(+++) FAITH AND PERHAPS ITS ANTITHESIS

David Shapiro: Sumptuous Planet—A Secular Mass. The Crossing conducted by Donald Nally. New Focus Recordings. $16.99.

Daniel Knaggs: Two Streams. Caitlin Aloia, soprano; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Christopher Bozeka, tenor; Mark Diamond, baritone; Houston Chamber Choir and Kinetic conducted by Robert Simpson. Cappella Records. $19.99 (SACD).

Szymanowski: Twelve Kurpian Songs; Adam Wieniawski: Eight Polish Folk Songs; Antoni Szałowski: Three Folk Songs; Mieczysław Karłowicz: By the Oak Tree. Ewa Kowcz-Fair, soprano; Małgorzata Surowiak-Then, piano. MSR Classics. $14.95.

     Adopting the form of the Catholic Mass to create an atheistic, science-focused work seems on the face of it to be an exercise in deliberate disrespect for a very old and honored tradition. But David Shapiro (born 1947) does not intend it that way in Sumptuous Planet (2021). Shapiro believes the musical scaffolding of the venerable Mass can provide a kind of framing structure for a work intended to highlight the texts of evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, physician Richard Feynman, and microbiologist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. To that end, Shapiro creates a very skillfully composed hour-and-a-quarter-long choral work that draws on religious notions of the wonders of the world while explaining those marvels in strictly secular/scientific terms. The sound of Sumptuous Planet is very modern indeed – vocal overlays, extreme dissonance, intricate and complex lines, all in the service of texts in both English and the traditional Latin of the Mass. Again and again, Shapiro emphasizes words that are entirely at odds with the faith underlying his work’s foundational form: “life started from nothing,” “let us understand,” “let us try to teach generosity,” and so forth. Among the 16 sections of Sumptuous Planet are many that specifically tweak, if not exactly satirize, the religious worldview, bearing titles such as “Glory,” “The Adoration,” “Taking Away the Sins of the World,” “Spirit,” “Resurrection,” and “Holiness.” The Crossing, an outstanding chamber choir, handles the frequent complexity of the declamatory and argumentative material with passionate intensity, although the words are not always as clear as they could be, because of the ways in which Shapiro sets them. This is clearly deliberate, since Shapiro can be quite transparent when he so chooses – and does not hesitate to use wordless syllables at times to make his points on a purely musical basis. It is not entirely surprising that the longest portion of Sumptuous Planet is titled Death – The Lucky Ones, and focuses on the improbability of the existence of humans and, indeed, of any form of life. This is at bottom an argumentative work, suggesting again and again that one does not need any sort of deity to explain the marvels of Earth or to feel and express wonder at them. The fact that the polemical aspects of the material are subsumed within some genuinely appealing music will not make them any more attractive to listeners who may be a bit shocked that Shapiro has selected this particular framework for his arguments. But this is scarcely a work for everyone; after all, neither is the Mass. Sumptuous Planet includes some thought-provoking music and some verbiage that is at least worth considering as an alternative to the religious language generally heard in a format approximating Shapiro’s. This New Focus Recordings presentation will resolve no arguments, philosophical or musical, but will appeal to listeners interested in considering those disputes in an unexpected and unusual way.

