The Cellar Singers Celebrate Canadian Composers

St. Paul’s United Church in Orillia was transformed into a nation of many nations from sea to sea to sea on Sunday 23 March by the Cellar Singers’ concert “Where Pines and Maples Grow”, a tapestry of Canadian compositions, all of them breath-taking. O Canada, arranged by choir director Mitchell Pady, set the tone of the evening, with simplicity and refreshing strength. 

A Salish Song arranged by Derek Healey began our tapestry of Canada at the West Coast. Then C. Godin’s fresh look at The Red River Valley traveled in time to the 1870’s, and a sad separation of two lovers. Magnetic North by Graeme Wearmouth is a feast for the ears with its panorama of contrasts in rhythm and harmony, expressing awe at the icy splendour of the land and the wonder of the aurora borealis.

Un Canadien errant takes us back to the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837-38, when some of the rebels were condemned to death and others exiled. The plaintive song was written by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie in 1842, while the pain of exile was still keenly felt. The choir chose John Barron’s poignant arrangement. 

Hearing the Elmer Iseler Singers at the Gravenhurst Opera House short years ago, I wrote: “Lydia Adams, a Maritimer herself, has made a unique arrangement of nature’s music on a background of a Mi’kmaq chant. The Mi’kmaq Honour Song scatters the singers here and there around the auditorium, with four chanting onstage, others grouped behind them to provide the swishing of wave and wind and the low hum of the forest. Suddenly a loon calls from the back of the hall, and a bob-white from another place. We are surrounded by chirpings, whistlings - a far-away wolf sends a message... It is a wrap-around experience of wonder.”

This year it was the turn of St. Paul’s, Orillia, to become the forest primieval, as the Cellar Singers evoked the sounds of nature backed by a Mi’kmaq chant.

Another musical magician, Peter-Anthony Togni, has written Grandmother Moon I and Grandmother Moon IV. The choir and tenor soloist Stan Hunter entered fully into the music as described far better than I could by a reviewer of the Halifax Chronicle Herald: "Togni's music is deeply felt, simply put, well-crafted and irradiated by a personal sense of the divine."

The second part of the concert began with Eleanor Daley’s magnificent Paradise from Song of Georgian Bay. Murray Schafer’s tribute to water, Miniwanka, followed. An Acadian hymn, Tout Passe, arranged by Lydia Adams, brought to life again the uprooting of the Acadians by the British, who bundled families into ships on the shores of Nova Scotia with no advance notice, and landed the survivors wherever wind and waves and politics directed.

What sad stories Canada has known, as in James Gordon’s Frobisher Bay, beautifully arranged by Linda Beaupré. This tale of a lost ship and crew was bracketed by two highly evocative compositions by Stephen Chatman. Snow captured in its multiple facets what we know all too well, and can be revisited next heat wave for a cooling memory. Sunset from Due West, depicts a wide sky and flaming colours as a train comes from a distance, passes and disappears into the far horizon.

Paul Halley’s Song for Canada was the treat that ended the evening, evocative but never trite. 

It All Began At Our Kitchen Table

Since childhood, verse has flowed from my pen -

or rather, my pencil, away back then.

In wobbly printing I wrote my first play

at the age of eight. My mom said, "Hurray!"

On her Smith Corona at our kitchen table

she typed out my script - a fantasy fable

full of dream fairies who danced and sang

the ditty I'd written for the whole gang.

Fast forward beyond my earliest youth,

and you'll find me behind a promising booth

promoting verse-crafting at some church fair. 

Customers crowded to order a "poem"

to celebrate birthdays abroad and at home,

or admonish teen-agers to tidy their room

in a wittily threatening voice of doom.

Ghost-writing a verse at the drop of a hat

appeals to the chameleon in me.

It starts with a rhyme, then goes beyond that

merging its ripples until they are free

sometimes to join the poetical realm,

and I know that it's not just my hand at the helm.

