Foldings and Whirlings

Greyfriars Kirk 25/4/26

Dunedin Consort

Ellie Slorach director

Spring had definitely sprung and the blossom in Greyfriars Kirkyard was in full bloom when I arrived for the Dunedin Consort vocal concert directed by Ellie Slorach. This was preceded by an in-depth conversation between Ellie and Andrew Trinick, the Dunedin CEO. Ellie has a wide variety of musical experience, but freely admits that choral music is her ‘one true love’. For her the most important thing in choral music is clarity: of tempo, diction, dynamics, and mood.

I was interested to learn that the Dunedin Consort was formed 30 years ago as a professional vocal consort based in Scotland with the aim of performing music from the baroque era as well as contemporary works, but that its scope then expanded to become more of a baroque orchestra with a specialty in vocal music. 

The programme for the concert was created by Ellie in collaboration with the Dunedin Consort. It consisted of sacred and secular choral music from 16th century England and 20th and 21st century America by John Sheppard, John Taverner, Caroline Shaw, Randall Thompson, Aaron Jay Kernis and Jake Runestad. These pieces had more in common than might at first appear, sharing a sacred and secular spirituality and showing the continuity of the human voice throughout the ages.

The programme was symmetrical, with the two halves folding into each other: first the 16th century, then a modern piece, then back to the 16th century, and ending with a contemporary Alleluia. This unforced folding accentuated the textures of the individual pieces, and of the whole concert.

Four of the twelve singers (six female and six male) were graduates of the Dunedin Consort’s Bridging the Gap initiative to support young vocalists taking their first steps as professional singers. The singers - The Dunedin Twelve, or perhaps The Dunedin Dozen - tackled the technical challenges of the contemporary works with the same assurance they showed in the more familiar works. I was duly dazzled.

The evening began with John Sheppard’s ‘Libera nos I’, serene and pure polyphony from the 16th century.

Then came the most substantial piece of the evening, Caroline Shaw’s 5-part ‘How to fold the wind’. Parts of this piece had no words, with the individual voices folding over, under, and around each other using wordless sounds and breathy textures. I was aware of the breathing of the singers, the conductor, and the audience uniting to create a form of meditation.

John Taverner’s ‘Dum transisset II’, with its plaintive solo tenor chant supported by floating harmonies from the other singers, led into a calm and peaceful ‘Alleluia’ by Randall Thompson.

In the opening piece of the second half the choir was joined by four dozen amateur singers who had taken part in a choral workshop earlier in the day. The two groups performed ‘If ye love me’ by Thomas Tallis in an arrangement which saw one group singing at normal speed and the other at half speed, then reversing roles. The result was an intriguing double canon in which the amazing harmonies were squeezed to produce a superbly scrunchy sound. Listening to this tempted me to dust off my vocal chords and take part in a Dunedin choral workshop at the next opportunity - they are open to everyone.

Then John Sheppard’s ‘Libera nos II’, more urgent than his earlier version, led into the 3-part ‘Ecstatic Meditations’ by Aaron Jay Kernis based on the words of medieval mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg. This spiritual poem used a variety of vocal styles and ended with the separate voices spiralling giddyingly around the final word: whirling.

After this we were back in the 16th century with John Taverner’s ‘Dum transisset I’, with more folding and repetition of the traditional words. The final ‘Alleluia’ by Jake Runestad, with its one word repeated fast and slow and accompanied by rhythmic clapping, was like riding a rollercoaster without a seatbelt on.

The two parts of the concert moved seamlessly from one piece to the next with no pause for applause. This created two wonderful waves of choral music: an inhalation and an exhalation. At the end of the concert the singers greeted the wholehearted and lengthy applause with broad smiles. A great technical achievement, this concert contained more foldings than a millefeuille, and the result was just as sweet. This was a stunning concert, and I felt privileged to be present.

Dunedin Consort https://www.dunedin-consort.org.uk/‍ ‍

Photo credit: Dunedin Consort