ANIMA Early Music Concert Program

Jan. 30, 2024

• Luke Hathaway, voice & percussion
• Paul Genyk-Berezowsky, voice & lute
• Daniel Cabena, voice & vièle

Concert Program

Aubade by James Rolfe (b. 1961), text by Luke Hathaway (b. 1978)

Como poden per sas culpas from Cantiga 166 by Alfonso X, el Sabio, of Castille (1221-1284), text by Luke Hathaway (b. 1978)

Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui by Daniel Cabena (b. 1981)

Rosa das rosas from Cantiga 10 by Alfonso X, arranged by Daniel Cabena (b. 1981)

Acorer nos pode from Cantiga 86 by Alfonso X, arranged by Daniel Cabena (b. 1981), text by Luke Hathaway (b. 1978)

Along this path by Daniel Cabena (b. 1981)

Espérance qui m’asseüre by Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)

Sanz cuer dolens by Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)

À vous douce débonnaire by Jehannot de l’Escurel (d.1304)

I, myself, am an encircling by Daniel Cabena (b. 1981)

Des hoge mais from Cantiga 1 by Alfonso X, text by Luke Hathaway (b. 1978)

Star of the sea from Cantiga 10 by Alfonso X, text by Luke Hathaway (b. 1978)

Ave, maris stella, traditional (Frankish-Roman) chant

Quant je suis mis au retour by Guillaume de Machaut

A unity, as Oscar says by Daniel Cabena (b. 1981) & Luke Hathaway (b. 1978)

ANIMA Early Music Biography

ANIMA, a metamorphosing ensemble, is a gathering-place in art, a place of queer friendship and sustaining story, a place where old texts and melodies are animated by spirit and voice. Working together, we create and commission new works of text and music that are in conversation with early sources and soundworlds. We put these works up on their feet in novel performance contexts. We collaborate with other artists whose worlds of sound and spirit enrich our own. You can learn more about our work here: www.animaearlymusic.com

Daniel Cabena sings, writes, and teaches. He is also a curator of texts and music; and with Luke Hathaway he shares the artistic direction of ANIMA. Together they program concerts, commission new works of text and music, and create new works for the ear and for the stage. Daniel teaches singing, historically inspired performance, and the Alexander Technique at the Laurier Academy of Music and Arts. He also makes music with his hands, playing modern and Baroque violin and viola as well as vièle and recorders. https://www.danielcabena.com/

Through activities as both a performer and teacher, Paul Genyk-Berezowsky is passionate about sharing stories and raising voices. An ardent collaborative musician, Paul performs regularly with ensembles such as the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers, Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, and The Elora Singers. As a Collaborating Artist with ANIMA, Paul is often seen playing a plucked string instrument of one kind or another in addition to singing. As a conductor, Paul has performed with choirs across Canada. Paul recently served as the Assistant Chorusmaster for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Messiah under the direction of Dame Jane Glover. A firm believer in music’s ability to promote wellbeing, Paul excels at leading therapeutic choir programming including – over the past decade – for healthcare workers and for individuals with intellectual differences. Paul is Artistic Director of Cantio Sana, an organization specializing in therapeutic choral and vocal offerings. In addition to musical activities, Paul is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, teaching other musicians and people of all walks of life how to find greater ease and coordination in their movement and the activities of their lives. www.paulgenykberezowsky.com

Luke Hathaway is a trans and queer poet/librettist/performer. He collaborates with artists and ensembles near and far in the work of collective storytelling, as well as to bring his own mythopoeic word-worlds to page, screen, and stage. Notable projects include Ghost Story with Thirtyminutes (2023), The Sign of Jonas with Arkora (2023), Eurydice Fragments with re:naissance opera (2023 and ongoing), and the ANIMA productions The Temple (2018), Navré de ton dart (2022), and Membra Jesu nostri (2023). With Daniel Cabena he shares the artistic direction of ANIMA, programming concerts, commissioning new works of text and music, and creating new works for the ear and for the stage. Luke is the author of The Affirmations: poems, recognized in The Times, London, as a best book of 2022. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s University in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. https://www.smu.ca/english/luke-hathaway.html

Program Notes

This program of music is inspired by the Songs of Holy Mary of Alfonso X, The Wise — a great corpus of 13th century songs celebrating the sacred feminine. These songs — these cantigas, for they were written in Galician Portuguese — are full of things we seek, in our performance, to disrupt: the evils of that time and place, which are also too often the evils of our own — societal sexism and racism, an investment in military conquest…. At the same time, the cantigas are full of things that we seek, in our performance, to reclaim. They are full of homely miracles and liberatory moments: a man is restored to health because of his promise to make a gift of wax; a woman gives birth to a baby under the sea…. These songs are animated by an attention to the intimate particulars of daily living; they celebrate a living vernacular as meet language for sacred praise; and they hold space, amid a patriarchal culture, for the sacred feminine as a locus of disruptive rejuvenation. Welcome, then, to our program of disruption and reclamation.

In this program, you will hear four cantigas of Alfonso (one reiterated), with words old and new. We’ve paired the religious cantigas with secular songs of courtly love by Machaut and Lescurel — to show how the sacred repertoire shares an idiom with the secular tradition, and also to provide an ars nova counterpoint to the cantigas’ folk-rhythms. We offer a further counterpoint, in sound and sense, by means of a new song, ‘Aubade’, by Toronto-based composer James Rolfe, with words by me: a new song commissioned by ANIMA specifically for this program, and premiered here. The closing carol, with words by me and music by Daniel Cabena, is a meditation on the many-gendered splendor of our offering. Santa Maria, old and new, may the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, now and always.

— L. Hathaway, 2024

I feel myself drawn to Mary, Jesus’ mother, as a character in that big story - as a presence, too, in that tale and in its liturgical tellings & retellings. I’m drawn to what the lantern quietly illuminates whilst the spotlight glares on the Prophets (or at us, through them!). There are quieter presences, like our Mary, who sustain the immediate community of the story and its generations upon generations of tellers & listeners. Oh yes, and it’s all - I feel in my heart’s ear - a matter of listening. There’s speech that sounds like listening, that holds within itself room for the other. There’s action, too, that’s spacious, unimposing, powerful in its indirectness. Our tale is full of encircling presences, persons of steadfastness who make space, who tend, mend, keep watch, who create in & through the dimension of family and community. Such a person I would be.

— D. Cabena, 2023