Helen Heubi

Awakening the Totem Poles from their Hibernation

23 February 2013

Today I attended a delightful ceremony at Orillia's new Public Library: the awakening of two totem poles created by artist Arthur Shilling many years ago, before he became well known. At age 14 he went out into the woods to choose the tree, and at 19 he completed the carving.

When the old library was torn down and its contents placed in storage, these two totem poles were ceremonially put to sleep to wait out the building of the new structure. After ten years of this hibernation, they have been brought to the children's section of the library to be re-awakened and set in place.

School children from the nearby Mnjikaning Nation came to sit around the totem poles partly exposed from their bubble wrap. The kids had an important role in the ceremony, for they were invited to shake the totems very gently, also shaking the rattles in their hands. We had just chanted an awakening song. The gentleman leading the ceremony explained to us that he could not light even a small fire to purify the air with smoke from sacred herbs and tobacco, because that would set off the sprinkler system, no friend to books or computers, even if people didn't mind getting wet.

He handed the proceedings over to the women, "who speak to the water". Water and strawberries were blessed and passed around, with a strawberry added to the offering of food The children were asked to sprinkle a few drops of the water on the totem poles. I felt honoured to be sitting between the lady who is the "Keeper of Language" and the lady who is an elder of the aboriginal nation nearby and welcomed all to the ceremony. It was very moving to hear prayers in Ojibway and English.

I was back with friends and relatives of my dear friend Phoebe Snake of years gone by, and able to say the few words in Ojibway that she taught me to people who understand them. They in turn told me stories about this lovely lady and artist. I still have several of her beautiful creations in birchbark, sweetgrass and porcupine quills. 

I think the young reporter from the Packet and Times who attended this event has captured the spirit of it, and what fun a solemn occasion can be.

http://www.orilliapacket.com/2013/02/12/spirits-awakened-in-totem-poles

BTW, the photographer captures not quite half the kids taking part in the ceremonies. The lady with the drum addresses them as "Friends", when she wants to get their attention. A Quakerly sign of respect that I had never heard a teacher use before - including me.

February, Deep Fryed, 2013

When all the New Years' bells have rung,

and spring remains coiled up, unsprung,

February has the brass

to trickle in with Candlemas,

a feast forgotten, so they say.

But wait, it’s now called Groundhog Day,

on a date that’s getting busy,

so much so it makes me dizzy.

Pagans, Celtic folk and Wiccans

get as holy as the dickens,

reminding us of antique lore,

by ancient calendars well reckoned,

and calling February second

Imbolc*, sacred to Saint Bridget.

But let’s not get into a fidget,

worrying about the Druids,

when we should be drinking lots of fluids

staving off incipient colds

and shrugging off our loved ones’ scolds

to cough in our elbows and wrap up warm

saving ourselves and others from harm.

It’s all about the way the days

are getting longer, as the rays

of sunshine slowly but surely grow,

and sunsets have a special glow.

February used to be

the target month of the year for me

inspiring a new sarcastic poem

from the shelter of my home.

Although the shortest month of all

by count of days, it was no friend

because it never seemed to end,

proceeding at a maddening crawl.

See, I’m not even up to the third,

though so far I’ve squandered many a word.**

As day is gaining over night,

what is that sound, and dazzling light?

Drums and flutes announce with cheer

the Chinese welcoming their new year.

What fun, what colour and what food!

Parades and fireworks change the mood.

The Water Snake has just coiled in.

Now, after all that noisy din,

we melt and mellow at Valentine’s,

when lovers pen impassioned lines -

in praise of chocolate, a baby, a kitten,

or somebody special with whom they are smitten.

February sees no reason

why it shouldn’t start a season,

even one as long as Lent,

with carnivals on pleasure bent,

then having launched the Mardi Gras,

proceeds to give us all the blahs.

It hesitates in mid-career,

and grinds into a lower gear,

stretching like a spent elastic

with a resilience that’s fantastic.

As the momentum comes unwound,

some, weary of the dizzy round,

ask, “Must we always celebrate?

