UPDATE (4/28/21): It was sad to read today that the composer James Primosch has passed away at the age of 65. This is an article I wrote in May 2020 upon the release of CARTHAGE by The Crossing:
~~~ Newly released by Navona Records, CARTHAGE features works by composer James Primosch performed by the choral group The Crossing. This music came my way during the isolation of the pandemic in May of 2020.
From the opening phrase of the opening piece, Journey, a spell was cast over me. Listening to the men of The Crossing intoning these words drawn from the work of 13th-century monk and mystic Meister Eckhart - “There is a journey you must take. It is a journey without destination. There is no map. Your soul will lead you. And you can take nothing with you.” - was all it took to draw me in. Not just the evocative words themselves, but the particular beauty of the voices created a mood that is sustained throughout the span of the album.
While the title track, Carthage, evokes for me visions of the lost city of Carthage, where Dido died of despair after being abandoned by Aeneas, it's Marilynne Robinson's novel Housekeeping that is the source of the text. James Primosch provides wondrous harmonies which feel at once ancient and vividly of our time. Individual voices sometimes rise from the ensemble as the music veers from pensive to ecstatic. After listening, I ordered a copy of Ms. Robinson's book.
Following is Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus. Comprised of five movements, this work employs four soloists singing the traditional texts from the Latin mass whilst the main choir of The Crossing sing from Denise Levertov’s cycle of poems which inspired the work's title.
In Kyrie, the solo voices are deeply affecting, the choir's harmonies alive with dynamic and rhythmic shifts. The Gloria is appropriately more animated and upbeat, whilst the Credo opens thoughtfully, with especially marvelous harmonies in a variety of moods. The Sanctus opens with solo voices, each on its own trajectory and finally meshing; following a dense harmonic burst, the word "Sanctus" is repeated. The music then becomes lullaby-like. Agnus Dei, the final passage of this Mass, opens with the beloved "Lamb of God" text gently voiced; later, an emotional rise subsides into a fading finish, a quiet plea for peace.
The album's notes so accurately describe this work honoring St. Thomas Didymus - known as “doubting Thomas” - as "...plumbing the depths between unbelief and faith in which true spirituality so often resides." That is the exact place I have dwelt for so many years.
spiraling ecstatically has a vivid spatial sense, a drifting loveliness followed by a high-rising passage of animation to a sustained finish. Two Arms of the Harbor opens thoughtfully, the voices soft and reflective. A female voice explores some high-range coloratura, leading to a brief energy surge. The music then subsides to a gentle coda, drifting into silence.
The album closes with One with the Darkness, One with the Light. In this brief track, a feeling of reverent acceptance pervades. The text, from poet Wendell Berry, is so simple and heartfelt, and composer James Primosch has given it a dreamlike setting in which the voices of The Crossing quietly reach us in the depths of the soul.
"At night make me one with the darkness
In the morning make me one with the light
When I rise up, let me rise joyful like a bird.
When I fall, let me fall without regret, like a leaf.
Let me wake in the night and hear it raining and go back to sleep."
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Above: composer James Primosch; photo by Deborah Boardman
Mr. Primosch was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1956. He studied at Cleveland State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and at Columbia University. Among his teachers were Mario Davidovsky, George Crumb, and Richard Wernick, In 1988, the composer joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. His website is here.
The Crossing (above, in a Becky Oehlers photo) is a Grammy Award-winning chamber choir. Under the direction of Donald Nally, the ensemble have commissioned over one hundred choral works. Visit The Crossing's website here. ~~~
~ Oberon