The Daily Chronicle, April 18, 2007

Fresh New Music Featured at the TSO's New Creations Festival
By Jen Li

Peter Oundjian and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra opened up their third annual celebration of contemporary music at Roy Thomson Hall on February 28, 2007. The program featured pieces by Canadian renowned composers such as James MacMillan, whose Scotch Bestiary for Organ and Orchestra was featured. This piece was inspired by his Scottish heritage, his Roman Catholic faith,social conscience, and personal connection with Celtic folk music, as well as influences from Far Eastern, Scandinavian, and Eastern European music.

Contemporary music was redefined on the night of March 8, 2007 as James Macmillan's Scotch Bestiary for Organ and Orchestra was premiered in Canada for the very first time in history. How does one go about reinventing something as indistinctive as contemporary music? Up until recently, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has stuck to standard traditional Western repertoire of the Classical, and late Romantic periods. It seems as if we are ready to move on to something new, and be challenged by the by the unconventional sounds of contemporary music. Abandon the tonal harmonies. Disregard the traditional rules of theory and voice leading.Embrace the unfamiliar and learn to take risks. Fortunately, Peter Oundjian understands that we conservative supporters of the TSO have an indelible appetite for the novelties of contemporary music. Thus, we cannot swallow all these new ideas all at once as a snake would gulp a mouse down, without even taking the time to chew through these new ideas, and impressions. No, we need time to digest this new approach to music and think through the ideas that are being presented to us, before we can make them our own. Of course, we as the listeners are given guidelines as to how to interpret the composition based on the orchestration, and the brief description of the work as outlined in the program but ultimately, we have to come up with our own interpretation and understanding of the work in question. The identity of contemporary music is elusive, as it is descriptive of the present time period in which composers are churning out musical thoughts with connections to present day society and their responses to them as they exist. There are no definitive answers, just as there are no distinct questions. There are only issues as they relate to society; some exist in the consciousness, while others are suppressed in the unconscious mind.

James MacMillan's piece, entitled, A Scotch Bestiary for Organ and Orchestra is similar to the tradition of musical portraiture as set in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The duration of this orchestral work is approximately 34 minutes, and the instrumentation is somewhat bizarre as it includes an eccentric combination of instruments within a single ensemble. Nevertheless, James MacMillan's work is an absolute delight to listen to, as it portrays human archetypes as inhibited, senseless savage-like animals devoid of any intellectual wisdom as they struggle for control, and power all throughout this piece.

This piece is embedded with musical jokes, and witty humor. Although it is strictly an orchestral work, with no spoken communication, it conveys with tremendous wit and conviction the nature of human beings to be selfish, stupid,annoying. Take the cuckoo motive for example.It is introduced appropriately towards the end of the first movement but it returns disruptively to disturb the serenity and sacred nature of the church hymn which ends off the first movement. All throughout this piece distinctive animals are introduced as presented in the laughing trumpets, and the howling clarinets, as well as the large ponderous melodies of the organ pedals, tubas and double basses which are representative of the reptiles and fish in a small pond. Instead of giving primary attention to solo passages as they emerge one by one, James MacMillan has scored this orchestral work so that the instrumentalists are constantly bantering back and forth, arguing in a disconcerting manner about trivial matters. As James MacMillan describes, by the second movement, "all the animals are now unleashed and rampage in chaotic, violent abandon. "New animals appear-elephants, horses, cows, dogs, lions and more birds, with some added grunting and and rooting. The materials are all predominantly fast and frenetic, rushing to a virtuosic finale for soloist and orchestra. Indeed, it is quite a night of festivities at the orchestra, as the nature of the human spirit is unleashed full force upon unsuspecting concert goers.

Honestly, who could have ever predicted that contemporary music could be so maliciously entertaining?