Ensemble celebrates poetry of Whittier in a song cycle
Most classical-music ensembles connect with their surrounding culture by commissioning works from area composers or taking up residence at a local institution. But the Essex Chamber Music Players are exploring their Merrimack Valley community in a deeper way.
The ensemble is devoting a pair of concerts to the bicentennial of the birth of John Greenleaf Whittier. A Quaker and native of Haverhill, Whittier was a well-regarded poet in his day, though today he's perhaps remembered more for contributions to the abolition movement than for his verse. The Chamber Players have commissioned a series of pieces to commemorate the occasion. One of those is "Whittier Songs," a cycle of settings of his poetry for soprano, tenor, flute, cello, and piano by the venerable composer Harold Shapero, which will be performed in tomorrow's Chamber Players concert at the Whittier birthplace.
Shapero, 87, says that he didn't know much of Whittier's poetry when he got the commission, so he took a copy of the complete poems out of his local public library in Natick and began roaming through it.
"A lot of his poetry has a hymnlike character," Shapero says by phone. He points to "The Merrimac," the poem that opens his cycle. "It's like a big folksong hymn," he says, that describes in bold images the river's course, from snow-clad mountains through verdant woods.
At the same time, Shapero views the poem as a sort of preview of the ecological movement, lamenting the pollution of the river by the cotton and weaving industries. And the poet's antislavery stance makes its way into "Haschich, " the cycle's fifth song. Initially, it seems to be a humorous description of what results from eating "the Eastern plant." But at the end of the poem, Whittier writes that "the Haschich of the West" -- the cotton trade -- makes even greater fools of Americans. "He hits you pretty hard with that one," says the composer. "It's really a surprise."
Most of Whittier's poems are simple, and Shapero crafted the music accordingly, shunning his customary neoclassical bent and writing in a style tinged with Americana: "I found myself picking notes that were so . . . sort of ordinary in a way." He recalls playing "The Merrimac" for the musicians and asking them with a laugh "You want your money back?" (They didn't.)
The Chamber Players, whom Shapero praises for their musical skill and unconventional programming, have unveiled the cycle over a number of concerts, adding whatever songs are complete. The first two were heard last April; five of the planned six are on tomorrow's program (all except "Haschich," yet to be finished). Michael Finegold, the group's artistic director, thinks the "Whittier Songs" will be complete by the time of their next concert, in July.
Shapero acknowledges that Whittier's poetry can seem prosaic to modern ears, yet he found himself taken with what he calls the poet's "essential goodheartedness." He sees Whittier's character reflected in a poem called "The Trailing Arbutus," named for a beautiful flower he found growing amid the detritus of the forest. "It's like certain people who bring pleasure into the world, despite their encumberment," he says. "His heart was always in the right place."
At the John Greenleaf Whittier Birthplace, Haverhill. 978-470-1584, essexchambermusicplay ers.org.