Give us a break - to hibernate!”

Helen Heubi

13 February 2013

*Apologies to any Pagans hearing this if I have not correctly pronounced Imbolc

** 222 so far, with renewed apologies for the missing rhyme

*** No apologies whatsoever for the recycled lines in this verse

Cellar Singers Got Talent

The Cellar Singers showcased a dazzling array of talents with an informal pre-Valentine evening on the ninth day of February 2013 at St. James’s Anglican Church, Orillia. Fresh snow lay thick outside, cold, sparkling and quiet under a starry sky after days and nights of storms. Inside the Stubley Auditorium, Mitchell Pady’s flexible voice was evoking Gershwin’s “Summertime” to a delicious piano accompaniment by Blair Bailey.

That’s not all that was delicious. A mouth-watering display of desserts featuring strawberries and chocolate lured eye and palate at the back of the hall. The Cellar Singers are famous for delectable home-made goodies, proof of that pudding being in their recipe book, part of my collection for years. The buzz of anticipation was high as the room filled to capacity, well in advance of show time.

An octet composed of Liz Schamehorn, Anne Hall, Wilma Koiter, Rosemarie Freeman, Wayne Cox, Dave Stewart, John Jefferies and Adam Thomson, accompanied by Blair Bailey at the piano, launched an evening dedicated to romance with “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life” from Victor Herbert’s operetta, “Naughty Marietta”.

Ruth Bell-Towns hosted the talent show, sprinkling Valentine-inspired quotations and stories between acts, and keeping performers’ remarks as short and crisp as possible, with comic struggles as the occasional introduction took on a life of its own.

Debi MacKay’s harp vibrated to the compelling Latin-American rhythms of Alfredo Rolando Ortiz. The first of three compositions sounded like a serenade. The second piece breathed the sadness of a lost love, while the final selection evoked droplets falling from fountains in a plaza lined by houses with balcony windows open to let in the music and fragrances of a soft southern evening.

As in the 1954 movie “White Christmas” we had heaps of snow all around, and singers with lilting voices and comic sense to bring us a delightful double set of “Sisters”. Heather Philip, Alyx Mecalick, Vicky Malfait and Audrey Willsey, with Carolyn Grant at the piano, followed in the sprightly footsteps of Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen.

Romance followed in the form of noble aspirations and ambitions of grandeur. Armed with sword and shield, John Jefferies and Jim Barnett were stoutly supported by Blair Bailey in “The Impossible Dream” from Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion’s “Man of La Mancha”.

Wendell Fisher, Wayne Noble and Mitchell Pady warbled, wobbled and shuffled papers through a skit called “The Audition”, with an unpredictable happy ending.

Sopranos Nynka Greer and Kim McIntosh blended beautifully in the Flower Duet from “Lakme” by Leo Delibes. I keep mentioning accompanist Blair Bailey because his contribution is never the same as for the singers who sang before, but always underscores the particular talents of each artist and ensemble and creates a new and vibrant happening with them. Here, the word for singers and piano is, simply, “exquisite”.

Cole Porter’s sophisticated story of an oyster’s career in high society was rendered in excruciating detail by vocalist David James and pianist Blair Bailey, who then accompanied the barbershop quartet of Bill Fivey, Doug Hall Klaas Koiter and John Chiles in the nineteen-twenties hit, “Pretty Baby”, a favourite of my Dad’s.

The first time I saw this piece performed is vividly registered on my then ten-year-old brain when Dad dragged me to the Mt. Pleasant Theatre one evening. Up there on the big screen in black and white, Zazu Pitts at the drums was expertly stealing “Pretty Baby” from whomever was singing it, while bent on charming Charles Laughton in the classic movie, “Ruggles of Redgap”. Our boys of the 2013 Cellar Singers captured the essence and atmosphere of the great oldies in song and on screen.

