War takes centerstage at South Bend Chamber Singers' concert at Saint Mary's College

Nancy Menk, music director of the South Bend Chamber Singers, planned to present a war-themed concert long before the recent events in Ukraine put war back on the front pages.

She selected most of the compositions more than two years ago, but she has made a late addition: the National Anthem of Ukraine. The Chamber Singers will open the performance with it.

"It has made the whole concert become more meaningful," Menk says.

Other arts and entertainment organizations have seized upon the same idea, honoring the victims of the current war by singing the anthem.

"The first time I ever heard it was when the Ukrainian choir sang it on 'Saturday Night Live.' There was a frantic search online among the choral community, looking for arrangements," she says.

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On May 15, Menk leads the South Bend Chamber Singers in "Day is Done: Choral Reflections on War" at the Church of Our Lady of Loretto on the campus of Saint Mary's College.

The musical accompaniment for these vocal performances is sparse. Many of the pieces are a cappella, and others have only a part for piano, organ or a solo horn. The guest accompanist, guitarist Daniel Quinn, provides crucial assistance, but not in a typical guest star's role of virtuoso. Quinn will be playing with great nuance and finesse, but his parts have nothing to do with feats of finger-busting dexterity.

"A guitar is not as loud as a keyboard, and it doesn't have the same percussive quality," Menk says. "Having this concert in the church should enhance his tone and make it resonate a little more."

Quinn is featured on Jeffrey Van's composition "A Procession Winding Around Me," which sets to music four Walt Whitman poems about the Civil War.

The composers included in the program come from America, Canada, England and Latvia.

Their pieces describe a number of different wars but have a certain common tone. These are not odes to generals and artillery power. These compositions are inspired by poems that lament the gruesome realities of war, its grim violence and the bravery of regular people who are forced to endure it.

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American composer Shawn Crouch sets the poetry of Brian Turner, a veteran of the Iraq war, in "Lullaby." The poem describes an Iraqi father trying to comfort his 4-year-old son while a bombardment of gunfire lights up the night around them.

"One of our singers told me that it has been hard to get through that one without breaking into tears," Menk says.

"Lullaby" is one of several works in the concert that delineate how unnatural war is. Another is "In Those Years, No One Slept," with words by Romanian poet Claudia Serea put to music by composer Rich Campbell. It tells of a community forced to leave their homes and live in the woods. Its recurring image is women in black veils, asking if there is any news of their husbands, brothers and sons.

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Menk selected the Irish folk song "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" instead of its similar counterpart, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." The soldier in "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" does not return as a conquering hero, but rather as a disfigured and traumatized ghost of his former self.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is the dedicatee of the concert's closing number, "Taps," which is often played by a solitary bugler at military funerals. Menk selected a version for choir, put together by arranger Nicholas McKaig.

"'Taps' is a good way for us to end the concert, and it's a nice arrangement," Menk says. "I had never heard another choral arrangement of 'Taps' before, but here's this beautiful one."

In concert

• What: South Bend Chamber Singers presents "Day is Done: Choral Reflections on War"

• Where: Church of Our Lady of Loretto on the campus of Saint Mary's College

• When: 7:30 p.m., May 15

• Cost: $20

• For more information: Call 574-284-4000 or visit saintmarys.edu/events.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Chamber Singers address war in Saint Mary's College concert