Animal voices.Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard Twenty-five years ago, Paul Winter Paul Winter (born August 31, 1939 in Altoona, Pennsylvania) is an American saxophonist (alto and soprano saxophone), and is a five-time Grammy Award winner. Career - whose music sounds more New Age than New Testament - was asked to write a Mass for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . Winter wasn't, at first, quite certain he was the man for the job, even though he and his group, the Paul Winter Consort Paul Winter Consort is an American musical group led by the soprano saxophonist Paul Winter. Founded in 1967, the group mixes elements of classical music, jazz, and world musics, as well as the sounds of animals and nature. , were then artists in residence at the liberal Episcopal cathedral. "I actually thought they were kidding," Winter said. They weren't. At that point in his life, Winter knew next to nothing about the Mass as a musical form. "They didn't have them at the Presbyterian church in Altoona, Pa., where I grew up," he said in a phone interview last week. So the dean of the cathedral invited Winter to come to church on Sunday and hear the Mass sung, using the four traditional texts: the Kyrie, the Sanctus, the Agnus Dei Agnus Dei (ăg`nəs dē`ī, än`y  s dā`ē) [Lat.], the Lamb of God, i.e., Jesus. The lamb of the Passover sacrifice is said to prefigure the crucifixion. and the Gloria.
"I began imagining this Mass celebrating the Earth," Winter said, "using the different animal voices that have become part of our repertoire. I asked the dean, could we celebrate the entire Earth as a sacred space sacred space, n space—tangible or otherwise—that enables those who acknowledge and accept it to feel reverence and connection with the spiritual. ? Can we have the animal voices as celebrants in the Mass? Everything I asked him, he said was possible." The resulting Mass - which the Paul Winter Consort will perform Saturday in Eugene with the Eugene Concert Choir Eugene Concert Choir is a non-profit choral organization based in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It consists of two mixed-voice choruses: the 100-member Eugene Concert Choir (ECC), and the semi-professional chamber group Eugene Vocal Arts Ensemble (EVAE). - was unlike anything heard before in the cathedral. The Kyrie is based on a wolf howl, the Sanctus on a theme from the hump-backed whale. The Agnus Dei comes from the voices of harp seal harp seal, crested earless, or true, seal, Phoca groenlandica, found in the N Atlantic around Greenland and the White Sea. In the spring, harp seals migrate southward to assemble in large groups to breed near the Newfoundland and Norwegian coasts. pups, and the whole thing is set to Brazilian and African rhythms. Missa Gaia, as the new Mass was called, premiered on Mother's Day in 1981. Soon, though, the cathedral started using it to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis on the first Sunday in October, along with a blessing of the animals. On that day, a procession through the cathedral is led by an elephant, a camel and a llama llama (lä`mə), South American domesticated ruminant mammal, Lama glama, of the camel family. Genetic studies indicate that it is descended from the guanaco. . "It has become the most popular event of the year at the cathedral," Winter said. "We did our 25th annual St. Francis day
Winter has performed several times in and near Eugene. The most memorable occasion, he said, was about 20 years ago when he was invited by an environmental group - he didn't recall which one - to play in a clear-cut in the Cascades. "It was way up a logging road," he recalls. "That was unique. That was a magnificent event, a daytime event with a number of different musicians." Winter, now 66, began playing music as a child in Pennsylvania. While a student at Northwestern University in Chicago, he formed a jazz sextet and won the 1961 Intercollegiate Jazz Festival, leading to a deal with Columbia Records. After a Latin American tour arranged by the U.S. State Department, Winter lived part time in Brazil Brazil has four time zones. It also observes summer time; however, not only do the starting and ending dates often change from year to year, it is also not followed by all states (which ones observe summer time can change from year to year). in the mid-1960s, where he was strongly influenced by the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos. He launched the Paul Winter Consort in 1967. "I borrowed the name 'consort' from the ensembles of Shakespeare's time, the housebands of the Elizabethan theater, which adventurously blended woodwinds, strings and percussion," he has said. The Paul Winter Consort has played in concert halls around the world and in venues as varied as the White House and the Grand Canyon. Winter has been honored with everything from several Emmys to the Joseph Wood Krutch Joseph Wood Krutch (pronounced krootch) (November 25, 1893 – May 22, 1970) was an American writer, critic, and naturalist. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he initially studied at the University of Tennessee and received a masters degree and Ph.D. Medal for service to animals from the United States Humane Society. It was in the late 1960s that his music began to be strongly influenced by the sounds of nature, from the songs of the humpback whale humpback whale Long-finned baleen whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). They live along all major ocean coasts, sometimes swimming close inshore or even into harbours and up rivers. Humpbacks grow to 40–52 ft (12–16 m) long. to the howling of wolves. He interweaves these recorded sounds with the musical instruments of the consort to arrive at a genre he calls "Earth music." Despite the popularity of his Missa Gaia, or Earth Mass, Winter is not conventionally religious. His religion, in a sense, is music. "The thing about music is, music is ultimately very Buddhist. It embraces and accepts everyone, all creatures. I am interested in the universals that all people share, and that may be the common root of all religious traditions.'' Winter is now at work on a musical piece he calls "Flyways," celebrating bird migrations from Eurasia through the Middle East to Africa. The project will combine music from more than 20 countries. CONCERT PREVIEW Paul Winter Consort, Eugene Concert Choir Where: Hult Center, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street When: 8 p.m. Saturday Tickets: $15 to $28, through the Hult box office, 682-5000 CAPTION(S): Paul Winter and his group will perform with the Eugene Concert Choir on Saturday at the Hult Center. |
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