Ojibwe soldier brings the thunder
Truth and Reconciliation may not seem like a natural fit with the musical stage.
But on Monday night, a crack team of artists from Owen Sound proved that some challenges are worth overcoming. The Toronto Summer Music Festival had invited clarinetist James Campbell, who has also been artistic director of the Festival of the Sound for 33 years, to present a newly commissioned celebration of the life and accomplishments of an Ojibwe hero from the First World War.
The piece, mixing music, song, spoken word and video projections, is called Sounding Thunder: The Song of Francis Pegahmagabow. The text was written by Ojibwe poet and Queen’s University professor Armand Garnet Ruffo.
The instrumental music was composed by Timothy Corlis; the songs were created by the performers, including Jennifer Kreisberg.
This three-act show is about 80 minutes long.
It is worth every one of those minutes of attention, thanks to a tight book and score, and the full engagement of everyone onstage.
Sounding Thunder had its premiere on July 20, the opening night of this year’s Festival of the Sound. The second performance at Walter Hall on Tuesday was hopefully one of many more.
Corlis has relied on pattern music (layers and layers of short, repeated musical motifs) for the bedrock of the score for seven instruments, including percussion. There were moments when the result sounded a bit derivative, but Corlis is inventive with melody, and a master of shifting colours and textures.
The text is quite spare and the music was always there to set the right mood.
Pegahmagabow’s story is a remarkable one: he enlisted for duty in the First World War in the first big wave of recruitment in 1914. People from First Nations were not allowed to serve, but Pegahmagabow was such a fine shot that he made it to Europe, fighting in the trenches until he was injured in 1917. Hundreds of thousands of sol- diers died around him as he survived peril after peril, thanks to a gift from a wise medicine man.
The Ojibwe soldier returned home a decorated war hero but wasn’t able to get a Canadian government loan to buy livestock or farm equipment because of his First Nations status.
So he turned to politics to try and set things right for native people across the country.
Pegahmagabow’s life story is a stark reminder of how the Canadian government long shrugged off treaty obligations, basic needs of First Nations and even the achievements of one of its foremost war heroes. But Sounding Thunder never wallows in pity. Rather, it lays out the story so that we can be inspired to do better in the future.
Or, as narrator and our hero’s great-grandson Brian McInnes told the audience before the performance, guilt is not the right response.
Concern, compassion and doing something to further reconciliation is the way to go. Campbell commissioned Sounding Thunder.
It was a bold move, one that deserves its own standing ovation. Assembling some of Canada’s finest performers to make it shine made it even more compelling. If we can get this kind of art to mend the injustices of several centuries, maybe truth as well as reconciliation actually stand a chance.
What to hear at Festival of the Sound
Like most of the music festivals within a day’s drive of the GTA, the Festival of the Sound mixes all genres of music in a variety of venues, including the purpose-built Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts in Parry Sound.
Some of the classical highlights coming up before the festival closes on Aug. 11 are:
The Elora Festival and Singers and their new music director, Mark Vuorinen, present the music of J.S. Bach on July 31.
Pianist Stewart Goodyear headlines a program of Russian masterworks with all-star string players on Aug. 2.
There is a series of wonderful chamber music concerts the week of Aug. 6.
Visit festivalofthesound.ca for full details.