Songs of Love and Longing

For choir, love was in the air

Tuesday, February 19, 2013 10:02:11 EST PM

Last Sunday afternoon, Brantford could choose between Jack Frost nipping out around Harmony Square or Cupid winging around St. Andrew's United Church.

With just about every seat taken, many chose Cupid, the belated Happy Valentine's Day concert by the Grand River Chorus directed by Richard Cunningham.

Subtitled, "Songs of Love and Longing," this program ranged widely through the vast repertoire of choral music, making us realize that, there are many ways to talk and sing about love. In fact, this subject has been written about by poets for thousands of years, and it is usually their art that inspires the music to be composed.

With respect to the primacy of the words it is worth consideration to print at least some of the heavier, more poetic and lesser-known texts in the program. Part of the purpose of music is to sell the words, and if the concert has done that job well, it's good to have the option of a souvenir of some of the more effective pieces to take away and ponder after the music has ended.

Cunningham mentioned this issue, using the excuse that almost all the texts were in English and thus could be understood. This misses the point, and also assumes the choir's diction is better than it was. Most texts were fairly clear, but there were frequently a few words one had to guess at. The first piece set a poor precedent with the s, z and t - all missing from "The Size of your Heart."

Still, the choir sounded lovely and warm, all well blended and balanced, in that piece and most others of the first half. The exceptions were Cunningham's composition, “Behold You are Beautiful my Love,” and Jacques Brel's, “If We Only Have Love.” The first piece is poorly balanced and keeps the sopranos in their high register too much, and in the Brel Cunningham did not pace things well and asked the choir for more volume too soon and for longer than they could sustain. The folk songs that began the second half sounded unready and uncomfortable, but the choir was back to form with the big show tunes that ended the concert on a happy note.

For some who wondered aloud about the choice of songs and the theme of love, more guidance from Cunningham or retrospection of the missing texts was necessary. There were lots of songs addressed to females from Mary to Dolly, but Gershwin's “Summertime” is more subtle, a ballad lovingly reassuring a child about the future. And the strange “Un Canadien Errant” is about love of country, our country.

This theme of songs about love was beautifully sustained by guest soloist Avery Kadish. This 11-year-old girl has a marvellous voice to listen to, but she also uses it wisely and effectively. One of her choices was Sing, written by Gary Barlow, with the help of Andrew Lloyd Webber, as a proclamation of love for the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee. This piece was just one example of Kadish's understanding of the whole arch of the song, and controlling every note accordingly. The comfort and sincerity of her presentation guarantees all her selections a warm reception and indicate a very glowing future for this talented young girl.

One more talent to mention: city councillor David Neumann led the choir in that song of longing for love, “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” Many comments about longing and rainbows in connection to city politics come to mind, but Neumann showed he's also a musician. After a stiff start he dropped any attempt to follow the so-called rules and simply gestured his love of the music from the podium with strong results.

St. Andrew's is a superb setting in sound and sight for musical events, and could well become an important location in the future. Certainly a large number of Brantfordians were happy they chose to be there last Sunday afternoon and gave Kadish, Cunningham and the GRC prolonged final applause.

NOTE: Murray Charters is a musician, teacher and writer whose "Murray's Music" column can be found in Saturday's Expositor.

unexpected

Stephen Morris
Today was a day with no specific appointments, so I tried to do some reading up on manuals and documents sent my way. The door bell rang, and the method of ringing was recognized, so I knew it was one of my competitor candidates from the recent election. Instead of 'ding dong' it rings dinga-dinga-dinga-dong, to get our attention. This was his 3rd or 4th visit since the election, and he wanted to let me know of the progress he's making on securing signatures on his petition for phyto-remediation for the brownfield site in our area.

I have tried to advise him to restructure the form so it will be recognized as a petition more easily, and so that the work of confirming validity of signatures would easily follow from those to whom he hopes to present it. He's very dedicated to this cause - pleasant and persistent in his approach. He informed me that he has found it easier to get signatures on this petition than it had been for him to secure committed votes during the recent election.

landlord-tenant issue
Elfrieda and I spoke about a case we had investigated yesterday, and will have to follow-up on Monday. A woman constituent trying to deal with an uncooperative tenant in one of their buildings.

Errands
We later went on some errands, including shopping. In one of the stores had a chance to chat with Sue Gamble (Expositor) and her husband, Rick, who used to be a reporter for TV 13 in Kitchener.

RTO transition
Gord Osmond, the new president of RTO Brant District 40 sent an e-mail to advise that he had recruited someone to take on my current volunteer role as District Health Rep for the insurance plan. I was pleased with how quickly he had found a replacement; I will work with her informally until she is comfortable with the role.

Tomorrow
We are off to Waterford tomorrow for the induction ceremony at the new Wall of Distinction at Waterford DHS, our alma mater.

Reflection
By the end of the day, I had completed a complete review of the manual and documents sent by the city clerk. I also had a chance to review the poll by poll results sent to me by the returning officer at City Hall. There were no big surprises, but I can see why some who did not win would be dissappointed, because the result was quite close, and varied from area to area. All I can say it's good that I followed the strategy that I did, because it worked!

networking and collaborating

Eagle Place Neighbourhood Association
Our family has lived in Eagle Place, an older area south of the downtown core of Brantford, for almost four decades. Our children attended Bellview and Joseph Brant Schools, and many families from Eagle Place sent their kids to Pauline Johnson Collegiate where I taught high school for many years. Eagle Place has produced many community leaders over the years, and today it reflects some quite serious challenges related to re-use of old industrial sites, neighbourhood renewal challenges and proposed development on flood plain lands. Some housing developments are ridden with serious problems.

