A series of concerts taking place at Canada’s National Gallery in Ottawa, ‘Music in the Galleries’, aims to “enliven the visitor experience,” according to Barbara Dytnerska, one of the coordinators with the Gallery’s Education and Public Programs. On Sunday, April 17th the program featured a musical group from Montréal, The Hidden Words.
The series has been promoting classical music, but this particular Sunday was different. An audience of approximately 80 people gathered in and around the A-109, permanent home to a collection of paintings by Canada’s beloved Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris, to watch and listen to a unique four-piece band sing songs from the Baha’i Writings.
All were captivated by the diversity and meditative quality of the group’s music. One young child, emboldened by the rhythms, danced for most of the hour-long concert.
The Hidden Words play songs of a wide stylistic variety, from Middle Eastern, Latin American and early music, to reggae, American blues, folk and gospel idioms as well as African, Acadian and Jewish music, all with eye-catching drum-work – eye-catching because the drummer happens to play a vintage suitcase as his primary instrument, along with a cowbell, a tambourine and the occasional piece of metal. He plays these “drums” with jazz brushes, which look like bundles of flexible, thin sticks, evoking the movement of the painter’s brush while drawing out subtle, distinct sounds.
The band began in the spring of 2010 when its lead singer and guitarist Alden Penner was looking for ways in which to memorize passages from the Ruhi Institute courses. After pairing up with an old friend, drummer Jamie Thompson, Penner sought out other musicians in the community to form a band that then performed in Verdun, Montréal, Brossard, Pierrefonds, Québec City, Chelsea and Ottawa. The often solitary task of memorization became a humble exercise in public memory.
Here is a link to a blog posting on the band, with videos and recordings:
http://samuelbenoit.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/hw/
- Hymnody is defined as the singing of hymns or the composing or writing of hymns.