     The other side of the coin of faith, also very much in a contemporary musical idiom, is presented by the Houston Chamber Choir and ensemble Kinetic on a Cappella Records release featuring the music of Daniel Knaggs (born 1983). Knaggs’ Two Streams dates to the same year as Shapiro’s Sumptuous Planet, but its sensibility could not be more different. Two Streams is a work focused on Christian mysticism, specifically that of a Polish nun named Maria Faustina Kowalska, who was born in 1905 and died – probably of tuberculosis – in 1938. Now recognized as St. Faustina (canonized in 2000), she had a series of visions of Jesus, notably one that was later painted under the title “Divine Mercy” and widely venerated. Two Streams is in the form of a cantata, using texts from St. Faustina’s diary and various religious sources in Latin and Greek. The work is in English, but Knaggs also wrote a version in Polish, with the interesting result that the sung material is very simple and easy to follow, since the languages are so different that mapping one to the other is by no means easy. Structurally, Two Streams is a 14-movement arch, its first and last movements being related, as are its second and penultimate ones, and so forth. And like Shapiro, Knaggs does not hesitate to pull together musical sounds of many eras, from medieval to contemporary. But while Shapiro’s sonic landscape is generally modern, Knaggs’ is for the most part determinedly old-fashioned, as befits music designed to extol the religious worldview and mystical Christian experience. Robert Simpson leads the work with tremendous sensitivity and care, effectively emphasizing the cantata’s focus on the divine mercy with which St. Faustina is associated: three movements bear the title “Song of Mercy,” and others are called “Merciful Heart,” “Mercy to Others,” and “Mother of Mercy.” Knaggs’ interweaving of texts is clever, notably in “Invocations,” which includes polyphonic handling of the Kyrie and Agnus Dei prayers, mingled with words by St. Faustina. This is a work of great sensitivity and heartfelt belief, and it is sung with conviction and a very fine sense of blending instrumental and vocal forces – all abetted by exceptionally clear SACD sound. Like the 70-plus minutes of Shapiro’s Sumptuous Planet, the 70-plus minutes of Knaggs’ Two Streams will scarcely be to everyone’s taste, although the actual aural world that Knaggs creates is considerably more soothing than Shapiro’s – appropriately reflecting the two composers’ differing worldviews. Neither of these impressive pieces will change minds and, in truth, neither will necessarily reach out even to the people who may agree with their underlying sentiments, since in both cases the music is a somewhat rarefied experience. But certainly Knaggs’ Two Streams is impressive in demonstrating the extent to which a contemporary composer’s sensibilities can resonate to the thoughts, feelings and experiences of a modern Christian mystic.

     Musical experiences focused on Poland are considerably less weighty and considerably more accessible on a purely secular MSR Classics recording of some little-known songs written between the late 19^th century and the middle of the 20^th. Only one of the four composers on this disc, Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), will likely be familiar to listeners; but even those who know his music may well be unaware of his Twelve Kurpian Songs (1930-33). These are by and large simple folksongs, often using less acerbic music than Szymanowski employed elsewhere – although occasional more-dissonant elements do creep in, for instance in The Rainstorm Has Come. The songs vary in tempo and emotional effect, from the sad uncertainty of Beware, Mother to the dour Grey Horses by the Forest to the surprisingly pleasant The Night Is Dark. Of interest more to fanciers of Polish folk material than to aficionados of Szymanowski’s work, the songs are nicely sung by soprano Ewa Kowcz-Fair and accompanied in idiomatic and suitably subdued fashion by pianist Małgorzata Surowiak-Then. They are followed on the disc by Eight Polish Folk Songs (1915) by Adam Wieniawski (1879-1950), nephew of the better-known Henryk and Jozef. Four of these eight songs are quite short, under two minutes apiece, but it is the longest – the four-minute A Bit of News Happened – that is most interestingly scored, intermingling the voice and piano skillfully in music that varies in pace and expressiveness. The minute-and-a-half-long Who Is Sad is also notable – for its insistent initial bounciness, followed by bits of melancholy. Next on the CD are Three Folk Songs (1950) by Antoni Szałowski (1907-1973), which take the voice to greater heights – some of which Kowcz-Fair manages less than fully effectively, her voice taking on a bit of a screechy edge – but whose harmonies are not noticeably different from those of the earlier cycles heard here. The disc concludes with an 1898 setting of the traditional By the Oak Tree by Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876-1909). This very short encore – just over a minute – nicely sums up both the simplicity of the material on this CD and its straightforward emotionalism. A disc for a very limited audience that has a strong attraction to Polish-language folk material, this CD does provide a chance to experience some feelings that are far less abstruse than those involved in religious mysticism and that are, as a result, more readily accessible to those with an interest in the material.