Cover image: Chroma in Candlelight: taken in rehearsal (Photo: Katie Skovholt)
On Christmas Eve 1914 in the trenches of France and Belgium the guns fell silent spontaneously, as young British, French, and German soldiers manning those trenches stopped shooting at each other. Gradually, starting from the German side with small Christmas trees posted above their trenches and some shouts of “Happy Christmas” across the lines, the two sides, just boys, began to cross into no-man’s-land, shake hands, exchange gifts of cigarettes and wine, even names and addresses, and sing carols. The truce lasted through Christmas Day, before they all started shooting at each other again. The upper brass were livid, but it was the boys who made sense that night.
It was this truce that Seattle Pro Musica commemorates in its Christmas program this year, the first concert of which took place Saturday afternoon at First Baptist Church on Capitol Hill. (The program is given again this weekend with two performances at Bastyr Chapel on December 15th.) Conductor Karen P. Thomas put together a thoughtful, moving program of Christmas hymns, carols and songs in eight segments titled “Winter, The Guns of War, Christmas Eve, Carols in No Man’s Land, Truce—The Guns Fall Silent, Gifts, Peace” and “Community Sing.” Each segment contained music from England (and two from Scotland), France and Germany, ranging from the 15th to 20th centuries. Some were traditional, familiar carols in deft arrangements (one by Thomas, a gifted composer herself), others less-known, but each grouping was appropriate to its title. At the back of the sanctuary area where the choir sang was a backlit cutout of Bethlehem with a great star above.
In between each work, while the choir rearranged itself for the next piece (which sometimes necessitated the choir dividing for some to sing from the two side balconies), a choir member came forward to read from the letters of those young men describing that night. Most of the time, the lighting was down for the audience and just the singers were lit. This was effective in furthering the mood, but frustrating for audience members who might have liked to follow along with the words, printed with translations and letter excerpts in the program, for instance in narratives, such as Janequin ‘s “La Guerre“ (part two) which describes a battle, or God’s wrath at the heathen from Psalm 2 in Mendelssohn’s setting of “Warum toben die Heiden.”
In some hands this program might have come across fragmented, with its many parts and the moving around, but in Thomas’s hands the whole was smoothly accomplished, while each piece was given expression which conveyed its essence—including the bitter chill in Britten’s “In the bleak midwinter.”
Best of all, the quality showed why this choir is so well regarded. The absolute togetherness, the blend of voices and the true harmonies, the exact pitch throughout—all this was unaccompanied singing—the many good soloists, and above all, the baton in Thomas’s hand which directed every bit of shading, each exact ending, each change in volume.
The final work was “Auld Lang Syne,” for audience and choir to sing together. The entire program was a moving experience and a fitting beginning for the Christmas season as well as a reminder of a Christmas spirit of 100 years ago.
