Kantorei’s new recording of Jake Runestad’s music fits with what we’re experiencing lately: the pandemic, the virus, social and racial justice, diversity. Naxos Records released “Sing, Wearing the Sky” from the Denver Choir on Thursday.

What’s just miraculous is that the performances were recorded before anyone heard about COVID-19 or George Floyd. The same goes for the composition of those pieces. It is another demonstration of how music speaks of our situations and, as we have said many times since March, the essential thing that music is for the soul.

David Ginder talks to composer Jake Runestad and Kantorei director Joel Rinsema about his new recording, “Sing, Wearing the Sky”

Kantorei’s commitment to new choral music is evident. Last season, emerging Norwegian star composer Ola Gjeilo accompanied Kantorei to the world premiere of a new painting he composed for the chorus, “The Road”. Another emerging Norwegian composer, Kim André Arnesen, Kantorei’s resident composer some seasons ago. “Infinity”, his 2018 recording of Arnesen’s music, is the result. This Sunday morning, “Sing!” presents Kantorei’s latest recording by American composer Jake Runestad, “Sing, Wearing the Sky”.

The name uses words from Lalla, the mystique of Kashmir. The text encourages us to think and exist in a general picture: “The soul, like the moon, is new and new”. Dance, Lalla, with nothing yet air. Sing, Lalla, wearing the sky.

For some other piece, Runestad was encouraged through the words of encouragement that the wonderful late 20th-century poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in a letter to his partner Franz Kappus, telling him not to worry about locating all the answers. Rather, “live the querys”. This is a tip for us today, and Runestad’s environment reminds us that the way we perceive things is smart to explore. Just when you think the music reaches a resolution, it moves to some other query and some other resolution. And some other one.

There is a “Hallelujah” that shows that joy can take many forms: a cry, a dance, a lovely smile. Walt Whitman’s words speak of the sea and, in some other piece, the variety of sounds that surround us: rivers, treetop hums, lullabies and hymns.

Singing is anything we humans do, and let’s be fair, we take it for granted. But composer Jake Runestad and Kantorei’s artistic director, Joel Risema, remind us that it’s a pleasure to cleanse and bring other people in combination like no other.

Sings! broadcast each and every Sunday morning from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. with David Ginder at CPR Classical.

You can pay attention to CPR Classical by clicking “Listen Live” on this website. You can also pay attention to CPR Classical on 88.1 FM in Denver, to Colorado radio signals, or ask your wise speaker to “Play CPR Classical”.

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