Today I met with the president ofthe Eagle Place Neighbourhood Association - at the Tim Hortons on Market Street. We exchanged ideas, and he made certain requests. We chatted about the mutual interest of his association and my role as ward 5 councillor in representing the interests of Eagle Place on city council. We agreed to work together, and respect one another where differences occur along the way.

I will attend some of the meetings of the association and listen to their opinions and requests. At the same time we (Councillor Margureite Ceschi-Smith and I) will no doubt initiate our own ward meetings in the neighbourhoods of ward 5. Eagle Place represents about 40% of the ward.

Collaborating with Mayor Chris Friel
Today we (Marguerite and I) firmed up our date to meet with our newly elected mayor, Chris Friel. he had sent out a memo a few days ago asking to meet with councillors ward by ward. Our meeting with him is scheduled for the afternoon of November 10th, and we were informed that he anticipates the meeting will last about 90 minutes. The news media have quoted him as valuing collaboration, and that's encouraging, because the residents I heard from during the recent campaign clearly indicated that's what they want to happen on the new council.

One idea promoted by Friel during the campaign was to budget $50,000 for each ward, and let the ward councillors take the lead in deciding how that money should be used. Some councillors feel that a decision like that should be part of the budget process where priorities and options are weighed in a unified process. I'm not sure how this will work, but I'm sure we'll hear more details about it in our meeting next week. This was one item that the EPNA president raised in our meeting, as he is eyeing some of that money for his association. Determining how to spend that money well, could take a lot of time and energy; hopefully that will not detract from the attention we will need to give to the review of the city budget.

more appointments & retired teachers

Human Resources
Today I met with my contact in human resources, where documents for starting 'employment' with the city had to be completed. I also picked up a package of HR related brochures and documents. The HR department is located on the lower level of the Market Square building. While there, I had a chance to meet Anita Szaloky, acting director of HR. We reminisced about the Joe Flood days, and shared a few laughs.

RTO
The Retired Teachers Organization (local district) had it's fall luncheon and AGM mid-day. I am a volunteer on the board and the DHR rep for group health & travel insurance. I will have to ask the new president, Gord Osmond, to find a replacement soon. After lunch we were entertained by Dan McGeoch, a composer-folk singer of Scottish origin. His songs are very good and quite humorous. It was a good uplift for the day, as he sang about the experience of a new Canadian in Brantford.

councillor-elect, pleasant busy work

Today I met with 2 of the city staff recommended by our city clerk in that memo the media have reported on. In the morning I went to the City Clerk's area and met with my contact, who explained her role in assisting councillors find the right path and the best people to follow up on a question or concern of residents. She was very professional and quite helpful, but she left me with a huge manual to read - all about being a Brantford city councillor in the 21st century.

In the afternoon I went to see the head of the IT department - in the old PUC building across the way. She explained the ins and outs of the technical options councillors can consider in preparing to set up the best way to keep in touch with one another and all the other key people out there.

She reminded me of a past connection I had not picked up on. Elfrieda and I had known her parents some time ago, and we reminisced about for a short time. On the way out she showed me the beautiful room where the PUC had held its meetings in the past. That sure brought back a few very pleasant memories!

The next stop was at Coffee Culture, where, in pleasant surroundings, I was able to exchange pleasantries and a few ideas with Councillor Dan McCreary. During our time there, the city manager entered and joined us for a moment or two. Dan McCreary's perspective was most interesting and helpful - especially for me, a guy who hasn't been on council for some decades.

focus on women as candidates

November 1

Today I attended (as a listener) a session held for women who had run (or are running) in the fall elections in Brantford, Brant and Six Nations. At this session candidates reflected on their experiences as candidates and exchanged ideas about how to do things better next time. Some were questionning whether the 'sisterhood' really exists, as a comment was made that women voters are often harder on women candidates.

I sat at the edge of the main group, at a table with well known politicos, Lloyd St Amand and Mark LaFerierre - both candidates for the next federal election in Brant. The meeting was sponsored by WIL Power, a group within the local Liberal Association working on encouraging more participation by women as candidates for public office.

Some decades ago Canada's supreme court ruled that women are 'persons' under the constitution, paving the way for women to be appointed to the Senate. It seems strange today to realize that before that ruling, this was even a question. While it is useful to identify the unique circumstances and challenges that women face as candidates for public office, in the final analysis, that long ago legal ruling ensures that voters making the choice today concentrate on picking the best 'person' for the job. While it is true that women are under-represenetd on municipal councils, legislatures and in parliament, there are other elements of our population that are also under represented - e.g. visible minorities, certain ethnic goups and nationalities, and age brackets. They too face special challenges in running for public office.

It begins already

Today I got a lengthy e-mail from Darryl Lee, the City Clerk, detailing a range of activities and meetings for November and December. This went to all members of the incoming council. I began immediately to follow-up on the suggestions to make appointments with staff, and to create a calendar system that I could use to track everything.

We will be having briefing sessions, training sessions, and some one-on-one appointments. We will all receive a Council Orientation Reference Manual, that includes the city's strategic plan, committee structure, procedural by-law, conflict of interest act, council and committees meeting schedule, acting mayor schedule, and top 10 things every member of council should know.

Also the memo informed us about meetings with various department heads, informal session with key staff and advisory committee chairs, budget preparation sessions, and other activities and orientations. I've been through this before, and what came back to me was the importance of keeping my own priorities in mind and the feedback received from citizens during the campaign, so that these don't slip out of focus as the busy work of staff briefings - as important as they are - come to the fore.

The new, 11 member city council has only four members from the past council. Three Councillors are brand new, and four are like me, returning after a time away. None have been away as long as I have; it's been 23 years since I was on Brantford City Council. I was in the provincial parliament for one term, and after that returned to resume my career in eductaion.