Variant 6 and the Sylvan Consort of Viols present Kile Smith’s Endless Morn of Light

Sylvan Consort of Viols is an ensemble of six viol players, three on treble instruments and three on bass viols. Viols appear, at first glance, to be some variation of modern orchestral string instruments, but they are actually more closely related to the guitar, as they are fretted and have six strings (but are played with bows).

Opening sans singers

The ensemble had two opportunities to perform without singers, opening the program with a bewitching Fantasia by William Byrd. A Consort by the early 17th-century English composer William Lawes was less successful. It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine authentic performance practices in music of this vintage, so one has to wonder why Sylvan Consort of Viols chose to play the music with such a lack of dynamic variation and rhythmic flexibility.

A wonderful pairing

The balance of the program featured the six-voice group known as Variant 6, consisting of some of the finest choristers in the region (all but one of them are also members of The Crossing). Their luminous voices brought to life a mid-16th-century set of motets by Orlando di Lasso, Prophetiae Sibyllarum (Sibylline Prophecies). This 13-section work, featuring varied groupings of the singers (duets, solos, full ensemble), radiates a sense of timelessness, as revealed by startling, inventive polyphony and serene dramatic pacing.

Di Lasso’s seemingly forward-looking vision made for a wonderful pairing with Kile Smith’s backward embrace of the long arc of musical history. Endless Morn of Light is a setting of two poems by John Milton. As was the case with Vespers, Smith manages the neat trick of evoking the solemnity and piety of Renaissance music and merging it with a contemporary sense of joy and celebration. He has an especially fine sense for musically underlining Milton’s words, which he obviously relishes. For example, the women’s voices are not heard at first, but then burst into sunlight with the words “the bright Seraphim in burning row.” A few lines later, the word “golden” is repeated with growing intensity by the solo soprano, so that the very sense of the word is vividly portrayed. The source for the title words of the piece, “and sing in endless morn of light,” was delivered with a swelling sense of ecstasy. All of this lay on a bed of mesmerizing harmonies, which, at this concert, appeared to echo di Lasso.

The work premiered on March 14, 2025 in a concert titled RE/CREATE at Fleisher Art Memorial, presented by Bowerbird, and continued in the following days to venues in Bala Cynwyd and Wilmington.

Music lovers give thanks

Kile Smith is a well-known name in musical circles, and not just because of his compositions. He was the longtime curator of one of the largest music libraries in the world, the Fleisher Collection, housed at the Parkway Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, was a regular radio host, and as a gifted writer, is also a contributor to BSR. In recent years, he has had fewer such distractions from creating music, which, as this latest premiere so amply demonstrated, he does with unabated power and expressivity. Music lovers everywhere should be grateful for this serendipitous career path.