Contemporary Carol: Christopher Rouse

COMPOSER CHRISTOPHER ROUSE normally writes intense, intricate works like his Pulitzer Prize-winning Trombone Concerto and his Grammy-winning Concert de Gaudi, where long-breathed melodies emerge as profound lyrical oases in tangled textures.

But the Baltimore-born Rouse was once a kid who loved records of Christmas carols by artists such as Robert Shaw.

"I just wore the grooves out on them, for those who remember grooves," he recalls.

And the memories lingered as Rouse grew older, with visions of Christmas melodies dancing in his head even as he set himself to more serious labors.

So in 1989, when Rouse was serving as composer-in-residence for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the orchestra's music director, David Zinman, asked him for a piece for the orchestra and the BSO Chorus, he seized the opportunity to write "Karolju," an exuberant half-hour tribute to the holiday music of his youth.

Now, 16 years after the work's premiere, Zinman has recorded Rouse's work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Chorus. The album features two other works — Witold Lutoslawski's "Polish Christmas Carols" and Joaquin Rodrigo's "Retablo de Navidad" — that also show their respective composers shedding some of the trappings of tumultuous modernism for a simple, direct, affecting approach to Christmas music.

Though he began writing "Karolju" in earnest after it was commissioned, "probably, by that point, three-quarters of it was in my head already," says Rouse, including the lushly lyrical "Italian" hymn that closes the work. "I had been collecting material for many years. There's a little march in there, in number 8, in the Trio — a solo trumpet thing — that dates from my childhood composing days."

The work was inspired more by Christmas music than by the religious origin of the holiday, so it's understandable that Rouse composed the texts using words from various languages that relate to Christmas and that fit his musical conception; the texts don't translate into anything intelligible for too long at a time.

Instead, Rouse concentrated on the sound.

"Karolju" has some Rouse signatures — the rhythmic dynamism and the step-climbing way in which the melody of the "Italian" hymn builds up, to name two — but it also sounds a lot like one of those old carol sets, with bright brass fanfares leading to jubilant choral exclamations, spelled by slow, pastoral chorales, all with quick transitions to keep the listener's attention.

None of the harmonies would be out of place on those old Robert Shaw records — and this did not go without notice in the contemporary-music community.

Some folks, Rouse says, "have seen some kind of nefarious underpinning to the piece, either that I was selling out and pandering and just cheapening my art, or I was giving the Bronx cheer to minor ninths and so forth, which — Lord knows, I use them all the time! It's just a piece that I wanted to write."

Still, he admits, "this piece, which [is] so direct and so simple harmonically, might seem overly simplistic to some people. But what the heck."

In "Karolju," Rouse does nod to one 20th-century giant who he feels hasn't gotten the appreciation he deserves: Carl Orff. "The first time I heard Carmina Burana was one of the half-dozen musically defining moments of my life," says Orff. "This is mostly a Christmas piece but also partly a little tip of the cap to him."

A brass fanfare lifted from Carmina Burana's "O Fortuna" provides the most obvious reference, but Rouse also spells out Orff's name in musical notation in the fanfare that opens the work.

Such references aside, "Karolju" is really "just meant to be enjoyed," says Rouse. He dedicated the work to his daughter Alexandra, who was young and due to celebrate her birthday around Christmas when "Karolju" was composed, and the new Zinman recording may find a place in today's homes similar to that of the Christmas albums Rouse enjoyed as a child — a musical reflection of the spirit of the season, for young and old alike.

» Listen to parts of "Karolju" here.

Written by Express contributor Andrew Lindemann Malone
Photos by Jeffrey Herman