Bohmler’s ‘Sisters’ a treasure for San Jose

Monday, February 10, 2003

San Jose receives a group hug from its seven sister cities in “Sisters,” a cantata performed for the first time Saturday by 200 performers at St. Joseph Cathedral Basilica.

Craig Bohmler’s composition, with lyrics by Mary Carol Warwick, seems destined to become a local classic. It’s one of the most successful efforts ever to wrap a set of figurative arms around San Jose.

It doesn’t quite achieve that, but at least we’re enriched by the company we keep. The sensibilities of Okayama, Japan; Dublin, Ireland; San José, Costa Rica; Veracruz, Mexico; Yekaterinberg, Russia; Tainan, Taiwan; and Pune, India, do enhance understanding of our own 900,000-strong metropolis, making “Sisters” an artistic success.

The effort to define San Jose in the bargain is marred by a dubious premise: San Jose is portrayed as an adolescent child, perhaps 12, cast spiritually adrift by Sept. 11, 2001, and seeking guidance from the older and wiser sisters.

This concept made good use Saturday of the Cantabile Children’s Chorus Chamber Choir, which complemented the first-class San Jose Symphonic Choir and conductor Emily Ray’s Mission Chamber Orchestra. Ray’s orchestra and the symphonic choir also performed a satisfying Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and violinist Pip Clarke joined the orchestra for the curtain-raiser, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1.

However, the child metaphor is troubling. Innocence went by the boards a long time ago in Silicon Valley. It’s difficult to reconcile the “silent cries of doom” from “tiny young with open gaping mouths” in “Sisters” with the piercing stereo systems flaunted by conspicuous-consumer louts on Stevens Creek Boulevard.

But if this is indeed a disconnect, it relegates what could have been a stupendous project to mere excellence.

It’s still a significant historical and cultural document, thanks in large part to an Arts Venture Grant from the San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs and a grant from Applied Materials. The goal of their “Sisters” project was cultural understanding, and that goal is achieved admirably.

Warwick makes good use of the children’s chorus, and soprano soloist Elaine Wu projected the quavering innocence of the lyrics Saturday. Bohmler’s music makes even better use of the youth choir, counteracting the shortcomings of the “help us, sisters” premise by imbuing the San Jose segments with sophisticated harmonies.

Extensive research by Warwick, who lives in Houston and has collaborated with Bohmler twice previously, helped her create tie-ins among the sister cities for her lyrics, and Bohmler, who lives in Los Gatos but grew up near Houston, covers wide musical territory, from Spanish dance to mid-20th-century minimalism:

· Veracruz gets a jaunty Danzón with its advice to “Let the rhythm takes your cares away.”

· Yekaterinberg gets a romantic score, with exquisite solo work from mezzo-soprano Wendy Hillhouse, for preaching diligent attention to challenges past and present.

· Dublin teaches how to cope with foreign invaders, not with drums and bugles but with lush modality.

· The Tico Way of the other San José strives for the opposite, peace in a true paradise, to a sort of rumba.

· Okayama teaches healing and recovery, which the lyrics relate to the atom-bombing and recovery of nearby Hiroshima. Bohmler’s tone clusters recall Krzysztof Penderecki’s “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.”

· Tainan citizens appreciate their freedom, so the music reflects American-style composition, with references to Copland and Barber.

· Pune, last but not least, is the elder stateswoman, teaching that history should be our guide, and bringing all the sisters together lyrically.

But it is San Jose that has brought this assortment together. It rather resembles the assortment of people residing in San Jose now.

In the hands of Bohmler, probably the South Bay’s pre-eminent composer, “Sisters” is a valuable time capsule for posterity and a civic treasure already.

By Colin Seymour
San José Mercury News
© 2001 mercurynews and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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