Aunt Edna’s mac and cheese? Even the perfect Thanksgiving dinner stuffed so lovingly in friggie containers gets a dubious side-eye by Sunday morning. 

We humans have favorites. But we also love variety. And variety is why on the August 3 opening program of Portland’s William Byrd Festival you will be enchanted by choral and keyboard works in the English music tradition from the twentieth century. Yes, on day one of the 25^th year of the Festival dedicated to William Byrd there is no William Byrd. The program is titled “A New Song.”

Of course, the English music tradition wouldn’t be what it is if not for the great Renaissance composer. On Day 1, Festival Artistic Director Mark Williams provides organ accompaniment for Cantores in Ecclesia, conducted by Festival Director Blake Applegate, in the music of James MacMillan, Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams and performs two works for solo organ. The anchoring choral works are Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb and Gerald Finzi’s Lo, the full final service. All of these composers–all of their “new songs”–were influenced by Byrd. Listen to Finzi’s Lo, the full final service here:

You will hear that influence even more keenly on the August 18^th closing a cappella concert “Ancient & Modern” in which, states program notes by English Renaissance scholar and Festival participant Kerry McCarthy, each modern composer “has been a real admirer of early music in his or her own way, and it is not hard to find threads of Byrd’s style in the fabric of their music.” It will be a final binge on Byrd and on his creative progeny.

But fear not, Byrd lovers–over the other eleven Festival offerings throughout the two weeks you’ll have plenty of chances to Byrd-binge. Liturgical settings (mass, evensong, compline), lectures and recitals. The variety is not only in the repertoire and the performing forces but in the presentation format. You have so many choices. 

With the lectures of Drs. McCarthy, Ross Duffin and William Mahrt you expect to gain knowledge. Mahrt will expand upon the theme of Byrd’s influence in the turn of the twentieth century and draw parallels between Byrd and the moderns. And all you choral singers out there, doesn’t McCarthy’s lecture title “Tudor Singers on Tour” kind of crack you up? (Okay, maybe it’s just me and all of the choir tours I’ve been on that I wouldn’t want anybody lecturing about.) But with her authentic, relatable style McCarthy will bring these traveling singers to life. Festival Guest Ross Duffin’s Chamber Concert “lecture” is also a recital for keyboard and vocal soloists. More about that in a moment after a quick look at the choral forces you will see in this Festival. 

VOICES OF THE FESTIVAL

The regular 24-voice Cantores in Ecclesia Choir, directed by Applegate, will be augmented by several alumni and special guests, bringing the group to around 30 for their seven appearances as Byrd Festival Choir in residence. Artistic Director Williams will conduct Cantores in two concerts. Subsets of Cantores singers are featured twice this year. Applegate conducts 10 singers in a performance of Byrd’s Gradualia of 1605 on a noon concert on Thursday, August 15; the prior Saturday, August 4 at 4pm, is when early music scholar Ross Duffin presents his Chamber Concert “lecture.”

What Duffin has done to breathe new life into an historic work, “Arcadia,” by Elizabethan poet Philip Sidney, is fascinating. Sidney died at the age of 31, leaving dozens of “songs” musically unset. William Byrd had set two of Sidney’s earlier poems to music and composed two elegies at his passing. Now Duffin has reunited the two geniuses with a “reconstruction of songs in Arcadia, enchanting its lyrics with music by Byrd.” (media notes from Ross Duffin) You will hear Williams at the keyboard with soloists Michael Hilton, Benjamin España, Chris Engbretson, Kerry McCarthy and Vakarė Petroliūnaitė. 

If you are looking for representation of female composers in the Festival you will find a contemporary organ solo, Light Revealing, of 29-year-old Grace Evangeline-Mason on the opening concert and one piece by Judith Weir offered on the final day. Dame Judith is the first female to be named to serve as Master of the Queen’s (now King’s) Music since the inception of that post in 1626. Her ten-year appointment concludes this year. Her music served, as her office specifies, at the Funeral of Elizabeth II and at the Coronation of Charles III. Cantores will perform her 2005 work Vertue. Listen to it here:

We will also be reminded of the brilliance of Byrd’s keyboard music in an August 7 solo harpsichord recital–“None Suche Shall Rise: William Byrd and His Legacy in English Keyboard Music”–by special Guest Artist Eugene Petrushansky. The repertoire “explores the music of Byrd, his immediate antecedents, his late 17th-century successors, and the 20th-century resurgence of interest in the old repertoire” (Festival Book notes).

If you are thinking that this is a pretty fair dose of “church” music you wouldn’t be wrong. The traditions of the Church of England and of the Roman Catholic Church are well represented. 

But some of the texts take a broader approach to spiritualism; some metaphysical poetry has been set as well. In Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb you’ll hear the eccentric ramblings of 18^th century poet Christopher Smart, who envisioned God in natural earth wonders, saying, for example:

For I am possessed of a cat,
Surpassing beauty,
From whom I take occasion
To bless Almighty God.

(from Jubilate Agno, 1759-1763)

Smart, who wrote the poem while confined in a mental institution, also muses on the mouse, on flowers, and rhapsodizes on various instruments of the orchestra and other things that take him closer to God. Church music? Hmmm.

