“Let Us March On!” @ Turtle Creek Chorale
—Wayne Lee Gay
Saturday night at Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas's Turtle Creek Chorale and conductor Sean Baugh presented a timely and significant world premiere in the form of composer Marques L.A. Garrett's Dreamland: Tulsa 1921, a 40-minute multi-media oratorio (words by Sandra Seaton) featuring soloists, male chorus, orchestra, and visual projections. The work served as the centerpiece of a program titled "Let Us March On," which was repeated Sunday afternoon in Dallas and which will be performed by the Chorale at Carnegie Hall in New York on Saturday (in what is expected to be a sold-out performance) and in Tulsa on August 6.
The program represents something of a new direction for the Turtle Creek Chorale, a 200-voice all-male ensemble founded in 1980 at a moment in which the mere existence of a gay men's chorus in Dallas was a profound political and cultural statement. The group maintained a guiding presence during the height of the AIDS crisis while witnessing, in the ensuing decades, the rise of the gay community as a prominent political and cultural force in Dallas. Concerts by the Chorale tend toward entertainment, with heavy doses of sentiment and humor; through the years, there have also been frequent and significant forays into serious artistic expression and social advocacy.
With the "Let Us March On" concert and Dreamland: Tulsa 1921, the largely white ensemble takes on a new issue: racial violence in America, both historical and contemporary. Dreamland: Tulsa 1921 narrates and reflects on the events surrounding the attempted lynching of one man which, when opposed by prosperous Black residents in Tulsa, turned into a massacre and destructive invasion of Tulsa's prosperous Greenwood community, an event remembered by the community, but covered up in many histories and incorrectly designated as the "Tulsa Race Riot."
Librettist Seaton thoughtfully introduces elements of traditional Oklahoma culture into the text—including the state flower, the state motto "Work Conquers All," and the state bird—accompanying a narration of a hopeful young businesswoman and an ambitious real estate family, whose expanding holdings included the Dreamland Theater, a vaudeville and movie house.
Garrett's generally tonal score begins almost breezily, with timely contemporaneous quotes from Eubie Blake, Scott Joplin, and Edward Elgar; scattered dissonances emerge before the violent climax and bleak denouement, with a final major chord offering a sense of neither triumph nor despair, but of resilience. Projected images from the hopeful moment that turned horrible provide additional meaningful content, with texts also projected for useful and welcome clarity.
Soloists Arielle Collier, Quintin Christopher Coleman, Malcolm Payne, Jr., Denise Lee, and Samantha Snow deliver their combination of spoken and sung texts superbly and dramatically, while the massive Turtle Creek Chorale provides an appropriate wave of choral sound. Conductor Baugh guides the complex work ably, along with a small orchestra onstage.
The presentation of Dreamland: Tulsa 1921 is immediately succeeded by another brand-new work, "Where are the Bodies," by Reginal Wright with text by Charles Anthony Silvestri. This work serves as an appropriate epilogue to the oratorio, as it explores the disappearance of the victims of the massacre into mass graves in Tulsa. Entirely reflective, the work begins with a striking juxtaposition of phrases from both the United States national anthem and "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the hymn designated as the "Negro National Anthem" by the NAACP in 1919. In light of the aerial attack on Black citizens during the massacre, the words "bombs bursting in air" take on a frightening and horrific quality here. Alex Carr ably and dramatically serves as soloist.
The rest of the program, both before and after the two world premieres, is given over to a variety of shorter works, all connecting in different ways to African-American culture and racial oppression. The concert opens with a grand choral-orchestral rendition of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," an anthem whose multiple implications expand dramatically when delivered by a chorus of mostly-white gay men.
The first of several new works follows: B.E. Boykin's "Stardust," with text by Brittney Ray Crowell, is both a tribute (with visual projections) and lament for victims of racial violence from recent years in America, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the Mother Emanuel shooting victims.
Guest ensemble Unity Choir of Dallas, a primarily African-American mixed chorus founded in response to violence in Dallas, delivers gospel artist Richard Smallwood's "Healing" with an impressive combination of gospel-style ebullience and fine choral polish.
More short works follow after intermission, ranging from traditional spirituals to choral arrangements of Beyonce and Marvin Gaye. One particularly striking moment arrives with a glorious arrangement by John Mykoff for piano, soloist, and male chorus of the spiritual "Gone Home" (aka "Soon I Will Be Done with the Troubles of the World"). Another unforgettable moment is Steve Milloy's choral arrangement of (gay) 1960s civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin's politically assertive rethinking of the spiritual "There's No Hiding Place Down There" as "You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow." Kansas-born, Dallas-based author Jonathan McClellan reads his lyric memoir essay "Those Most in Need" to bring a personal viewpoint and to raise the issue of empathy and forgiveness—understanding of perpetrators as well as victims.
The Turtle Creek Chorale has a long tradition of auxiliary ensembles drawn from membership; this concert features the Turtle Creek Dancers, a skillful age- and physique-diverse ensemble. The concert also presents an entirely new auxiliary choral group, Coloratura, an impressive 17-voice chamber choir made up entirely of men of color.
There's always an uplifting grand finale at any Turtle Creek Chorale concert, which, in this case, takes the form of Terry Dobson's grand choral-orchestral arrangement of for "Let Them Hear You" from the Flaherty and Ahrens musical Ragtime. African-Americans have much reason for sorrow and anger, and gay people have ample reason to empathize from their own experiences, but, as always, the Turtle Creek Chorale turns that experience into hope, and, in the end, joy and pride in who we are.
WHEN & WHERE: Upcoming performances of "Still We March On" by the Turtle Creek Chorale will take place at Carnegie Hall in New York on July 9 and at Trinity Episcopal Church in Tulsa on August 6.
