Battle Hymns
The 23th St. Armory is home to the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry and its granite battlement itself an elegiac preamble for the premiere of Battle Hymns, a choral-dance collaboration by composer David Lang, Leah Stein Dance and The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, directed by Alan Harler.
Lang adapts lyrics from by Stephen Foster, stirring words from Lincoln and a Civil War letter from a soldier to his wife only to be read in the event of his death.
The huge Armory doors are drawn open and a woman riding a chestnut horse enters, surveys the space, like a promontory guarding hallowed grounds. The 85-member Mendelssohn choir files in, in field blues, moving around in various formations and processionals, as they sing Lang’s five movements.
On scaffolding are soloists whose vocals interlock or annotate echoing choral text. Lang brings both reverence and intimacy in the architecture of Battle Hymns through the use of such Foster songs as TellMe. ("Tell me, tell me weary soldier," reads the refrain. "Tell me weary soldier, tell me. Did he struggle? Did he fall? tell me.")
The Lincoln recitative "as I would not be a slave/so I would not be a master" becomes an American unfulfilled prayer, its implications expressed bythe dancers. Percussionists Toshi Makihara and Daniel Schwartz, accompanied by Don St. Pierre on keyboard , provide dramatic fanfare between Lang’s movements.
Leah Stein’s choreography is undecorated and primal. Regimented drills break away expressing fight or flight instincts and the resolve for order and humanity. A central passage with the boot camp commands moving at double speed with violent variations, next to evocations of camaraderie and bodies under attack. The vernacular essays a cumulative statement, which crucially, is not overwrought.
A section alluding to another civil war comes as dancer Makoto Hirano stands in front of a military vehicle with shopping bags recalling Tiananmen Square. Later, it is hard not to think of Iraq as the dancers load in a vehicle and are spilled in violence friezes.
The dancers- Hirano, David Konyk, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Shavon Norris, Jumatatu Poe, Gabrielle Revlock, Les Rivera, Josie Smith and Michele Tantoco - in ragged uniforms, are a driven ensemble, executing Stein’s non-stylized movement with conviction. A signature Stein effect bring moments when a life is revealed in a moment and a moment is revealed in a life.
Battle Hymns is a challenging artistic achievement. Lang’s sonic architecture, Stein’s choreography and the choir, sometimes distanced, at times overwhelming, honors the Armory, as well as our hearts and minds.
This premiere is part of Peregrine Arts ambitious Hidden City site performance series at Philadelphia landmarks both active and fallow.
For more information visit hiddencityphila.org website or call 267.597.3808
