For most of my life I’ve steered clear of choral music—I assumed it was antiquated, and my tastes in classical music leaned toward the contemporary (which usually means dissonance, unusual timbres, and odd structures). Of course, that assumption arose almost entirely out of ignorance. I’m still a novice when it comes to classical vocal music, but I’m coming around—not just because I’ve discovered the work of Baroque composers such as Henry Purcell but also because I’ve been programming contemporary music every week for nearly five years for my Frequency Series.
The Crossing is a big reason why: working with the International Contemporary Ensemble, it brings the works to life with heavenly grace. Shaw’s “To the Hands” collides centuries-old modes and disorienting contemporary techniques, while the lurching “Ad Cor” by Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (who died not long after completing the piece) sounds more purely modern. Only Lewis Spratlan’s “Common Ground” draws on opera, with a handful of singers taking extended leads—it’s also my least favorite piece on the album, though those two facts aren’t necessarily related. Below you can hear the piece by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, “Ad Genua/To the Knees,” which brings stark terror to an ancient sound.
