Singing the changes
Though only a few years old, ORA has already set its sights on giving the choral repertoire a major revamp, reports
Andrew Stewart meets ORA, a choir on a mission
In the early 1980s the Irish literary critic Denis Donoghue challenged cultural theorists to stop explaining away the mystery of art. His Reith Lectures for the BBC teased out the threads of an academic trend that today surrounds every condition of life with explanations neatly tailored to fit different, often contradictory systems of knowledge. Yet the experience of contemporary sacred choral music and the appetite of audiences for it suggest that art’s mystery remains in high demand. Just ask Suzi Digby. The founder and conductor of ORA is in the business of meeting that demand, commissioning and performing 100 new works for unaccompanied choir within a decade and recording as many of them as possible.
ORA’S a cappella commissions are intended to stand as a bridge between the golden era of Renaissance sacred polyphony and what Digby contends is today’s equally gilded age of choral composition. Mystery, she notes, is part of the deal, not something to be analysed but an ineffable element of the choral repertoire past and present. Her commissioning approach
invites composers to produce personal ‘reflections’ on Renaissance choral landmarks, a brief sufficiently loose to allow imaginations free rein yet focused enough to encourage deep contemplation of the emotional and spiritual force of works created in an age of religious revolution and counter-revolution. The tally so far stands at 35 compositions, of which 17 have been recorded. ‘We’re only two years into the process, so we’re well on the way,’ comments Digby when we meet over a coffee in London. ‘This is urgent work that has to happen now.’
There’s more to that last line than a pitch to prospective sponsors. ORA’S tireless founder, who turns 60 this year, explains that the choir and its commissioning programme own a long pre-history. The group’s roots, while newly struck (in 2014), connect with others set deep in Digby’s work as choral conductor, educator and entrepreneur. She commissioned her first choir composition, from Daryl Runswick, while working in Hong Kong in the early 1980s and accelerated the process after returning to the UK a decade later with countless works and arrangements for her Voices Foundation, Vocal Futures, Voce and other choral projects. Many were created to inspire youngsters, to encourage singing in state schools against the tide of choral decline and open ears to great music for choirs.
Suzi Digby has little time for those who reject traditional standards of artistic excellence in favour of ‘anything goes’. Her biography reflects a career-long commitment to sharing the best in choral music with the largest audience.
Above all she believes in the power of sacred art to transcend denominational boundaries and secular sensibilities. Today’s hunger for experiences that move the spirit, she says, speaks to a need identified by Zoltán Kodály at the time of the Wall Street Crash in 1929. ‘The greatest trouble is not the emptiness of the purse but the emptiness of the soul,’ observed the Hungarian composer and pedagogue. ‘And of this we have got more than our share.’ With its time-travelling programmes of sacred polyphony, ORA aims to offset today’s spiritual deficit.
In terms of the tonal blend they deliver, their focus and energy, Digby’s team of 18 professional singers ranks with the best, while their concerts offer a strong marriage of content and presentation. ‘It’s about creating an immersive experience for the audience,’ she explains.
‘That’s a very difficult thing to achieve but not impossible.’ Lighting, choreography and costume design have roles to play in enhancing the atmosphere of a choral programme. ‘I think it’s a good way to reach intellectually curious people who are new to choral concerts. I don’t think that musicians walking on in suits, doing their thing and walking off again is sufficient. Young audiences are used to high production values and standards in other artforms. Why should they accept anything less from classical music?’
ORA sought style advice from opera designer and director Patrick Kinmonth, former art
editor of British Vogue, and from his wardrobe designer, whose colour palette distinguish the choir’s clothes. In March, the choir will start a three-year residency at LSO St Luke’s, for which ORA will work with designers and other visual artists; the residency will also explore choral polyphony’s potential contribution to mental health and spiritual revitalisation. ‘We intend to be pioneering with what we do there,’ notes Digby. ‘What is it about choral music that nourishes the soul, for instance? What is it that makes the live choral performance affect people so deeply and bring them together? I believe there’s a route between Renaissance polyphony, contemporary choral music and the region of the soul that Kodály referred to as “empty”.’
