Music with more power

Grinding chainsaws. Whirring drills. Thumping hammers. Popping air guns.

These sounds are the lifeblood of a construction site. But come Sunday afternoon, EsQuire Alberta Men's Chorus' inaugural concert spring-loads those reverberations onto the Winspear stage for a starring role in the world premiere of the Power Tool Concerto.

The daring architects of this high voltage venture are Jerry Paravicini of the Swiss Men's Choir and two of St. Albert's most formidable composers — folk singer Roland Majeau and Trent Worthington, Pro Coro's associate conductor.

Paravicini, a member of the Edmonton choral community for 45 years, has witnessed a slow erosion of men's choirs in the last few decades, particularly the large boisterous ones.

About three years ago, he mentioned the idea of kick-starting a huge all-male choir to Worthington. “We were talking and said ‘it's time we did something.' And the idea of a power tool concerto was perfect. Construction is so important in this province,” says Paravicini.

He extended a hand to all men in the province, especially the 62,000 Alberta trades people honoured at the concerto. To date the choir has attracted 80 robust voices from across Alberta with an additional 20 voices from the Edmonton Boys Choir.

Each construction site noise hums and resonates with its own rhythms and beats. Someone just had to find the right key.

That's where Majeau and Worthington came in. Both are renovation handymen as well as prolific composers. They were immersed first-hand in the rhythms of trade tools and set out to develop a catchy musical blueprint.

Based on his own experiences in the industry, Majeau wrote Construction Worker Song, a tune that has come to anchor the concerto.

The nuts and bolts of the 20-minute concerto are seven movements that tread from a toolbox safety meeting to a percussion movement of pneumatic tools and variable speed tools. “We would go the shop or the garage and play with different sounds or pitches,” explains Worthington, the concerto's arranger.

Majeau also sings the Construction Lament, a piece he wrote after developing bronchiectasis, an obstructive lung disease that now forces him to wear a mask in dusty areas. “It was probably caused by my exposure to concrete dust, welding smoke, process plastics and grain dust. Today everyone is so much more careful but back then we were less concerned with safety,” Majeau says, describing his past blue-collar life.

The lament is a reflective work that shies away from laying blame. “It's more about moving on with life.”

The riveting Martin Johann Kloppers incorporates his electric cello and Duo Majoya provides backfill with piano and Davis organ.