Sacred and secular combine for Voyces’ Requiem at WA Museum Boola Bardip Hackett Hall

Sacred and secular texts shared centre stage in Voyces’ Requiem recital at WA Museum Boola Bardip’s Hackett Hall on Saturday, with WA premieres of Paul Stanhope’s Requiem and Mary Finsterer’s When soft voices die. A world-music lilt on tom-toms (Joey Eng) had choristers swaying to the beat in a Latin prayer to the Holy Spirit for Ross Edwards’ Dance Mantra. It was an up-beat introduction to an inevitably solemn program that turned next to English and David Lang’s Where you go; female voices intoning the biblical Ruth’s pledge of loyalty to mother-in-law Naomi in the wake of their respective husband and sons’ deaths. Full choir chimed in with pulsating chords formed by overlapping lines dynamically balanced and blended under Robert Braham’s direction. Often used at weddings, the verse leaned on humanity’s age-old urge to look beyond death; dense harmonies filling out the high galleries before a jump-cut conclusion. Anne Phillips’ mournful cor anglais led in Finsterer’s When soft voices die, underpinning towering female voices that probed the upper register then cascaded like bell tones in Shelley’s musing on the fragility of life. Tenors and basses swelled a cathedral-like timbre, echoing down the ages of the western cannon. Bright keening in shrill discord flipped to more obvious lament as cor spoke again, tolling out an irresolute cadence. The main course was Stanhope’s Requiem, a 2022 Arts Music Awards winner now in only its third performance. Like the opening three works it combined religious text — traditional Latin Mass, minus the Dies irae (Day of wrath) — with more recent reflections. Tuned percussion (Eng), clarinet (Catherine Cahill), harp (Bronwyn Wallis), horn (Euan Harvey) and bassoon (Joanne Littlely), set a backdrop for soprano soloist Rachael Liu to lead in the choir tolling out Requiem aeterna dona eis (Grant them eternal rest) in the Introit. Liu and tenor Kohsei Gilkes sat atop a symphonic soundscape filled with vocal and instrumental colour in a kaleidoscope redolent of early music revivals. Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s Tree Grave offered contrast in a stark evocation of a bush burial, ancient in origin and inspiration, powerfully portrayed by Liu with woodwind, horn and harp in counterpoint. There was no gloss on the story — “He will be afraid/When the night winds whisper” — jarring in music and words. Choristers returned for a vigorous Kyrie, intoning the Greek appeal for mercy in mysterious tones over strident harp and percussion. Neela Nath Das’ poem Mercy was interleaved with the chant, distinctively pleading, “May the shower of your mercy/Fall on us, O God!”, as harp and voices imitated rain. Gilkes led Oodgeroo’s Song (Love is linked with pain), a nuanced delivery holding its own with robust woodwind and horn over flurries in harp. Sanctus then returned to Latin in a jaunty rhythmic figure, male voices leading, answered by sopranos and altos, then segueing to solo offstage soprano (Bonnie de la Hunty) in a crystalline Agnus Dei (Lamb of God). That was twinned with Mary Elizabeth Frye’s Do not stand at my grave and weep; Liu and Gilkes intoning the English text antiphonally over warm choral support, with the conclusion — “I did not die” — proudly proclaiming stoical defiance of mortality. A horn call like a voice in the wilderness summoned grief and pity, backed up by woodwind, to announce Oodgeroo’s Dawn Wail for the Dead. Liu and Gilkes took up the dirge — “the poor dead/Gone from here to the Dark Place” — relenting at last to Oodgeroo’s hallmark optimism in “a new day calling”. Horn reprised primal keening to set the scene for Lux aeterna luceat eis (May eternal light shine upon them), the melody moving from tenor-bass to soprano-alto with instrumental backing to fill out the space in hope and faith, as bowed percussion lent an otherworldly edge. Finally, plainsong in male voices broached In Paradisum (Into Paradise) over harp and oboe flourishes. Liu drew in sopranos and altos, then Gilkes, in declamatory style, punctuated by drum rolls, as the text morphed to English in Emily Dickinson’s Hope is the thing with feathers, finding solace in nature. A knowing look between Liu and Gilkes presaged a rich climax as Latin and English merged and a final, whispered “requiem” sealed the charm. Voyces will celebrate Christmas at St Joseph’s, Subiaco, on December 20.