Praiseworthy as it may be to express one's preference for peace over war,
what does it accomplish? Sorry, not much.  Enter Robert Kyr, University of
Oregon music professor, with an idea - an international campaign to create
choral music celebrating the cause of peace.  The result:  25,000 hits on
www.iwagepeace.com, 700 entries from 30 countries and 42 states, and - most
importantly - a some impressive new works.

At an Oregon Bach Festival concert Monday night, in Beall Hall, among the
"Waging Peace" finalist works presented by Portland's diverse, dedicated
Oregon Repertory Singers, directed by the splendid Gil Seeley, there was
a jaw-dropper.  The composer:  Klaudia Pasternak, a 23-year-old Polish
composer, who could not make her way from Warsaw to the festival in time.

Her "Sancte Angele Dei" is a solid, masterful work, from an assured
voice of maturity far exceeding Pasternak's chronological age.  It's
emotionally involving, affecting, but quite without the soppy-sloppy,
overly sentimental nature of some other entries.  Bold harmonic
progressions impress, especially because they are clearly not for show,
but form integral part of the music.  Not everything works in the piece,
there are some quirky passages that fall flat, but here's a 23-year-old
who knows how to write for a chorus, whose prayer to "Holy angels of God"
forms a lasting work of art.

Another blow for peace-and-music came from Elizabeth Alexander, of New
York state, "Praise Wet Snow Falling Early," to a poem by Denise Levertov.
A section of the poem gives a good indication of the complexity of the
music:  "Praise god or the gods, the unknown/That which imagined us, which
stays our hand,/our murderous hand, and gives us still,/in the shadow of
death, our daily life, and dream still of goodwill, of peace on earth."

Opening almost as an art song, the work took full advantage of the Portland
chorus' wonderful pianissimo, the sound merging with Elizabeth Harcombe's
exquisite piano accompaniment.  Within a surprisingly short span of time,
Alexander's work is developed fully, touching on a range of emotions.

If Veljo Tormis' "God Protect Us from War" were written for the current
project, it would easily walk away with the top prize, but this great
contribution to choral literature is almost 20 years old.  The Estonian
composer wrote it to a passage from the Finnish national epic, the
"Kalevala" - "Protect us, fair God, from the feud-foal's hoofs, from the
cloven feet of the war horse, from the cutting iron, from the blunt point
of the sword..."

Tormis, attending the concert, pointed out that the work was written at the
time of the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan, when Estonian conscripts
were sent to the front, many of them never to return.  The music is quiet,
a bit spooky, very simple, at times prayer-like, but eventually reaching a
great climax, aided by a single instrument, a gong.  The men of the
Portland singers performed admirably.

Also on the program:  Oakland composer Ann Millikan's "Song of Remembrance"
(a virtual solo number, performed by LeAnne DenBeste) and Venezuelan
Alberto Grau's "Sing, Choirs of the World."

Kyr - chair of the UO composition department, director of the school's
Pacific Rim Gamelan, the Vanguard Concert Series and the biennial Music
Today Festival - was represented by two works on the program.  "A Vision of
Peace," a simple, Kodaly-influenced piece was performed by the ORS student
honors choir, Mia Hall Savage conducting.

Kyr's "O Jerusalem" consists of a powerful concluding original composition
of the same name, and four preceding sections taken from Islamic, Jewish
and Christian traditional literature, plus Hildegard von Bingen's "O
Jerusalem."

Janos Gereben/SF
In Oregon, to July 8
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