Tuneful and engaging Canadian compositions followed the delectable refreshments and the Silent Auction. Singer song-writer Don Bray reminded me of a younger Valdy with his casual mastery of guitar and voice, while being very much himself. He stayed on stage to accompany fellow guitar virtuoso Mitchell Pady in a story song about meeting an old flame at a high school reunion. Two spell-binders.

Amy Dodington has a gift for unaccompanied singing of traditional Celtic legends like “She Moved Through the Fair”, that haunting Irish tale of doomed love. A pin-drop hush followed Amy’s voice and artistry before prolonged applause broke out.

We traveled back to the historic year 1066 when David James took the lectern to deliver in an authentic Stanley Holloway Yorkshire accent one of Marriott Edgar’s most popular history lessons, beginning: I'll tell of the Battle of Hastings, As happened in days long gone by, When Duke William became King of England, And 'Arold got shot in the eye. I suspect that David knows this monologue by heart, and only keeps the script handy for backup. Those monologues come with memorization software built into their engaging rhythm and rhyme. Our audience lapped this one up.

W.S. Gilbert’s elderly battle-axe from the court of the “Mikado” then took the stage. Under the made-up and full regalia of Katisha was Pauline Rideout, turning an impassive face and a deaf ear to Paul Dodington as Koko, the Lord High Executioner, who is trying to save his friends from a vat of boiling oil “after lunch” by an act of supreme sacrifice - wooing tough old maiden Katisha. His heart-wrenching ditty about a love-lorn tweety-bird who tossed himself into a river crying, “Tit-willow” proved very affecting, if not to the lady being courted onstage, then clearly to us in the audience, to judge from the tumultuous applause.

The glamorous duo Lynda and Jim Lewis glided through “I wouldn’t have nothin’ if I didn’t have you” from Randy Newman’s “Monsters Inc.” They shone and charmed.

Blair Bailey was to have played a duet if his intended partner at the keyboard had not injured her shoulder. Instead, he turned himself into Ragtime Bailey, and brought down the house with “Rialto Ripples" composed in 1917 by Geroge Gershwin and Will Donaldson.

Following this tour-de-force his contribution to “Summertime” from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” was breath-taking to us, and to tenor Mitchell Pady. The singer had his own winning way with this classic. Their soul-satisfying finale to a glittering evening left me, for one, still ready for more magic.

We Shall Overcome

While at the Quaker Institute on Non-Violence on Rideau Lake in the summer of 1963, I learned about a march on Washington  DC led by the Rev. Martin Luther King. Next thing I knew, I had organized a carful of Canadians to join a multi-racial crowd over 200,000 strong, marching toward the Lincoln Memorial on the morning of 28 August 1963.

We started the march spontaneously, and earlier than the organizers had planned. By the time the first row of marchers had reached the monument, more were crowding behind them. Those at the front peeled back, in eddies through the oncoming demonstrators. I saw a State Trooper pass by like a leaf on a stream, helplessly and good-humouredly going with the flow. Eventually the river of humanity sorted itself out, and settled on the grass to wait, some with picnic lunches, all with water bottles. It was a scorching day.

Seeing me taking photos of the friendly crowd, a black teenager cheerfully offered to climb with my camera to the top of a small tree for a panoramic view of the historic scene. All day I saw people helping each other in loving ways. I saw a white man looking after a young black girl who felt sick. A black nurse spotted me nearly fainting with heat exhaustion, and took me to a temporary sick bay in a government building to lie down, drink water and rest.

Toward mid-afternoon the sun began to relent its heat, and a cool breeze fanned our foreheads. Great singers sang, at least those who could get through the throng. All movement stopped and all sound stilled when King took the podium, and his unforgettable voice sounded the refrain: “I have a dream.”

Now, 50 years later, we still have dreams, and popular movements like "Idle No  More" are on the move. New leaders are emerging. Perhaps the early years 2000 are the new nineteen-sixties.

The Orillia Youth Symphony Orchestra Highlights Its Chamber Ensembles

Seven chamber ensembles of the Orillia Youth Symphony Orchestra (OYSO) played for the Canadian Club on a Wednesday afternoon in December at St. Paul’s United Church. A senior audience lapped up the young performers’ 2012 Christmas program and sang carols with gusto in breaks between the instrumental music.

