On the Other Shore

One of the things I hope to do on this blog is to write more about music than I felt comfortable doing for ProgressiveHistorians. So I want to make sure to alert you to the best classical album I heard last year: On the Other Shore, a cycle of sixteen folk-song settings (plus one original composition, which I don’t like as much) by Cleveland Institute of Music professor Steven Mark Kohn.

Kohn is an interesting fellow. He’s the only composition professor I know of who proudly notes on his resume that he’s written jingles for Wheaties and Stanley Steemer (“Tough on dirt, gentle on carpet”), scored guided imagery videos for surgical patients, and written lyrics for the Three Redneck Tenors. Perhaps because of his mix of solid classical training (he studied with Donald Erb) and adventurous eclecticism, his sixteen arrangements on this disc are among the most innovative and haunting I’ve heard. In some cases, notably the first and last arranged tracks (“Ten Thousand Miles Away” and “Hell in Texas”), he’s taken folk songs that aren’t very memorable and arranged them into almost completely new pieces.

Some of the songs on the disc are available for free on Kohn’s website (I particularly recommend “Ocean Burial” — a version of the timeworn hymn “O Waly Waly or, if you’re a Sons of the Pioneers fan, of “O Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie”). While you’re there, give a listen to Kohn’s Hymn for String Orchestra, which is in my view his most beautiful work and which is available on a separate CD.

I also want to mention the outstanding work done by the baritone soloist on this disc, Andrew Garland. Every once in a great while you hear a musician finely aged before his time, a man in his twenties with the voice of a sixty-year-old. Garland is that man. Every performance on this disc is a finely crafted work, and Garland masters the widely-varied themes and styles with ease. This is particularly important in songs such as “The Farmer’s Curst Wife,” “The Old Woman’s Courtship,” and especially “The Gallows Tree,” all Schubertian in their use of multiple character voices (and thus extremely difficult).

For a taste of Garland’s talents, check out his YouTube channel. A particular gem is his rendering of “From Iraq: Last Letter Home by Pfc. Jesse Givens,” a poignant piece written for Garland by the composer Lee Hoiby (another good one, but not as good as Kohn). Here, Garland is singing the text of a “last letter” written by a soldier who died in Iraq; the music video is cheesy and best avoided, but the performance is deeply affecting: