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MUSIC FESTIVAL by Ange Frymire
The phone line hisses with long-distance interference while I wait for a voice
to answer. The call is to one of Canada's outstanding musical geniuses: award-winning
artist, songwriter, author, playwright and woman-of-the-world, Ann Mortifee.
She picks up after three rings. Her manner is direct, soft, intellectual and passionate.
Poised at the computer, I strain to catch her words as she talks earnestly about
her path. "What is sacred music?" she echoes, repeating my question.
The singer inhales deeply and relates her definition.
"Sacred music
has been a way of my stopping the world and entering into a place of deep protection."
My world has also just stopped, as I inhale her juxtaposition of sanctity and
feeling. Her voice rings with inherent wisdom. Her reflections blaze with fiery
truth.
"Music is a vehicle through which we'e always been able to
contact the numinous," Mortifee continues. "It has always been my way
of opening to the life force; to allow it to feel me, speak to me, transform me,
generate me."
Mortifee knows sacred music; and the world knows Mortifee, thanks to her work
in healing and performing arts, which won her the prestigious Order of Canada
in 1992. After eight albums, writing three musicals and composing multiple scores
for ballet and film, she continues to ignite her passion through music, the arts
and through personal connection by speaking at conferences and workshops on healing,
sexual abuse, death and dying, environmental and women's issues.
Sacred music is often thought of in a religious context, but it is much more intimate
than secular ownership might suggest. It is the apex of music mastering the divine.
It is the cornerstone of spiritual beliefs, whether influenced by dogma, organized
religions or New-Age practices.
This resurgence heralds multiple sacred music festivals springing up throughout
North America, including the World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles and
the second annual Seattle Sacred Music Festival.
Both US events will be held during the same week as the fifth Sacred World Music
Festival, which runs in Vancouver Nov. 8-11. It opens Nov. 8 with an all-star
revue of gospel icons, including Candus Churchill, Sybel Thrasher, Lovena Fox
and Lovie Eli. Nov. 9 features the Youth Festival of Sacred Music and Art, which
includes the Vancouver Ismaili Muslim Youth Choir and youth-headliner, Jabulani.
The two final days are splashed with a myriad of performers mixing cultures and
musical hybrids from around the globe.
 The
Vancouver festival was born in 1999 because of a burning vision of Nancy Fischer
and Steven Zaban, who recruited renowned musician Joseph "Pepe" Danza,
to champion the first festival. "We were inspired to create a sacred music
festival," Fischer, executive director of the Vancouver-based Westcoast Sacred
Arts Society, recalls. "It was fuelled by a global movement to celebrate
unity in diversity, through music deeply rooted in the spiritual traditions of
all world cultures." Fischer, a musician herself, has put her blood, sweat
and cheers into the program during the past five years.
The 2003 performing artists are a kaleidoscope of the sacred music philosophy:
Thionne Diop (pictured right) and Yeke Yeke will be playing sacred rhythms from
Senegal, where Diop was born. His life path to preserve his community's history,
values and cultural identity has been manifested in his drumming. When Diop drums,
he notes a powerful magic springing forth that is "a potent reminder of the
sacred roots in African drumming traditions."
Peru's Rene Hugo Sanchez is another purveyor of the sacred sounds. He, too, has
dedicated his life to the research and preservation of traditional Andean music,
indicative of the sounds of his homeland, a valley in the high Andean Mountains
of Peru. Hugo's music embellishes the Incan landscape and the subsequent transformation
of the Incas after incorporating Spanish Christian beliefs into their own faith.
This year, the festival is the spawning ground for a new emergence: the debut
of the Youth Festival of Sacred Music and Art, on Nov. 9. Why youth? Fischer has
seen that spirituality is not just adult-based. It has jumped into the younger
generation, who now embrace sacred music as another form of self-expression. Just
ask Valerie Dare from Britannia Secondary in Vancouver. She has been involved
with teens since 1988 as a teacher / librarian at Britannia, where she coordinates
its successful world music program. She doubles as managing director of Jabulani,
a 14-member youth ensemble whose musicians range in age from 12 to 16, and whose
Zimbabwean marimba music is spiced with Brazilian, Cuban and West African influences.
Dare sees it as profound and adds that learning marimba music is very much an
internal passage for the teens. She points to Jabulani's artistic director, Pasipamire
Gunguwo, who hails from Zimbabwe. "It's a great gift that Pasi has given
to the children," she notes. "In many cultures, including our Canadian
one, ownership of the music remains with the composer. But some cultures, such
as the Cree First Nat- ions, share their music."
Dare is jubilant with the artistic director's philosophy. "Pasi passes his
culture onto the kids and gives them the responsibility to present the music as
they feel it, rather than as he taught it," she adds. "That's a great
gift because the music now lives within them." And it works. Jabulani is
rapidly becoming one of North America's leading world mu- sic youth ensembles.
Its rich history includes learning music from the oral tradition and understanding
how each part and each player contributes to the creation of a rhyth- mic and
harmonic whole.
The Cree tradition is also a voice at the festival through Aboriginal performing
artist Sandy Scofield, who sings originals she penned in the traditional tongues
of the Cree and Algonquin peoples. Nominated for a 2002 Juno award, Scofield won
the 2003 Western Canadian Music Award for best Aboriginal music for her CD, Ketwam.
She is also a five-time nominee for the 2003 National Aboriginal Music Awards.
This gifted singer's lyrics (whose musical career skyrocketed with The Crimpolines
and the Zydeco-influenced Hot Tamale Twisters) reflect her First Nations heritage
through social and political viewpoints. Scofield's performance is a spiritually
charged dynamic stage presence that is personal, intimate and prolific.
Interestingly enough, both Scofield and Mortifee are not new to the sacred haunts
of the festival. They were headliners in year one and return full circle in its
fifth year. Mortifee will unveil songs from her new CD, to be released in 2004,
about her birthplace in Zululand, South Africa and of how she was led to a traditional
healing village and her encounter with the head Sangoma of the Zulu nation. Scofield
will perform award-winning numbers from her new album, Ketwam.
And so, the verdict is in: sacred music is a link between cultures and personal
identity. As Hussein Janmohamed, conductor and artistic director of the Vancouver
Ismaili Muslim Youth Choir, intimates, "It's a new form of expression that
empowers and brings a sense of belonging, trust and community."
It is not a musical scarcity anymore. Sacred music is a growing genre that acknowledges
change, self-development, evolution and spirituality. It bridges communities and
cultures with camaraderie, marrying divine beliefs with commonalities and differences.
Above all, sacred music has the power and persuasion to anoint the acceptance
of individual choices with thought-provoking voices.
Ange Frymire
is a freelance writer, speaker, communications specialist and lecturer who lives
in Vancouver. She can be reached at afrymire@vocal-point.org
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