Poetry can be inspirational. City Voices, under Director William Chin, will show just how inspirational when they perform “A Song of Joys,” a program of nine choral pieces inspired by the poems of Sara Teasdale and Walt Whitman.
The performances will both be in Oak Park, Oct. 17 at St. Edmund Church, and Oct. 18 at United Lutheran Church.
“The concert is a collection of choral arrangements of poetry by Walt Whitman and Sara Teasdale,” Chin said.
The director said he wasn’t initially familiar with Teasdale’s work.
“I didn’t really know much about her until I discovered her through the music of choral composers,” Chin said. “So many of them have been inspired by her poetry. It’s really wonderful, heartfelt language. She can express the beauty of nature and the sensitivity of human feeling.”
The singers will present six examples in Oak Park.
“The Music of Stillness” by Elaine Hagenberg “is a really beautiful, expressive composition,” Chin said.
“Only in Sleep” by Eriks Esenvalds is “very nostalgic,” Chin noted. “She’s writing about childhood friends of hers and how at night, when she’s asleep, she can visit them. She wonders if they visit her the same way.”
“Lovely Chance” by Jacob Narverud is “very different in mood from the other pieces on the program,” Chin said. “It’s very lively; very fun. I felt we needed that after hearing three ‘Carols of Death.’”
“All That Could Never Be Said” by Christopher Tin is one movement of a larger work. “It’s about climate change and the loss of our environment,” Chin said. “Sara Teasdale was very good at expressing regret, looking back on life and contemplating loss.”
For “Old Tunes” by Tom Shelton, “I chose that partly because it uses cello and piano accompaniment,” Chin said. “Also, it features our soprano and alto voices.”
In “Orion” by Andea Ramsey, the poet mentions the night and the stars, Chan said.
Chin’s attraction to Walt Whitman’s poetry also began with exposure to the choral music inspired by it, particularly the three “Carols of Death,” by William Schuman, which the group will perform.
“The composer of those pieces is such an expert at expressing the emotion and the feeling of the meaning of the words,” Chin praised. “That led me to reading more Whitman and realizing what an amazing, joyous spirit he has.”
More Top Picks Livewell
The director said Whitman’s joyous spirit is displayed in two pieces on the program, “Song of the Universal” by Ola Gjeilo and “A Song of Joys” by David C. Dickau, which was selected as the title of the concerts.
“He has such an amazing, expansive view of life and of being,” Chin said of Whitman. “It’s not surprising that so many composers have used his poetry.”
The 27 City Voices singers will be accompanied by a string quartet and piano.
Singers from City Voices were enthusiastic about the concept of the concerts.
“I’ve been a follower (of City Voices) for almost a decade but I’ve been a member for five years since they came back from the pandemic,” said Alan Hommerding. The professional organist and music editor is a second bass. “I would probably be a third bass if there was such a category,” he joked.
“I have to admit I knew Walt Whitman’s poetry better than I knew Sara Teasdale’s,” Hommerding said. “So, it’s really been nice to get to know her work a little bit more. One of my musical avocations is that I write text for new hymns so I’m familiar with the workings of poetry so it’s always fun to encounter a new poet more in depth.”
Hommerding praised Teasdale’s poetry.
“I really like the way she incorporates things like the past and memories, but always makes it very, very present,” Hommerding noted.
In terms of the theme of the concerts, Hommerding observed, “It really is pushing a boundary to take just the works of two American poets but find all these new boundaries to walk toward through their texts and through the music they inspired.”
Soprano Laura Mravic-Fennell has sung with City Voices since 2018. One of the reasons that she joined the group was because “they were playing really interesting music that was challenging and beautiful,” she said.
Mravic-Fennell said that although she knows of the two poets, “the music is what really gets me going and the way that the composers put the writing to music is what I love. When poetry is made into music is where it really takes flight for me.”
The singer praised the decision to have members of the choir read the poems in-between pieces. “That will be nice for the audience to hear the poems before the actual piece to remember that it is about the poetry,” she said.
The performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at St. Edmund Church, 188 S. Oak Park Ave. in Oak Park and at 4 p.m. Oct. 18 at United Lutheran Church, 409 Greenfield St. in Oak Park. Tickets are $25; free for students 18 and under. Reservations are at cityvoiceschicago.org/a-song-of-joys.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.