Madame Mayumi Kumagai, Director of the OYSO, introduced the self-directed chamber groups. Students aged eight to 18 gravitate together according to their chosen instruments. Each mini-ensemble decides what to play, chooses a leader and invents a name for their group. In concert, the leader introduces the chamber group and its chosen pieces.

Silver Bells are three flutists: Ayana Murray, Meghan Bowman and Natalie LoSole-Stringer. Two trumpeters: Jennie Davison and  Laura Couture and two trombonists: Viki Lentini and Patrick Smith form the quartet No Strings Attached. The current string ensembles have named themselves The Continuo, Nguyen and the Viba Quartet. Team Effort brings three clarinets to the stage, demonstrating the wide range and possibilities of that instrument. Percussionists Cole Mendez and Bayze Murray call their battery Hit or Miss. Their snaredrum duet, “On the March” was a hit with me.

Christmas music offers a wide gamut of moods. The Viba Quartet: Sawyer Glowanlock, Jenice Mun and Hannah Fletcher, violins, and cellist Jocelyn LoSole-Stringer opened the program with a rousing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” followed by a sturdy “O Tannenbaum”, both arranged by the musicians themselves. I was impressed by their smooth tone and excellent rhythmic treatment of the tunes, all blending beautifully together thanks to their natural discipline of listening to each other.

Speaking of blending, the “Dixieland Duet” by the brass ensemble No Strings Attached and “Hedwig’s Theme” by the clarinetists Team Effort (Kyle Lau, Daniel Clarke and Claire Tazzio) both worked well with the brasses’ seasonal “Christmas Song” and the clarinets’ arrangement of Bach’s chorale “Sheep May Safely Graze.” The Dixieland sound brought an upbeat note while “Hedwig’s Theme” and the D Minor “Clarinet Duo” by Kyle Lau and Daniel Clarke were just that dark touch needed. After all, dark matter pervades most of space, in contrast to the glow and sparkle of distant nebulae and closer stars. So a little darkness serves to set off songs evoking Christmas lights.

Joel Lamontagne and Solivan Lau, violins, along with Natalie Jackiw, viola and Dylan McCullough, bass viol, form The Continuos. Their jolly “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” contrasted with the more sober, majestic “We Three Kings”. In between the dignified Kings and the minor mood of the Clarinet Duo came a solo fiddler: Sawyer Gowanlock.

When people ask me if a fiddler plays a different instrument from a violinist I have to answer, “It’s the same instrument.” Fiddlers have their own technique, often passed down from generation to generation, and especially in demand for dancing. That means an excellent command of rhythm, staying power and very nimble fingers. “Evelyn’s Waltz” was pivotal to the program that winter afternoon. And, yes, Sawyer comes from generations of fiddlers, in addition to being a violinist of the classical (or perhaps even jazz) persuasion.

Violinists Harvey Li, Andy Lee and Erin Kim, plus cellist Bobbi-Jo Corbett constitute the ensemble called Nguyen. I was amazed at how effectively this combination of instruments re-created the “March of the Nutcracker” without having all the resources of a Russian orchestra. I wondered how the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” would sound without the celeste and bassoon originally scored by Tchaikovsky. Since the age of four, when my father first introduced me to the “Nutcracker Suite” I had associated the dainty celeste and grandfatherly bassoon with the tinkly fairy dance. The inspired arrangement chosen by Nguyen swept away a concept that for me had lasted nearly 75 years. Immediately, their delicate violin treatment made me forget the celeste, while the cello tossed off the bassoon part as to the manner born.

Crisply symphonic in their black trousers or skirts and white shirts, all the chamber groups united as an orchestra under the baton of Mayumi Kumagai for a rousing Trepak from the “Nutcracker Suite”, complete with kettledrums. And so a delightful afternoon finished with a grand Russian flourish.