While You Are Alive
Fanfare Magazine - 2009
Steven Ritter

The nine members of Cantus have, in my opinion, displaced Chanticleer as the premier men’s vocal ensemble in the United States. They sing with a passion and unanimity of ensemble without sacrificing individual emotional contributions that so make a choir rise above the merely professional to the extraordinarily vibrant. Solo work is outstanding, never merely competent or sounding like, well, just another chorus member. Sauder Hall at Goshen College in Indiana must be a resplendent place, judging by the warm and inviting sound this recording produces.

I have not the space to comment on each work here, but most are outstanding, with only one that didn’t really connect with me. Edie Hill’s A Sound like This gives the album its title with the fifth movement of this 20-minutes-plus work, the longest here. I find it gimmicky in spots; choirs clapping their hands and such effects don’t do much for me—I just want to hear them sing—and the descent into cacophony in places is a hard sell. Nevertheless, she does acquit herself somewhat with the rapturous last movement, all the texts taken from the Indian mystic poet Kabir.

The opening Lux aurumque by known quantity Eric Whitacre is a quietly powerful piece, light sifting through a field of trees on a gorgeous day. The Whitman settings that Steven Sametz uses for We Two nicely amplify the meaning of the poet’s often difficult words and meaning, done here with a rich choral fabric that enhances instead of obscures the stanzas. Perhaps the most moving piece in this collection is that of Maura Bosch. Her The Turning takes for its text the stories of men in an anger-management class, reflecting the thoughts and feelings of these people as they come to this point in their lives. Her music humanizes their situations in a way no other medium could, and touches feelings that they have in common with all of us. "Things I Didn’t Know I Loved" by Timothy C. Takach is another fine work that expresses the thoughts of Turkish poet Nazim Hikmer as a man just released from prison looks out the window of a train he is on. It is one of those stop-and-smell-the-roses compositions that invite a sedate reflection while bathing in the lovely music. Bravo to all the other pieces not mentioned here also.

Good stuff then, this. Want List? Too early to tell about this one, but the quality is certainly there.