The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace

In all the performances I have attended by the Knoxville Choral Society, I have never been disappointed by their choral prowess. This excellent group full of marvelous and dedicated ensemble singers under the direction of Eric Thorson, have what every choral group aspires to—balanced sections with rich sonorities across the range of voices, that intangible quality of ensemble togetherness, and a precise control of diction combined with both vocal power and vocal subtlety.

Their performance of Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace was no exception. The Jenkins instrumental score—minimalist at times, almost classical at others—was engaging and intriguing in its variety of instrumental tone combinations. The choral performance was crisp and powerful; the soloists excellent—Barbara Metzger’s beautiful treble solo in the Kyrie, Shauntina Phillips, and the quartet of Jennifer Bruce, Nancy Middlemas, Keith Wheeler, and David Smith.

Despite the excellent performances and the emotional importance of the piece’s premise, it distresses me to report that the evening was anything but emotional. In fact, the word "clinical" comes to mind. How can a performance be so competent, on a piece so intriguing, and yet end up so unfulfilling?

Had this been just me, I might have written off my unfortunate vision as Scrooge tried to do to “a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato.” But audience members, young and old, to my left and right were nodding off. A lady in front of me was quite asleep, head drooped, only to be painfully jerked awake by a percussion crash.

What was lacking for the audience in the evening’s performance was not choral excellence, but drama… and, dare I say it, theatricality. Success of The Armed Man not only needs dramatic ambiance, it cries out for it. Although I am sure there were substantial reasons that the Lecture Hall was chosen for the event, it was quite unsuitable for this production. Because of the seating area’s shallow rake, stage visibility was impaired. While the acoustics of the room were adequate, it lacked rich resonance to support a great choral ensemble. Most importantly, the hall’s design, obviously unintended for such performances, lacked the necessary controlled lighting to provide highlights and focus for the audience's eyes. The entire room found itself in a slightly-dimmed, enervating muddle of even illumination that made it virtually impossible to build (or for the audience to feel) dramatic tension and apprehension.

The use of projected war-related imagery, which has been an important feature of other productions of the work, seemed almost an amateur afterthought. The room’s projection screen at the rear of the stage was partially obscured by the riser-ed chorus, diminishing the hoped-for impact of the visuals.

While it was disappointing that the full emotional potential of the Jenkins work was not realized due to factors of venue and production, the KCS event was still a magical choral performance of a statement that needs to be made—and often.