John Taverner’s Song for Athene can be appreciated in or out of a church settings and was a universal reminder of the preciousness of life in the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. Listen to it here:

But if it is a liturgical setting you enjoy or wish to experience for the first time, this is a Festival for you. One of the bold things about the WBF is their dedication to preservation of not only the music but the manner in which it was meant to be heard – in service. Church music? Indeed it is. But your personal WBF experience can be beyond belief or within it.

HOMETOWN HERO

Let us not take this “homegrown” Festival for granted. It is unique, especially in the choral world. Sure, several other annual Festivals around the country zero in on one composer; there are a couple of Bach celebrations around the nation, like our very own Oregon Bach Festival. Mozart and Beethoven also get plenty of attention. And there are numerous general classical music Festivals – Spoleto, Aspen, Newport, Tanglewood to name a few – who boast of world-class orchestras. But other than our own OBF, and to a lesser degree the Boston Early Music Festival, choral works and performances are not a primary focus. Hats off to our WBF and its founders and sustainers. For two weeks each August in Portland not only is choral music a star but the singers are our own excellent pool of choral musicians. This Festival is a jewel.

The WBF’s resident choir, Cantores in Ecclesia, has been promoting and performing – and preserving for future generations – Gregorian Chant and Sacred Polyphony since its founding by Dean Applegate forty-one years ago. They have been the Festival Choir since Applegate and the late Richard Marlow co-founded the WBF. You can hear Cantores occasionally in concert, monthly in liturgical context at Mass at Holy Rosary Parish and also for Mass at St. Agatha’s Catholic Church. For more information specific to Cantores visit this page.

The variety of venues is one of the wonderful things about this Festival. The Church of St. Mark is the site of a mid-Festival Evensong where you will hear portions of the Great Service of Byrd and other anthems. Petrushansky’s keyboard recital and Duffin’s “Arcadia” are at St. Michaels and All Angels; the final concert, and pre-concert lecture, is at St. Patrick’s Church. All other Festival events, in fact all of the liturgical offerings, take place at Holy Rosary Church – concerts in the sanctuary and lectures at Aquinas Hall. Check for your venues carefully.

The beautiful and comprehensive Festival Program Book is available on-line and is downloadable. Program notes, full translations, guest artist bios, composer dates….it is a wealth of information and will help you plan your Festival visits.

Oregon Arts Watch music editor Matthew Neil Andrews recently wrote something that applies perfectly here. About classical music he said “You learn something just by listening to it; most of the time, you have to learn something to listen to it in the first place. And it tends to reward study and repeated listening, in the sense that you hear something new every time you listen.” This is us binging out at the William Byrd Festival. (OAW, June 20, 2024)

As you begin planning your Festival visits, you’ll appreciate another way in which the English choral tradition is honored in this annual Festival. Here’s how McCarthy sets the scene in her program notes. “In cities all across England, people can walk into a building as evening falls and hear an excellent choir sing. They are not required to do, say, pay, or believe anything; they can simply take half an hour out of their busy lives and listen. It was going on in 1524 and it is still going on in 2024.” And it is going on at the William Byrd Festival and always has been.

Only four of the thirteen events are ticketed: the opening and closing concerts; the Eugene Petrushansky keyboard concert; and the “Enchanting Arcadia recital.” All others are free, open for all to enjoy. Donations are appreciated. Access ticketed concerts here. The entire SCHEDULE OF EVENTS – with dates, venues and artists – is here.

Connections

Portland Symphonic Choir invites important conversations with song

On Wednesday, August 7th, 7 pm, Portland Symphonic Choir’s longstanding “Summer Sings” series continues with “A Dialogue on Access and Inclusivity in Choral Music PDX” led by local composer and educator Judy A. Rose. Join in song with others at Alberta House where Rose will lead the community in singing of songs in the aural tradition and will moderate a panel of local choral artists and educators including Camille Bass, Marguerite McKean, Aaron Nigel Smith and Bethany Schweitzer-Goshorn. Add your voice to this important discussion.

And later in the month is the third and final Summer Sings 2024 event, “New Works” Reading Session and Recordings. Composers – names soon to be revealed – were chosen from submissions to two composition “calls” – The Summer Sing Emerging Composer Call and the Summer Sings Youth Composer Call. This event takes place on Wednesday, August 21, 7 pm at Multnomah Arts Center. Be the first people to sing these new works. Witnessing the moment when a young composer hears their work sung by human voices for the first time – priceless!

PSC Community Education Programming/Summer Sings are free and brought to our community in large part by grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council and the Autzen Foundation. Reserve your seats here. 

There’s treble ahead

Watch out for “One Night of Treble” with the Portland Symphonic Girlchoir, a rousing evening of nothing but fun, choral style, on August 21, 6:00-7:30 at Zion Lutheran Church, Portland. Bring your children, your grandchildren and yourself. Enjoy snacks and community and hear some wonderful stories of the Choir’s recent successful performance in Carnegie Hall and their tour to Quebec. A fun and free way to get into treble.