AKATHIST | MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL - REVIEW

Akathist

by: Göran Forsling | August, 2024

Born in Franconia, New Hampshire in 1980, Benedict Sheehan was raised in the Orthodox Church by American parents who were converts to Orthodoxy, and he works out of the sacred choral tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. He has recently been praised for his Vespers, inspired by Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil. His most recent work, recorded as recently as 11 November 2023, is a comprehensive composition, in three parts and 25 movements for choirs, orchestra and vocal soloists. A mass or rather a hymn, and the origin is frightening and should never be forgotten. In 1937 Stalin started a state-sponsored campaign, called the “Great Purge”, that during an 18-month-long period killed more than a million “dissidents” – cultural or religious – and millions of others followed over the next few years. One of the victims was a priest, who was murdered in one of Stalin’s labour camps. On his body was found a hymn, a 27-stanza ode of gratitude. It is now known by Eastern Orthodox Christians as the Akathist “Glory to God for All Things” and is a deeply emotional thanksgiving for all that God has created. Benedict Sheehan has deliberately avoided direct references to the Eastern Orthodox tradition, but drawn inspiration from a wide variety of styles and sound worlds He says in the liner notes, “… I see this text as a sort of universal anthem, a cry of hope arising perennially from every human heart, even from nature herself, and therefore not limited to a specific expression of faith. I have therefore enlisted a range of compositional techniques and styles in order to suggest that, in some way, all music is sacred and every musical style has something to tell us about God and about one another. Running through the piece from beginning to end is also a ninth-century Gregorian chant melody from the Missa de Angelis that serves as both a refrain and a thematic matrix for each movement in the work.”

Structurally, Sheehan’s music is loosely chiastic, an ancient poetic device, which can be found in the psalms and many books in the Bible. He describes it as a kind of palindrome, “… where the first line of a section is mirrored by the last, the second by the second to last, and so on toward a center point”. When I listened through the work I wasn’t aware of the technique. I don’t think it is necessary to know it to enjoy the music, just as the intricate structure of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck is a theoretic principle, which can be disregarded by the general listener. 

It is the chorus that plays the principal part in various combinations: full mixed choir, women’s choir, male choir and treble choir, once or twice also semi-choir together with soloist. There is also an array of soloists, drawn from the chorus, which indicates that the work can be performed by amateurs. The orchestra is moderately sized with twenty strings, single woodwinds, horn and trumpet plus percussion and piano, which lends a chamber music feeling to the music making. The music is mostly soft and devotional, tonal but spiced with harmonies that firmly place it in the present.

The opening chorus is mighty and hymnlike, and it is followed by an innocent I was born to this world, with a beautiful soprano solo and bells (on piano), slow and soft. The second half is more agile and develops into a dialogue between voice and piano. Warmth and sincerity is the prevailing mood most of the time, but occasionally this feeling is loosened up by moments of rhythmic liveliness, a couple dance steps here, a relaxed blues feeling there. The triumph of spring is jubilant and intense and ends in a soft love song. A living torrent is dramatic and Evening, a bass solo, is slow and dark. The opening chorus of Part 2, The dark storm clouds of life, is ominous and threatening – but there is also light and peace there. A personal favourite is In the wondrous blending of sounds with chorus and soprano solo. It is light, beautiful and heavenly.

The darkest moments come in Part 3, when death is imminent. Into dust is uncompromisingly dissonant and immediately followed by Night, a bass solo, Brian Mextorf, in the most sepulchral part of the human voice. One can hear how he struggles to make himself heard down there. Positive thoughts dominate, and the work concludes in Receive this thanksgiving, with chorus and soloists singing an ancient Slavic hymn, repeated over and over again, almost hypnotically, and ending in a unison Alleluja. It is magic, it lends confidence to believers irrespective of religion – I hope – which was Sheehan’s aim. I hope he is satisfied with the result. I also hope readers with faith in what is good in our world will find some comfort in this music – in particular today, when we observe what is happening all around us.