The Catskill Chronicle

Review by Barry Plaxen

WOODBOURNE, NY (June 18, 2014) – For “The Poetry of Music,” Sullivan County Community Chorus director Kevin J. Giroux took his audience on a musical journey with words, at the Immaculate Conception Church in Woodbourne on a sunny Sunday afternoon, June 15, 2014 for the chorale’s 37 annual concert.

Words, words, words were in the forefront. The program was split into over half a dozen sections. First, a poem was read by a chorus member followed by two or three (or more) songs set to poems by famous poets, by Shakespeare and from the Bible. Each song alluded in some way to the overall subject or mood of the poem that was read. It was quite, quite innovative and interesting. The poem selection process, as I understood it, was researched by choir member Tina Hazarian and was then culled and added to by Giroux.

The music selections were composed by mostly unknown composers, but there were gems sung that were written by Faure and Vaughan Williams which stood out, and one song by composer Z. Randall Stroope to a Robert Frost poem that I was quite taken with.

Most of the music sounded quite difficult for the chorus, especially the first song from a poem by Robert Burns set to music by Mack Wilberg, which set the tone (no pun intended) of the concert. The complicated choral writing we heard seemed to permeate the entire concert. And since many of the songs (about one-third) were sung by soloists rather than the entire chorus, I got the feeling that there was a definite method to Giroux’ choosing the complicated musical works – to expand the chorale’s boundaries, to make them aware of greater possibilities that exist in the musical genre of chorale composition, and the ability for each and every one of them to reach higher within themselves than ever before. We watched them hatch and mature before our eyes and ears as they reached a new plateau.

As with other concerts, Giroux brought in instrumental (flute and French horn) and vocal student/soloists, a soprano and a boy soprano singing “alto”. The musicians always give variety to the presentation, which was more than ably enhanced by the wonderfully expressive pianist Keira Weyant.

I congratulate Maestro Giroux for his forward thinking (whether this was his purpose or not) and I congratulate all the singers who, by being gently pushed into delving into a more difficult level of musical writing, can now explore more of that level. And when they happen to sing simpler music in the future, can approach it with a more aware and more musically mature perspective.