FutureStops Festival

By Ken Waxman

The organ is the greatest synthesizer in the world,” exclaimed American composer Charlemagne Palestine following his distinctive keyboard performance at Toronto’s Metropolitan United Church (MUC) October 1. “That’s why I’ve devoted my entire life to it.”

Those comments from the musician, colorfully dressed with two caps on his head and a flowing kimono-like wrap, while performing on a raised stage festooned with flowers beside a suitcase filled with plush toys, encapsulated one variant of organ works presented during the festival. Mostly located in the soft-seat Roy Thomason Hall (RTH), concerts and workshop encompassed old and new definitions of organ music, with players touching on improvised, jazz, notated and ecclesiastical uses of the mammoth fixed multi ranks, stops and pipe instruments.  Here are a few highlights:

Firmly aligned to timbral variations, Canadian composer Sarah Davachi presented a minutely-controlled minimalist showcase at the start of that MUC evening. Playing her own creations, her works began with a drone continuum which gradually become louder as layered higher pitches evolved and crossed one another. Pointillist breaks and theme variations often beefed up the shifting textures for warmer sounds. A percussive, near electronic buzz signaled a room filling climax.

On the other hand American Amina Claudine Myers recital closed the September 30 RTH evening performances with a unique take on genre-mixing organ compositions. Working with the 20-member National Dett Chorale and two percussionists, Myers pieces combined aspects of formal church music, sacred canons and improvised interludes which were freer, more rhythmic and bordered on swing. Conducting from the organ bench as well as playing, Myers mouthed lyrics sung by the chorus, although most of the Chorale intoning involved wordless vocalizing Additional contrasts involved portions of the performance which highlighted Ineza Mugisha’s lyric soprano and a mid-set interlude when an unidentified male chorus member scat-sang. Finally the organist emphasized ringing syncopation and with the percussionists adding slaps and beats attained a gospel-like groove, intensified by the chorus intoning “Do you want to be saved?”

Church music of a different sort was presented by Canadian Matthew Larkin in the MUC between Davachi’s and Palestine’s program. Interpreting distinctive modern liturgical compositions, Larkin took full advantage of the church’s venerable organ’s stops and multitude of pitches and glissandi to replicate tones ranging from flute-like to cello-like to heavily percussive. But while lively, in this context the music’s relation to formal overtures and classical continuum seems somewhat conventional.

Less conventional were the original scores played by Canadian composer Rashaan Rori Allwood at RTH on the first evening. With the most obvious use of foot pedals, he worked up great swathes of  tremolo power throughout. More seriously his composition, “In memory Of” in this instance dedicated to Iranian Mahsa Amin, whose death resulted from the authorities’ interpretation of a dress code, added political bit to multi timbral bluster. Interrupting his keyboard slides and smears he emphasized or underlined the sentiments by frequently vocalizing the title and its dedicatee.

Canadian organist Sarah Svendsen who played next premiered a new composition without any extra-musical content. Mostly concerned with harmonizing various tempos, it appeared to be collection of bagatelles. Some seemed pastoral, others pushed the spatial qualities of the organ to its utmost and some reflected a semi-swing beat. Music to expand organ colors appeared to be the idea. Meanwhile an opening night performance of a new Raven Chacon composition by Toronto’s Array Music with organist Kevin Komisaruk also appeared to be linked more to evolving microtonal simplicity than an instrumental showcase. Mostly played lento and moderato, the organ section seemed almost an afterthought with the instrument’s whooshes and tonal plunges  mostly used to darken the narrative. Sped up at the conclusion, melodic interest was mostly provided by trills from the ensemble’s clarinetist and flutist.

These exercises in pipes, stops, ranks and dual keyboard diversity relates back to Palestine’s festival-closing performance, which included his showy sipping from two prominently displayed goblets of cognac as he played. Working up from snatches of vocalization that suggested both cantorial davening and native Canadian chanting, he turned to the organ and sounded a single seemingly unending chord as continuum and began embellishing themes on top of it. Sometimes shadow boxing at the keyboard or miming turning a steering wheel, he alternated these sardonic gestures with opening up the instrument to its fullest possibilities. Shaking glissandi, ascending and descending tones continued to evolve as the piece gradually become louder and louder. Reaching the conclusion of what could have been the soundtrack for a trip on a flower-bedecked futuristic spaceship, he suddenly stopped and offered his speech about the instrument’s versatility.

His and others’ performances collaborated his claim. Taken together, they suggested many options the festival could fruitfully  pursue in the future.