“Requiem for a Sailor” World Premiere
Sunday, May 6, H.O. Hirt Auditorium
"'Requiem for a Sailor' is a regionally informed relic that effectively conveys the harsh realities of a life spent on the Great Lakes. Dr. Barnard employs various compositional techniques as well as colorful text painting to support the dramatic intent. One can hear the lapping of the waves, the bitter loneliness of family members at home, while haunting dissonances encroach as sailors fight for their lives. " -- Jacqueline Black, cellist
After four years of work on land and at sea, Daniel Barnard’s full 10-movement “Requiem for a Sailor” will be publicly sung in its entirety for the first time on Sunday, May 6. Sound files can be heard online.
“Requiem” grew out of research undertaken after Barnard, a member of the music faculty at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, decided to create the first major musical effort that honors Erie’s maritime heritage. To underscore the piece’s celebration of community, Barnard invited the voices of the Behrend College Choir, the Erie Philharmonic Chorus, the Edinboro University Chamber Choir, the Harbor Creek High School Choir, and soloists from Mercyhurst College to perform the 40-minute work under his direction.
Fittingly, the concert will take place in the H.O. Hirt Auditorium of the Erie Maritime Museum, 160 E. Front St. A composer lecture with Barnard will begin at 3:30 p.m., to be followed by the performance at 4 p.m.; both are free and open to the public.
Barnard never lacked for background material; according to the Peachman Lake Erie Shipwreck Research Center in Vermilion, Ohio, Erie alone may hold between 1,400 and 8,000 wrecks, although only 270 are confirmed. “In my research I read the most poignant, passionate first-person narratives from sailors who had survived shipwrecks,” he said. “My breakthrough moment came when I realized that the dominant theme of these accounts is remarkably similar to the text of the traditional Latin requiem, or mass for the dead. In both cases, mercy and salvation are first and foremost on the writers’ agenda.”
Barnard said that as he collected pieces of maritime literature, “I found that if I orderedthe narratives in a particular way, not only could I pair each account with an appropriate requiem movement, but I also could tell a single story of an extraordinarily ill-fated voyage, and its few survivors.”
At the very beginning of his research, Barnard served as a volunteer crewman aboard the U.S. Brig Niagara, sailing the ship from Marquette, Mich., through Lake Huron to Windsor, Ontario. “I have always been a sucker for adventure novels, so to serve on the crew of a tall ship was a complete Walter Mitty experience for me,” he said.
The first three movements Barnard completed, “Kyrie,” “Lacrimosa,” and “Agnus Dei,” were performed by the Erie Philharmonic Chorus as part of its 50th anniversary concert, and by the Behrend College Choir during its 2003 tour of Italy. In 2004, Minneapolis-based VocalEssence performed three movements from “Requiem” in its annual Essentially Choral reading program for works in progress, an indication that it resonates with audiences beyond the piece’s Lake Erie setting.
“VocalEssence is one of the best-known professional choirs in the nation. There isn’t a composer in the world who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have them perform his work,” Barnard said. “Out of my appreciation for their involvement in this project, they will have the right of first refusal to perform the work following its premiere.”
“Requiem for a Sailor” was written for a choir, four soloists, and a quartet of cello, flute, piano, and percussion. Among the combined 80-voices of the full choir on May 6 will be soprano Karen Adams of Our Lady of Peace Church, alto Jacqueline Edford and tenor Andrew Ferguson, both Mercyhurst College students, and Edinboro student Alex Robertson, a baritone. Also performing will be Jacqueline Black on cello, LeAnne Winstrom on flute, percussionist Matthew Bassett, and pianist Andrew Rainbow.
Dan Barnard joined the music faculty at Penn State Behrend in 1999. He holds a doctoral degree in composition from University of Kansas, and is a multiple winner of American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) and other national competition awards, including first prize in the 25th annual Ithaca College Choral Composition Competition for “Three Short Choral Works on Texts by e.e. cummings.” Under his direction, The Logan Series at Penn State Behrend was awarded the 2005 Chamber Music American/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.
A reception in the Erie Maritime Museum lobby will follow the free performance of “Requiem for a Sailor,” which has received support from both the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Mary Behrend Cultural Fund.