David Matthews’ Dawn Chorus for unaccompanied voices opened KANTOS’ spectacular Helios programme on 19 March, conducted by Ellie Slorach. The concert took place in Manchester’s Victoria Baths, with Luke Jerram’s epic spherical sculpture Helios suspended above audience and choir, with the programme tracing the journey of the sun across the sky from daybreak to the deep glow of nightfall, drawing on works by Meredith Monk, Eric Whitacre, John Tavener, Arvo Pärt, and Ben Nobuto.
Matthews’ Dawn Chorus is a 5-minute evocation of birdsong at first light; the composer’s experiences of watching and listening to British and Australian birds an important feature of his music for three decades, though unlike Olivier Messiaen, Matthews does not attempt exact transcriptions of the birdsong he hears. Dawn Chorus saw Matthews record sounds from his north London garden during springtime, with blackbirds and thrushes especially prominent. It was commissioned by the Lichfield Festival with support the Arts Council, and premiere with Ex Cathedra conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore in 2015.
Nine soloists are spread around the performing space – four sopranos, two altos, two tenors and a baritone – who imitate the birds against a quiet chordal background from the rest of the choir. The first soprano is a song thrush; the second a blackcap; the third a great tit; the fourth, and the two altos, three blackbirds; the first tenor a woodpigeon and the second a collared dove; the baritone (singing falsetto) a cuckoo – in recognition of Matthews’ providential encounter with the increasingly rare bird in Kent. Underneath the solos, the chorus intone a gentle wordless chordal underlay. The solos proliferate and intermingle, finally coming together for a minute before they are cut off, the work ending with a quiet chord from the chorus.
Birdsong plays a prominent role in Matthews’ Early Spring¸ which received its world premiere on 22 March from the English Symphony Orchestra and Kenneth Woods premiere at Cheltenham Town Hall. Filled with the songs of the Dunnock, Chiffchaff, and Blackbird, the 8 ½-minute work for chamber orchestra is an evocation of the changing seasons. It is dedicated to Woods and the musicians of the ESO, where Matthews was previously John McCabe Composer-in-Association in 2018/19, part of a year-long focus on his music with the Orchestra of the Swan.