The Stars News 1/18/05

Rose Ensemble to perform in Elk River

by Britt Aamodt

Elk River High School’s Zabee Theater will — for one night — reverberate with the festive sounds of 12th–17th century Moscow, Prague and Krakow.

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 22, the Elk River Area Arts Alliance (ERAAA) will bring St. Paul vocal group, The Rose Ensemble, to Zabee Theater for “Slavic Holiday.” This two-hour musical tour de force incorporates a stunning array of Eastern European chant, hymn and folk song, most of it only recently performed in the United States.

The 12 voices of The Rose Ensemble invigorate musical pieces that were popular before Columbus ever set sail for America or Shakespeare penned his immortal plays. In the tradition of the period, songs like “O Beate Stanislae” (Anonymous 13th century Polish) and “Poslan jest od Boha andel” (Anonymous 16th century Czech) are sung a cappella.

The themes are decidedly religious. Saints, Jesus and the Virgin Mary are the principle actors in these medieval liturgical dramas.

It is hard to imagine modern audiences, weaned on secular love songs with titles like “Please, Please Me” and “Brown Sugar” responding to these 500-year-old lyrics from “Salve pater optime”: “Hail, greatest father, famous martyr of Christ/ Hail Duke of Bohemia, oh Wenceslaus.” But they do. After a performance in Duluth, the Duluth News-Tribune reported audiences standing and whooping.

The Duluth News-Tribune called “Slavic Holiday” a “hypnotizing spell” with “one musical blossom after another, each one startlingly fresh and vocally brilliant.”

Despite their musical austerity, the ancient vocal pieces in “Slavic Holiday” weave a hypnotic spell familiar to anyone who has ever heard the Gregorian chant of Benedictine monks.

Without the disruption of wild guitar solos and a galloping drumbeat, the naked voices soar. In a way, the closely harmonized music is emblematic of the lofty ideal of its original audience—the Divine Creator.

The “Slavic Holiday” composers, many anonymous, offered their musical skills in the service of God. The music was performed for congregations and in abbeys where monks observed canonical hours.

The Rose Ensemble sings in the Latin, Polish and Russian of the original music, but a speaker narrates the legends between songs.

The Rose Ensemble was formed in 1996 and quickly built a national reputation. Locally, they have been nominated for three Minnesota Music Awards and hold a coveted residency at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.

Tickets for “Slavic Holiday” are available at the box office the night of the performance. Advance tickets can be purchased at the Coborn’s information desk or by calling the ERAAA at (763) 441-4725. Regular admission is $17. Admission for seniors and ERAAA members is $14.

The program is made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Journalist

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