“A Midnight Clear” sees composer Cameron Wilson bring the house down

by V. S. Wells on December 13th, 2023 at 10:14 AM

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If you can only name a single classical violinist in Vancouver, it’s probably Cameron Wilson. As a prolific musician, composer, and arranger, he’s spent decades lending his bow to almost everyone in the city, from the symphony orchestra to Mariachi Del Sol; writing and performing jazz, chamber, Celtic, and cinematic songs that run the gamut from parody to profound.

One of his longest-standing musical relationships is with Chor Leoni, Vancouver’s 70-strong men’s choir, which dates back over 20 years.

“I feel like extended family, almost,” Wilson recalls in a Zoom call. “Diane Loomer, the original director, got me involved in arranging and in shows in the summertime at Bard on the Beach.”

Over the years, Wilson has moved from arranging songs for the choir and being part of their accompanying band into creating original compositions. The first—and last—such piece was “Cadillac Cathedral”, a bluegrass and folk-tinged number that premiered in 2014 and had its attempted 2020 revival thwarted by the pandemic.

“I’ve written a lot of instrumental music, not as much choral music, so that was a challenge,” Wilson explains. “An all-men’s choir, unlike a mixed choir, there’s limited range, because you don’t have the high soprano—it’s more mid-range and low.”

This year marks Wilson’s first new Chor Leoni composition in almost a decade, which is set to premiere at the choir’s iconic Christmas concerts this weekend at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United in downtown Vancouver. The lineup features a mix of old and new, from “Silent Night” and “Auld Lang Syne” all the way through to modern favourites, like a reprise of Don MacDonald’s “A Fantasy of Carols” that premiered at last year’s Chor Leoni Christmas bonanza.

Wilson’s offering, “A Midnight Clear”, is—as the name may clue you in—a reworking of beloved wintertime carol “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”. That song, in turn, is based on an 1849 poem by Edmund Sears that, depending on whether you’re more influenced by the US or the UK, has two different melodies associated with it.

While “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” has always been one of Wilson’s favourite carols, initially, he struggled with figuring out how to rework the existing piece into a cohesive new composition. But an assist from Erick Lichte, Chor Leoni’s artistic director who commissioned the piece, helped him find his way into the music.

“Erick rearranged all the text, and he labelled each of the sections,” Wilson recalls. “Once he did that, it was like having a roadmap and I was able to compose the music—it was like a lightbulb going on.”

The resulting piece creates a three-part narrative, each section with a different tone and attitude that highlights the possibilities of what a choir can do. The first part, “Mystery”, is almost minimalistic: sparse, questioning, and mystical, wondering what is yet to come.

That leads into the second part, “The Message”, where most of the text of the poem is set to an entirely new melody. The opening line, “It came upon a midnight clear, that glorious song of old” raises an important question: what is that song of old?

“I sat down and kind of cycled out with the rhythm of the words until I got a melody that I liked,” Wilson explains. “It had to stick—for me to be happy with it, I had to come back the next day and remember it. And then it became like an earworm, and I couldn’t get rid of it.”

The third and final part is the most out-of-the-box section. Wilson may be a classically trained violinist with decades of formal experience under his belt, but he also carries on a legacy of Ottawa Valley fiddling techniques from his father who learned it all by ear. “Hoedown of Hope” brings some of Wilson’s own jaunty, old-country fiddling to the score, balanced against the other instruments and the large choral presence, to upend expectations of what Christmas choral music can be.

“It’s kind of funky. It’s not a sea shanty, but it has elements of that,” Wilson explains. “There’s a fiddle breakdown section where the band goes nuts.”

While the Christmas concerts are traditionally a more reflective experience, “A Midnight Clear” aims to shake that up a bit. The triumphant ending, complete with bodhrán-style drumming and rousing harmonies, aims to illustrate the sheer power of hope.

“Erick said, ‘Cam, I want you to bring the house down at the end of the piece,’” Wilson laughs. “No pressure—just bring the house down.”

So if the church is mysteriously no longer standing come next week, we know who to blame.