Gabriel Jackson (b. 1962)
Rigwreck
According to Seneca (2011)
Yes, I am your angel (2016)
Rigwreck (2013)
Self-Portrait in Charleston, Orlando (2019)
Darest thou now O soul? (2021)
The Crossing/Donald Nally
rec. 2024, St. Peter’s Church in the Great Valley, Malvern, USA
Texts available on the Navona Records website
Navona Records NV6854 [49]
The Crossing is a professional SATB choir, based in Philadelphia and here numbering 24 singers. The choir has been in existence for some twenty-one years and in that time it has been remarkably prolific on disc; this is its fortieth album. Just as remarkable is the fact that they focus entirely on contemporary music; I understand that they have commissioned nearly 200 new works. I’ve heard some of their work before and the standard of their singing impressed me very much (review ~ review). I was particularly pleased to receive this album to review because I’ve long been a great admirer of the choral music of Gabriel Jackson. Here, The Crossing and their founder-conductor Donald Nally perform five works which Jackson wrote for them between 2011 and 2021.
I think I need to be honest at the outset and say that I’ve had some difficulty in appraising this album. That’s no reflection at all on the quality of the singing; nor is that statement any criticism of Jackson’s music. My difficulty has been with the texts. With one exception, all the chosen texts are contemporary and I readily admit that I’ve struggled to understand them: or, perhaps I should say that I’ve struggled to understand them sufficiently to be able to appreciate Jackson’s musical response to the words per se; that, of course, has not been an issue for me in the past when he has set texts, such as a religious text, the words of which are familiar to me.
The one text that I do know well is the one by Walt Whitman, which Jackson sets in Darest thou now O soul? It’s the same poetry which Vaughan Williams set in Toward the Unknown Region. I think Jackson is an ideal person to address these words; his music captures the transcendental mystery and ecstasy of Whitman’s poetry. The ecstatic element comes through particularly in the last stanza (‘Then we burst forth’). The piece was written to celebrate the 60th birthday of Donald Nally; I’m sure he was delighted.
There’s a Whitman link to Yes, I am your angel. This is a setting of a poem by the Latvian poet Kārlis Vērdiņš (b 1979). I presume the original poem was in Latvian (though I believe Vērdiņš has written in other languages); Jackson has set the text in an English translation by Ieva Lešinska. Because the album is not accompanied by any notes, I would not have been aware of the Whitman link were it not for the press release that I received with the disc. From this, I learned that the poem “has a store clerk viewing [Allen] Ginsburg who is, famously, viewing Whitman in his iconic “A Supermarket in California” – droll, sarcastic and resigned”. It struck me as I listened, following the words, that this is a most unusual text to set as a choral work. Jackson’s music is, as ever, highly original. This piece is part of the Jeff Quartet project which honours the memory of one the co-founders of the choir, Jeff Dinsmore (1971-2014).
The writing in Yes, I am your angel is broadly homophonic in nature; as such, it contrasts with the much more complex part-writing to be heard in the preceding piece, According to Seneca. Here, the words are by the American poet Gustav Sobin (1935-2005) who, I believe, spent most of his adult life in France. It’s worth quoting the opening lines of Sobin’s poem because they explain the somewhat unusual title of the piece. The text chosen by Gabriel Jackson begins as follows: “…every wind, according to Seneca, has its origin in some deep-seated stellar configuration…” I confessed earlier to difficulty in appreciating fully Jackson’s response to the poetry. That’s not entirely the case here. Sobin’s poem is somewhat fragmentary (at least, as I see it) but what I can appreciate is the way in which Jackson has taken the imagery of wind as his cue. The music features extended melismatic melodic lines, mainly in the soprano part(s) while the other vocal parts frequently suggest the sound of either whisps or gusts of wind. Even though I haven’t managed to get to grips with the poem, I found Jackson’s music very stimulating to hear; as is so often the case with this composer, the vocal textures are light, airy and highly original.
I have a similar problem of textual comprehension with Self-Portrait in Charleston, Orlando. The text is a poem by the contemporary American poet, Dean Rader. The aforementioned press release tells me that Rader’s “sharply candid [poem] takes us on a journey around the world that ends with an uplifting gesture of defiance”. I’m afraid the meaning of the poem has, so far, eluded me. It’s difficult, therefore, for me to comment on the piece itself. What I will say, though, is that the music, which sounds technically challenging, is delivered with consummate discipline and assurance by Nally’s choir.
The longest piece on the programme is the one which furnishes the album with its title. Rigwreck is a setting of a poem by the Luxembourgish-American poet and writer Pierre Joris (1946-2025). The poem in question was commissioned for The Gulf (between you and me) a project addressing the 2010 Deepwater Horizon environmental disaster. When I looked up details of Joris online I noticed that the publisher of The Gulf (between you and me) was given as The Crossing; maybe they commissioned both the words and the music. You may not be surprised to learn that the poem is a work of protest. One interesting device I noted was that early on in the poem several short phrases appear in block capitals; I presume Joris wrote them in that way; Jackson has those words spoken. The music becomes increasingly angry as the piece progresses; both the words and music are reproachful. I would imagine that the piece has manifold technical challenges, not that you’d know from the urgent and committed way in which the members of The Crossing deliver it.
Though the words have been a bit of an issue for me in appraising this album – and other listeners with a more sharpened appreciation of contemporary poetry will surely not have that problem – I have had no difficulty in appreciating either the music itself or the way in which it is performed. For years now, Gabriel Jackson’s choral music has fascinated and delighted me through his highly inventive and attractive textures, his wonderful, imaginative use of harmony and his appealing melodic lines. All those qualities are again much in evidence in the pieces recorded here. He could scarcely wish for better advocacy than his music receives from The Crossing. Donald Nally has clearly prepared his singers assiduously for this assignment. The singing is disciplined and precise; moreover, the sound made by the choir is fresh and very attractive. If all this were not enough, they also sing with evident commitment to the music.
The choir has been recorded expertly and with great clarity by engineer Paul Vazquez. I’m sorry to say that Navona’s documentation is somewhat lacking. Perhaps they are aiming mainly at the digital market because the CD that I received had no information other than a list of all the people involved in this project. When I went onto the label’s website I found the texts, so at least I was able to follow the words as I listened. However, there were no notes whatsoever beyond details of the commissioning and first performances of each piece; at least I received a little information through the press release but other listeners won’t have that benefit. When so much care has been taken over every other aspect of this production it’s a shame that this aspect of Navona’s presentation is below par.
Admirers of Gabriel Jackson’s choral music will find a great deal to enjoy here, in terms of both musical quality and expert performance.
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
