CD Review | Andrew Staniland Calamus, Leibel, Regehr, Chafe

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Leaf Music
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User Ratings (2 Votes)
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Staniland: Calamus

Jane Leibel, soprano; Vernon Regehr, cello; Robert Chafe, narrator

Leaf Music

Andrew Staniland’s Calamus is a setting of four poems from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. They are scored for cello and soprano with an actor reading each poem prior to the music. The work is completed by four variations for cello. Each song lasts about six to eight minutes and so, with the readings and the variations, the recording comes in at around 39 minutes.

Calamus 6 sets “Not Heaving from my Ribb’d Breast Only.” This is the busiest and most dissonant of the four settings. It features extensive use of extended cello and vocal technique. There is humming and distorted diction with highly declamatory passages and some very high passages for the singer. The text is broken up into repeated words and syllables. It’s energetic and percussive and borders on the chaotic but still manages to relate the music to the text.

Aliment Roots sets “Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone” and it’s much more lyrical than the first song. It contains rather lovely low cello passages, and both cello and voice riff off birdsong. There’s whispering. It’s all much more natural and less abrasive.

Lacrimosa is a setting of “Trickle Drops.” It uses drawn-out lines for both voice and cello, together with rhythmic sections to suggest both trickling blood and a beating heart. There’s a long, slow, almost dance-like section toward the end for unaccompanied cello.

No Labour Saving Machine is rather a straightforward setting of the poem of the same name. The very extended opening for soprano with minimal cello accompaniment presents the text “as is” with next to no repetition or fragmentation. Later on, there’s an interesting use of the cello’s upper register which might almost be taken for whistling.

So, four very different settings ranging from lyrical to extremely abrasive but all demanding great virtuosity and command of multiple techniques by both musicians. These difficulties are navigated extremely skilfully by soprano Jane Leibel and cellist Vernon Regehr. The readings, by actor Robert Chafe, are clear and characterful and definitely add to the experience.

The variations (for cello) round out the recording. The first three riff off ideas found throughout the first three songs—for example, the beating heart motif in Lacrimosa. The fourth, though, is different. This is entirely based on the first song, with the cellist whispering the words of “Not Heaving” while playing on the instrument’s bridge. He then switches to full voice over conventional, melodic bowed notes.

The recording, made on various occasions between 2014 and 2024 at the School of Music at Memorial University, is detailed and clear—at least, on the high resolution version I listened to. It’s a digital-only release. The options are MP3 and lossless at 44.1kHz/16bit or 48kHz/24bit. There’s a very good digital booklet with lots of information about the music.