A Most Canadian Chorus
Geoff Chapman, The Toronto Star — Sunday, December 13, 1998
The Nathaniel Dett Chorale is reviving the music of the Niagara-born man who was one of this century's leading black composers
Choral conductor Brainerd Blyden-Taylor is a musician with a mission - to make composer Nathaniel Dett a household name in Canada.
Dett, born and raised in Canada, is regarded by those in the know as one of this century's leading black composers. Although much honoured in the U.S., where he performed for two presidents, won many degrees and awards and taught at prestigious institutions, he has had little recognition in his homeland.
R. Nathaniel Dett was born in Drummondville in 1882, a settlement that later became part of Niagara Falls and eventually became a leading light in the promotion of black music.
Blyden-Taylor, now in his 12th season as director of Toronto's Orpheus Choir, is turning his own light on this largely forgotten history. Earlier this year, he formed the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, the country's first professional choral group dedicated to Afrocentric music of all genres including gospel, classical, jazz, folk, blues and spiritual.
"It began as a one-man project, prompted by one man. It has been a personal and an intellectual project, an idea I've had rolling around in my head for years that began to take shape seriously about three years ago. My vision is now shared by many others," he said in an interview.
"Our mandate is to draw attention to Dett, to lead the revival of his choral music, much of which is out of print, and, following his lead, to perform the wide breadth of Afrocentric music."
The Chorale's 20 classically trained musicians, all of whom live in Toronto, performed for South African President Nelson Mandela at SkyDome in September, commemorated the 55th anniversary of Dett's death with a concert at Niagara Falls Collegiate Institute, from which he graduated in 1901, and performed in Glenn Gould Studio in October, a concert to be broadcast on CBC next month.
On Wednesday at the U of T's Convocation Hall, they're the heart of a concert dubbed An Indigo Christmas, which will include jazz carols, spirituals, African folk songs and excerpts from Handel's Messiah. Stellar guests on hand include vocalists Molly Johnson and Jackie Richardson and pianist Joe Sealy.
In Canada, black singers usually evoke a connection to church and gospel, not to choirs performing the full range of Afrocentric choral music.
"There are visible black choral groups but they're essentially into the gospel repertoire, like the Faith Chorale, the Toronto Mass Choir and the Nova Scotia Mass Choir I founded in 1992," says Blyden-Taylor.
"But I wanted to raise consciousness about black music in Canadian culture, and Dett is really a major figure of significance to early 20th-century musicians, black Canadians and Canadians in general. He's been claimed by the Americans because he had his post-secondary education there, but his mother was born in Canada and he kept his ties with this country, particularly with the Bach-Elgar Choir in Hamilton."
Dett was a church organist in Niagara Falls for five years from 1898, a period when he composed lasting pieces like "The Cake Walk" and "After The Cake Walk." Later pieces among his vast body of work encompass oratorios based on "Swing Low" and "Go Down Moses," piano suites, songs, anthems, motets, spirituals and folk songs often performed today, including the eight-part "Listen To The Lambs," piano solo "Juba Dance" and the oratorio Ordering Of Moses.
Although the family moved across the Niagara River to the U.S. in 1893, Dett and his brothers continued schooling in Niagara Falls, where the collegiate named a memorial chapel for him.
Dett studied music at the University of Rochester and Oberlin College, Ohio. His longest stint in musical education was as director of music at Virginia's Hampton Institute, 1913-31, where he built its choral ensemble into an organization of repute.
Blyden-Taylor, conductor, clinician, adjudicator and music consultant, came to Canada from his native Trinidad in 1973 to become music director at Oakwood Wesleyan Church. He left there to study European and classical music but later took up similar posts at Humbercrest United Church, for eight years, and St. Paul's Anglican Church, for three.
"The seed of all this was planted when I was in Trinidad and Barbados. I heard a touring Howard University choir and became interested in choral music. By the time I was 16, I was leading my church choir."
A tenor, he joined the Orpheus Choir as assistant conductor in 1978, becoming its musical director nine years later. But the Dett Chorale is his particular passion.
"It's important for humanity to honour its heroes and share its culture. The chorale is seeking not only to honour Dett but to draw Canada's attention to the accomplishments of one of its native sons. "
