Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
At not even a year old, New York City vocal group Fourth Wall Ensemble is making a big noise. That was literally so this past weekend, as eight a cappella singers conducted by Christopher Allen illustrated the group’s mission of “bringing new works to life while simultaneously exploring the earliest roots of vocal music.” The location: the cavelike Catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Fourth Wall Ensemble: Digging into the Past
I’ve seen a number of other concerts presented here by Death of Classical. Musicians often use the space’s narrow tunnel-shape to their acoustical benefit. On this occasion the singers began at the far end of the Catacombs, at some distance from the audience, boisterously improvising on medieval chant. Some of this actually reminded me, more than anything, of Americana sounds rooted in Christian and slave music traditions. The effect was throbbing and powerful.
Approaching the audience and mounting a more proper (if tiny) stage, the singers continued with a dark and gutsy “Agnus Dei” from William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices. Following that, a set of Monteverdi madrigals rang with energy, the voices beautifully balanced and the music performed with dynamic fluidity and sensual phrasing. (The group centers its next concert, Oct. 7 at Merkin Concert Hall in NYC, on Monteverdi’s madrigals.)
Contemporary Music: Shaw Underground
The ensemble devoted the new-music portion of their program to the music of remarkable contemporary composer Caroline Shaw. Her “and the swallow” is a response to the Syrian refugee crisis. (How soon we leave one crisis behind to plunge into the next!) The Fourth Wall Ensemble executed the piece’s luscious, rich harmonies with finesse.
The capstone of the short, intense concert was Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning three-part Partita for 8 Voices. This is a dense work, alternately violent and playful, gruff and ethereal. Spoken word, throat singing, pitch bending, and other effects combine with novel and sometimes aggressive harmonizing to produce a mind-twisting kaleidoscope of colors and sonorities.
The dark, tight space of the Catacombs emphasized the intimacy of Shaw’s music in this captivating performance. In a way, eight singers are an ideal count: enough to produce a full choral sound, but few enough that individual voices may stand out when the mood and music call for it. With a sound that mixed plangency and purity, and an almost palpable fearlessness, the Fourth Wall Ensemble did this wonderful music justice. As it approaches its first anniversary, the group showed abundant promise for great things ahead.
