Stacy Garrop (b. 1969)
Oratorio: Terra Nostra (2015)
Michelle Areyzaga (soprano), Leah Dexter (mezzo-soprano), Jesse Donner (tenor), David Govertsen (bass-baritone)
Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra & Chorale, Alice Millar Chapel Choir, Chicago’s Uniting Voices/Stephen Alltop
rec. 2023, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Cedille CDR90000227 [66]

Terra Nostra is an oratorio by the American composer Stacy Garrop, a name new to me. It focuses on the relationship between our planet and humanity. Dr Garrop studied at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Chicago and Indiana University-Bloomington (D.M.). She taught composition and orchestration full-time at Roosevelt University from 2000 to 2016 before leaving to launch her freelance career. In this she has received an enviable number of commissions, and many works have been recorded by Cedille. If this work is typical of her output, she writes in an accessible idiom informed by many strands of American music that should prove enticing to audiences.

In three sections, Terra Nostra explores creation myths from different cultures and time periods and examines how we can create more awareness for our planet’s plight to find a balance for living within the Earth’s resources. The composer adapts her musical style as appropriate. The word setting, while not complex, is effective and I found myself thinking of say Alan Hovhaness or Peter Schickele.

Part 1 which is in five sections, divided between the chorus and children’s chorus and with solos for the four soloists, celebrates the creation of the Earth. It opens with some turbulence representing chaos and then sets creation myths from India, North America, and Egypt that are blended into the opening lines of Genesis. God’s World, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, describes the world in joyous and vivid detail. There are some evocative movements for the orchestra and the whole feel is of a hymn of praise. Shelley’s On thine own child, sung delicately by the children, praises Mother Earth for her role in bringing forth all life. Walt Whitman’s Smile O voluptuous cool-breathed earth!, a love song to the Earth set for baritone solo, was a little too sentimental for my taste. Part I apparently ends with more Whitman, A Blade of Grass, although I have not been able to find the text used in any Whitman collection. In any event, the words used concern the timeless nature of the planet and the chorus and children with chimes from the orchestra end this section with a note of optimism.

Bell sounds link to Part II, The Rise of Humanity, which is concerned with the achievements of mankind, since the dawn of the Industrial Age. Tennyson’s Locksley Hall is on the surface full of optimism that the human race is on the verge of great discoveries, but with hindsight seems to glorify commerce and the domination of the natural world. The poem, set to bright, surging music, seems misguided. The next three poems, Charles Mackay’s Railways 1846, William Ernest Henley’s A Song of Speed and John Gillespie Magee Jr.’s High Flight, celebrate in their different ways a new milestone in technological achievement. The Henley is only a fragment of a very long poem concerning forms of speed, something the one-legged poet could only have dreamed of. The section chosen concerns a description of a Mercedes-Benz and is out of the context of the rest of the poem, which seems odd. In its glorification of the mechanical over the natural, its rumpty-tumpty accompaniment seems comical. Binsey Poplars, by Gerard Manley Hopkins, observes the effect that these advances are having on the aspens which are felled, and landscapes forever changed. This is a curious setting for the two female soloists, who are asked at times to slide between the different pitches, like a theremin from a 1950s sci-fi movie. The slides continue into the orchestra and chorus in Shelley’s A Dirge which concludes Part II. The setting of the words “Rough wind, that moanest loud” is perhaps too literal and I was not entirely convinced by it.

Part III, Searching for Balance, questions how we can look after our planet in a more ecological way. The first three texts continue the Earth’s plea that ended the previous section. Lord Byron’s Darkness speaks of a natural disaster (a volcano) that has blotted out the sun and the panic that ensues. In light of its subject matter, it is quite restrained. There is some beautiful singing from Ms Dexter, who has a rich lower register, though this is offset against the moaning of the chorus. The contemporary poet Esther Iverem’s Earth Screaming concerns our changing climate. There are some dramatically colourful flourishes from the orchestra against chant like singing from the male soloists, which is rather effective. Wordsworth’s sonnet The World Is Too Much With Us rages at the Industrial Revolution and the damage even he in 1802 could see was being done to the planet. This is a very affecting setting, reminiscent of Bernstein at his most angry. The sudden, quiet setting of The Want of Peace, by the 90-year-old poet and ecological activist Wendell Berry, tells us we can find harmony with the planet if we choose to live more simply. It is beautifully worked out for the chorus with the lightest of orchestral touches. Mr Alltop gets a remarkable pianissimo from them. Parts of two Walt Whitman poems, A Child said, What is the grass? and There was a child went forth every day, echo Mr Berry’s thoughts, though as they are only parts of longer poems they do not reflect the poet’s meaning. The second one is beautifully set and sung by the children’s choir. To my English ears, it is refreshing to hear a sound very different from the English cathedral tradition. The oratorio ends calmly with a reprise of the fragment of Whitman’s A Blade of Grass from Part I, this time mingled with an additional text from Whitman, “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love…”. Once again, the hushed tones are impressive.

I am sure that this work will find a place with enterprising American ensembles. It is direct in its means of communication, perhaps too direct in places. I found the savage editing of some poems quite disconcerting and I am sure the composer would not like that to happen to her music. The performers are well captured by the engineers. The well-designed triptych cardboard casing contains detailed biographies and a full libretto.

Paul RW Jackson

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