Unique Choral Work To be Performed at U-M’s Museum of Art

April 2010

The U-M Chamber Choir, with Jerry Blackstone, conductor, will perform British composer Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles on April 14 at 8:00 p.m. in the apse of the beautiful, newly renovated U-M Museum of Art. Described by one reviewer as “a musical miracle,” the composition is scored for a cappella choir.

The drama begins as the singers enter the balcony that encircles the apse, one group at a time, building until the whole choir is in place. “Talbot introduces his work at an almost inaudible dynamic level, with low voices gradually ascending in pitch … Sound unravels, unfolds, bends, and wafts, ascending higher and higher,” wrote Arian Khaefi in program notes.

The 60-minute work, in four movements, surrounds the listener with sights, sounds, and emotions associated with stops along the route of the great medieval pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella at the northwestern tip of Spain. Talbot (b. 1971), who followed the pilgrims’ route along the Camino on a family holiday, said, “The impressions these places left on me became the basis for the musical structure of the work.”

Incorporating poetry and prose in several languages, Latin liturgical texts, and adventurous, evocative choral writing, Path of Miracles is one of the most captivating choral works of this century. It had its premiere in a 12th century church in London, so a performance in the apse at the Museum of Art seems fitting, offering up sonic and acoustic possibilities to show the work to best advantage.

This is one you won’t want to miss. The performance is free and open to the public.