The list of ORA commissions – some already in the bag, others in the making – spans a striking breadth of composers and musical styles. It embraces works by jazz, film and gospel composers, together with big names and
What is it about choral music that nourishes the soul and affects people so deeply?
emerging talents. There’s room for reflections by, among others, Richard Allain, Kerry Andrew, Charlotte Bray, Roxanna Panufnik, Kim Porter, Francis Pott, Oliver Tarney and Roderick Williams; substantial pieces by Jonathan Dove, Giles Swayne and John Joubert; settings of core liturgical texts by Julian Anderson and Julian Wachner; works by young composers such as David Bednall, Alexander Campkin and Francisco Coll; and Christmas carols by John Rutter and Debbie Wiseman. Ken Burton, best known for his work with the London Adventist Choir, and Harry Escott, whose soundtrack scores have featured in the films of Michael Winterbottom, Clio Barnard and Steve Mcqueen, have also boosted ORA’S repertoire stock. James Macmillan is set to crown the series with his reflections on Spem in alium, Tallis’s famous 40-part motet.
‘We’ll perform James’s new work on tour with local youth choirs around the UK,’ notes Digby. ‘I asked him to write the complexity within the 18 voices of ORA and the simplicity for 22 young voices.’ The choir’s ambitious Spem project concludes in November 2020 with a concert at King’s College, Cambridge. ‘We want to keep surprising audiences with new things and fresh repertoire combinations. If our collection of
100 reflections on choral masterworks is to be representative of the genius which is flourishing today, it must encompass a wide variety of choral styles and languages. That genius is not about making money or being famous; it’s about something much more important, something central to the human spirit.’
Suzi Digby’s latest choral venture arose from a clear artistic vision of repertoire and excellence intertwined. She raised substantial sponsorship, set the commissioning ball rolling and secured a recording contract – with Harmonia Mundi UK – well ahead of ORA’S first concert in February 2016. The choir absorbed its initial batch of new works during the process of rehearsing and recording. Its debut album, Upheld by Stillness, was ready for launch at its first public
performance at the Tower of London. ‘One of the most terrifying things about that concert was whether the audience and critics would buy the idea that what’s being written today compares with the music of the Tudor golden age,’ Digby recalls. Her concern was removed by the positive reviews for ORA’S start-up offering and critical acclaim since for its concerts and recordings. The upcoming LSO St Luke’s residency will involve three concerts a year there and satellite tours around the UK. Other highlights include the release of a Christmas album this autumn, debut tours to Germany and the US next year, and a spring release for ORA’S Song of Songs album.
‘There’s been a resounding thumbs up to our new pieces,’ comments Digby. ‘Composers have gained confidence from the public’s response and trust in us as commissioners. I don’t think we could have done this ten years ago, because the confidence wasn’t there. We now have this sure-footedness among composers to write beautiful and powerful choral music.’ The compositional confidence boost, she adds, owes much to Morten Lauridsen, Arvo Pärt and others writing in neo-tonal idioms, and the influence of Africa’s singing traditions, the latter imported to British schools as songs and singing games by Digby’s Vocal Futures. ‘That has given energy to the tidal wave of creativity we’re seeing now in ORA’S commissions.’
How does Digby go about briefing composers? There’s no definitive answer, she replies. It depends on the individual and the work selected as the model for reflection. In general, though, the new piece will usually be of similar length and scoring to its archetype. ‘They can take any aspect of a Renaissance piece as a creative trigger, from the text in its entirety to a single chord. We’ve had an amazing cross-section of works, some of which have been musically and vocally demanding, some of which have been wonderfully simple. The original Renaissance material – the music, the text and its sheer quality – predisposes itself to the highest level of inspiration.’
Digby cites riks E envalds’s reflection on Byrd’s Infelix ego among ORA’S finest commissions to date. The Latvian composer was directly inspired by Girolamo Savonarola’s Latin text, a meditation on the words of Psalm 51 penned shortly before the pious Dominican friar was burned at the stake in Florence in 1498, and by Byrd’s use of it as an emblem of persecution. ‘The text travelled across one century to reach Byrd, whose setting was addressed as a personal message to recusant English Catholics. E envalds brought the text and Byrd’s motet into his world and used them to create something quite breathtaking.’
The challenge for a commissioner, notes Suzi Digby, is to get the best work out of a composer. ‘You have to engage them in the project by giving a framework but not be too prescriptive. We identify composers to write for specific programmes and talk them through what we want. For instance, our Song of Songs album (released in 2019 on Harmonia Mundi) has a clear theme running through it. If composers understand that, they can delve deeper into their own creative resources and make the connections required to produce something really exciting.’ Not one of ORA’S composers, she adds, has said the ‘reflection’ brief was inhibiting. ‘In fact, they’ve found it far more liberating than starting with a blank page.’