Choose artist...
Home   >   Stories   >   CRB: Boston chats with Skylark Vocal Ensemble - Artistic Director: Matthew Guard about 'Clear Voices in the Dark'

Stories for July 17, 2025

Top 10 for Jul

More Albums with Skylark

CRB: Boston chats with Skylark Vocal Ensemble - Artistic Director: Matthew Guard about 'Clear Voices in the Dark'

Posted: October 8, 2024

Clear Voices in the Dark [Sono Luminus (DSL92278)], a new recording by the Skylark Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Artistic Director/Conductor Matthew Guard features Figure Humaine, Francis Poulenc’s hymn to LIBERTÉ  intriguingly interspersed with songs of the American Civil War. The album will be available May 24 to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora, Deezer, and other leading streaming services and retail outlets.

Poulenc’s Figure Humaine is considered one of the greatest works ever composed for an unaccompanied choir. Poulenc wrote the cantata in 1943 during the Nazi occupation of France, based on resistance-inspired poems by Paul Éluard including LIBERTÉ. The cantata is a stunning 8-movement exploration of the grim realities of war, culminating in an optimistic and embattled cry for liberty in the face of oppression. Asked why Skylark decided to record Clear Voices in the Dark now, Guard says “I think art borne out of a time of societal turmoil can be particularly profound; As we live once again in a time of unspeakable horrors in Ukraine, Russia, Israel and Gaza, we believe the music on this album can shed light on nightmares of the past through the art that emerged from them, and most importantly, affirm the incredible power of the human spirit to endure in times of tragedy. Rarely performed or recorded due to its difficulty, this is the first US recording of Figure Humaine.

Calling Figure Humaine one of the “most profound pieces in the a cappella choral repertoire,” Guard felt that this was a piece Skylark simply had to share. But he struggled with how to make the 20-minute work truly engaging to modern audiences.

The 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, both of which inspired art and music that reflected the tragedies, despair, optimism, and madness of war, originally moved Guard to create the concept for the project in 2015. Says Guard, “Figure Humaine has a clearly intentional harmonic progression that is tied to the raw emotion of the stunning Éluard poetry. In interspersing musical vignettes from the American Civil War era, our goal was to honor both, keeping the harmonic center of the Poulenc intact while pairing pieces whose imagery matches closely with the content of Éluard's words.

The Civil War-era songs include Alice Parker’s arrangement of Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, written for the Robert Shaw Chorale, Ron Jeffers’ Working for the Dawn of Peace, hymns arranged by Guard including Battle Hymn of the Republic, and several songs Guard discovered at the Duke University Historical Sheet Music Archives. The result is what the Boston Musical Intelligencer called, "an awe-inspiring, spot-on performance which gave these songs renewed meaning and life.”

Skylark, “the cream of the American crop” (BBC Radio 3), is a premier vocal ensemble of leading American vocal soloists and chamber musicians. Their dramatic performances have been described as “exquisite...thrilling” (Gramophone), with “some of Boston’s best singers” (Boston Globe). Skylark has quickly become one of the premier recording choirs in the United States. Their albums have been honored with three GRAMMY® nominations, including two nominations for Best Choral Performance in 2021 for It's a Long Way and Once Upon a Time in 2020. Their 2018 album, Seven Words from the Cross, received two GRAMMY® nominations. Skylark's most recent four studio recordings have all placed in the top 10 of the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart.

Since its founding in 2011 in Atlanta and Boston, Skylark has branched out to perform its dynamic programs across the United States. Skylark made its international debut in March 2018 at St. John’s Smith Square, London, as part of the UK choir Tenebrae’s Holy Week Festival. The Times of London declared that Skylark was “the highlight” of a festival that included some of the UK’s leading choirs, including The Tallis Scholars, Polyphony, Tenebrae, and the Gabrieli Consort.

Three-time GRAMMY® Nominee Matthew Guard is quickly earning a reputation as one of the most innovative and thoughtful programmers in American choral music. Praised for his “catalyzing leadership” (WQXR) and “musically creative and intellectually rich” programming (Opera Obsession), Matthew is passionate about communicating something unique in each concert and recording. He scours the world of available repertoire for each program, exhaustively researches each piece, and crafts concerts and printed programs that captivate audiences with their hidden connections and seamless artistry. In addition to his day-to-day leadership of Skylark and role as a conductor in concerts, Matthew is also an active arranger and editor of scores, as he rarely finds programming ideas that will truly sing without at least one piece specifically arranged or composed for the program.

From CRB: Boston …….Art in Times of Tragedy with Skylark Vocal Ensemble
Edyn-Mae Stevenson writes…….Matthew Guard, Artistic Director of the Boston-based vocal ensemble Skylark, believes that “great art is often the product of great difficulty and tribulation.” It was this belief that became the idea for Clear Voices in the Dark a decade ago, on the eve of the 150th and 70th anniversaries of the Civil War and World War II, respectively. The recording that resulted is an otherworldly combination of Civil War-era folk songs, interspersed between the movements of Francis Poulenc’s Figure Humaine.

Composed in secret during the Nazi occupation of France, Figure Humaine is a notoriously difficult but ultimately rewarding work for unaccompanied choir. Poulenc himself called the cantata an “act of faith,” which requires immense skill and endurance on the part of the performers. Skylark has both in abundance.

The ensemble holds nothing back here, oscillating between hope and despair, violence and tenderness. Clear Voices in the Dark covers the full scope of what it means to be human in times of great tragedy. When I spoke with Matthew Guard, he gave me some insight into the ideas behind this unique program and the ways that interacting with it has changed him over the last decade.

Listen to the interview — along with excerpts from the album