Voices of Connection: 07/23 Virtual Sanctus: A Singer's Perspective
FROM GUEST CURATOR MELISSA BYBEE
It’s funny how things always seem to come full circle, and how circles seem to predominate our lives. The first choral work that came to mind when I thought about the choral music that moves me was a requiem mass, and I am back where I began. It was the Fauré “Requiem” that first opened my ears and heart to the transcendent beauty of choral music, and now I’d like to touch on another setting of the requiem mass: the Duruflé. Dennis Keene first presented Maurice Duruflé’s “Requiem” (1947) in 1989 in New York City as part of a weeklong festival tribute to the complete works of Duruflé, an experience that led to the incorporation of Voices of Ascension in 1990. Voices of Ascension’s 1995 Delos recording, ”The Duruflé Album,” which features the “Requiem,” is still regularly cited as one of the top favorite performances of the work by music critics to this day. While I wasn’t singing with Voices in 1995, and I missed out for one reason or another on a couple of other concerts that featured the piece, I finally had the honor of singing it with Dennis in a concert of French music in 2016. In September 2020, we recorded a virtual version of the “Sanctus” (Holy, holy) movement for our first ever online gala, and it is this recording that I would like to share with you. Without completely destroying the magic, first of all, yes, we were all really singing, but each musician sang and played alone, in his or her own home, separated from colleagues and audience and everything that makes performing choral music the sublime experience that it so often is. Nonetheless, there was something very special about being able to sing my part, all by myself but along with some of the best altos in the city, many of whom I sing with to this day and several more of whom are, sadly, no longer with us, but who were in my ear and my heart throughout this process (the “magic” part of how we did this). I was deeply moved by the final product: seeing each of us standing in our own little circles, dressed to the nines and singing our hearts out to our personal recording devices, isolated in reality yet together on the screen, thanks to the magic of technology that saw us through a terrifying and lonely time. When asked whether I believe in a higher power, my answer is yes, as I experience a connection with something much greater than myself whenever I sing great music like the Duruflé with an ensemble like Voices. – Melissa Bybee, Voices of Ascension Alto and Board Member