Cascade Quartet: Reflections feat. Grant Harville

Icelandic icon Björk might not be the first composer who comes to mind when thinking of classical music, but for Great Falls Symphony Music Director and Conductor Grant Harville, it was the perfect choice for his appearance in Reflections, the Cascade Quartet’s season-opening concert on October 18 & Oct. 20.

“Björk, who is one of the most eclectic and innovative musicians of our time, was among the first names we considered when we were looking at finding songs to arrange that were a bit off the beaten path,” says Harville, who will sing five of the polymath’s compositions.

“I was drawn to songs where I could hear with some immediacy how an adaptation would work, as well as being songs I would feel comfortable singing,” said Harville, who has appeared as tenor with the renowned Atlanta Symphony Chorus, performing as a soloist with them at Carnegie Hall. “I have neither the ability nor the desire to imitate Björk’s unique vocal style, so they had to be songs compatible with my more conventional classical vocal approach.”

As part of his eighth and final season with the GFSA, Harville, who arranged the Björk songs for quartet and voice, will sing “Sun in My Mouth,” “Mother Heroic,” “Anchor Song,” “Pleasure is All Mine,” and “New World.”

“These might not be her most famous songs, but they do include some of her ‘prettiest’ songs,” he said. Two of the compositions—“Sun in My Mouth” and “Mother Heroic” from her Vespertine album—have been described by Björk as “modern chamber music.” Harville notes that, like the vast majority of classical composers (and unlike the vast majority of pop artists), she sets existing poetry by American poet e.e. cummings as the lyrics: “Crepuscule” (twilight or dusk) for “Sun in My Mouth” and “Belgium” for “Mother Heroic.”

Three of the songs come from various eras in Björk’s career. In 1993, after more than a decade in various bands, she wrote one of her first solo songs, “Anchor Song.”

“For her, its texture and form are very simple,” says Harville. “Three saxophone parts, played by the same person and layered on top of each other, interspersed with lines from two near-identical verses.”

In 2004, the “Pleasure Is All Mine” is a reflection on her then-new motherhood and how strength grows from generosity. “It is the most overtly ‘feminine’ of the songs,” says Harville, “It spoke to me, possibly because of my own recent parenthood.”

“New World” was written as credits music for the 2000 film Dancer in the Dark for which Björk wrote the score and also played the main character. “With its sweeping orchestral instrumentals and melancholy major-tinged-with-minor modality, it ranks among her most plainly sentimental tracks,” says Harville.

Reflections also features a big quartet by Bedrich Smetana that uses musical storytelling to reflect on a life well-lived (drinking, dancing, and romance!).

The Great Falls Symphony’s Chamber Music Series concerts featuring the Cascade Quartet are performed twice: Reflections is on Friday, Oct. 18, 7:00pm, at Darkhorse Hall, 118 First Ave. S (Below Celtic Cowboy) and Sunday, Oct. 20, 2:00pm, at the First Congregational Church UCC, 2900 9th Ave. S, Great Falls. Tickets are $29 for adults, $25 for seniors and $14 for students. For tickets and more information visit gfsymphony.org.