David Bennett Thomas: Songs of Seasons
David Bennett Thomas
The Gregg Smith Singers
Thomas Schmidt, Piano
Capstone Records CPS-8791
The rewarding vocal works on Songs of Seasons provide yet more evidence that David Bennett Thomas is a composer who is capable of virtuoso writing, but opts to keep unnecessary flashiness reined in for a deeper, more thoughtful approach. The Gregg Smith Singers lend great feeling and technical precision to Thomas’s music, while pianist Thomas Schmidt handles his role with warmth and dexterity.
Beginning with the serenely beautiful harmonies of O Magnum Mysterium for mixed chorus, the disc remains consistently engrossing. In Songs of Seasons for mixed chorus and piano, Thomas lets Kim Rich’s texts determine the path of the music, and the resulting work vividly captures the respective character of each month. Similarly, in The Dawning for men’s chorus, the profound verses of seventeenth-century poet George Herbert guide Thomas’s musical choices: the alternation between homophony and polyphony is dictated by the emotional content of Herbert’s words.
A setting of excerpts from three of the Psalms for baritone and piano is a major highlight of the disc. Jared Stamm offers soulful readings of Thomas’s strong melodies as Schmidt traverses intriguing harmonic territory.
The disc closes with WARSONG, an emotionally complex piece for soprano (Eileen Clark), mezzo-soprano (Megan Friar), and piano. Given the current state of global affairs and the contemporary American artist’s typical stance on war, the emphatic title (capital letters and all) may lead listeners to expect an angry rant against bureaucracy. But Thomas has chosen to render three poems by Walt Whitman that are not inherently opposed to war, but convey the respectful mourning that follows in its wake. In an era of urgent political invective, such a sentiment is perhaps the one most conducive to peace.
Donald Chittum’s detailed liner notes offer theoretical insights into the music, as well as the composer’s own thoughts on some of the verses that inspired these works. As Chittum suggests, Thomas’s choice of texts, and his musical interpretations of them, are reflections of his spiritual depth and consummate sincerity.
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