Christopher Tin – Calling All Dawns Review
Before we begin, if you do not know who Christopher Tin is, stop right there and click this and come back after. I like to give composers their spotlight before starting any review. If you are done, or already know him, then let’s begin.
“Calling All Dawns” is an album that follows a song cycle that is broken up into three uninterrupted movements, those being Day, Night and Dawn. Day is compared to life, Night to death and Dawn to rebirth. A unique setup that is complemented fairly well with the song choices for each movement. The break down of the three movements are listed below.
Movement 1: Day (Life)
01. Baba Yetu (Swahili)
02. Mado Kara Mieru (Japanese)
03. Dao Zai Fan Ye (Mandarin)
04. Se E Pra Vir Que Venha (Portuguese)
05. Rassemblons-Nous (French)
Movement 2: Night (Death)
01. Lux Aeterna (Latin)
02. Caoineadh (Irish)
03. Hymn Do Trojcy Swietej (Polish)
Movement 3: Dawn (Rebirth)
01. Hayom Kadosh (Hebrew)
01. Hamsafar (Farsi)
03. Sukla-Krsne (Sanskrit)
04. Kia Hora Te Marino (Maori)
If you haven’t gotten the reference of what the album as a whole represents, we are looking at the cycle of life. An interesting fact is that each song is connected to one another, so if you chose to listen to this album without skipping around you can hear the tracks merge seamlessly together. Even more amazing is when you listen to the album on loop, once the last track ends it flows into the first track and thus begins the cycle of life once again. Genius for an album idea and the transitions are handled with care, not abrupt at all when the next track comes into place.
With twelve tracks and twelve languages represented, you’re presented a wide scope of different cultures and time eras your may have never been familiar with. I myself know of a little more than half the languages on the album, sung in two of them (I’ll let you find out what two on your own), but some others, I’m ashamed to admit, ignorant of. But hey, that’s what school is for.
The first track, “Baba Yetu”, speaks for itself if you ever played Civilization IV or attended a VGL show when it was included in the concert list. The song is just an impressive piece of work that takes the Lord’s Prayer and translates it into Swahili. You get to see some work of call and response with the soloist and Soweto Gospel Choir. Another tidbit to keep in mind while listening is that there’s a motif that’s going to be introduced and reappear in the next song. I think I’ll help you out this one time and tell you where to look around…2:00 – 2:15. Now that you know where it is, you’ll know where to find it next time.
The next track, “Mado Kara Mieru”, is sung Haiku in the Japanese language (Which translates into Through the Window I See in English). According to good ol’ Wiki, haiku are usually written with a seasonal reference and a keriji/caesura. This is exactly what is represented here, seasons. The order of the haiku are Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. Again, that cycle of life concept, where we return right to the beginning. The consistency is what causes this album to be that more enjoyable.
Before I move on, I just want to bring back the motivic idea of the first track again. When you do hear it and listen to the second track, it’s a shot of light through the darkness on how the song was made and where it’s headed. You’ll see that how even the songs on the album are interlaced together. It’s the small things like this that tells us a story that we [People] are are connected together in some form or another. It’s time to move on to Death.
Moving into the middle of Death,”Caoineadh” (To Cry in English) greets us with a soothing Irish Lament. Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek takes lead as the soloist in this song, with the addition of the rest of Anonymous 4. I actually heard some tracks from Anonymous 4 in class recently and loved every second. This song is no exception. For those who don’t know what a lament is, it’s a piece of music expressing mourning, grief, or regret of any kind. This was honestly one of my favorite tracks on this album. To move on to Rebirth.
We head right to the end with track 12, “Kia Hora Te Marino” (May Peace be Widespread in English), which is sung in Maori. The most joyous sounding song on the album. It’s just a buildup of excitement to the very end. This was a great track to “end” this album, full of life and energy. If you remembered what I had mentioned above, if the player is set to loop, then the beginning of the life cycle will begin once again. If you very observant and tentative with your listening, then you can also hear that the first chord played in “Baba Yetu” is the last chord played in “Kia Hora Te Marino”. Beautiful.
I must say that this album was a great privilege to listen to and an honor to do a review on. This album really is amazing in every way shape and form. I’ve seen some interpretations of the cycle of life, but this has to be the best one so far. The cycle of life could not have been captured any more perfectly than through Christopher Tin’s “Calling All Dawn”, which is a masterpiece of vocal works that surely stirs our hearts and souls while being guided through the very cycle it represents. With that said, I want to give my thanks to Jayson Napolitano of Original Sound Version for the tip and especially Christopher Tin for allowing my to do a review on his album. Thank you.
This album is so great isn’t it :)
You better believe it :D
Yeah it’s awesome :)
Not a single bad thing to say about it!!
^^ The next album should include lyrics in danish!! xD That would be epic! (I’m from denmark ;) .. heh, though not really the most beautiful language ^^)
Thanks for the review!
This is the is probably best, most original album I have ever heard. I love every second.