The Mennonite Piano Concerto

When Victor Davies was commissioned by the B. B Fast Foundation in Winnipeg to compose a Mennonite concerto, he knew little about Mennonites or their music. Ben Horch, Winnipeg musician and scholar, gave him fifty song titles to work with, twenty-five each from the Mennonite Brethren and the General Conference. Davies realized that he knew almost all of the pieces from his United Church background, and that the Mennonite hymns, or “Kern-lieder”, were actually Victorian hymns and American gospel songs in German translation. He assumed that the hymns were in current use in Mennonite churches, learning later that they were considered out-dated and old fashioned.

The Mennonite Concerto premiered on Oct. 27, 1975 in the Winnipeg Centennial Concert Hall, performed by Irmgard Baerg on the piano with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bill Baerg. The occasion was a Mennonite Saengerfest to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the founding of the Anabaptist-Mennonite church.

A recording of the concerto, made in 1983 with Irmgard Baerg at the piano and Boris Brott conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, has become one of the most requested works on the CBC. It is also heard on the BBC and on American and National Public Radio in the USA. It became the score for the film When They Shall Ask, a 90 minute docu-drama on the history of the Mennonites in Russia.

Davies said that it was difficult to undertake the challenges of changing vocal into instrumental sound and congregational songs into the single voice of the piano. The melodies of the “Kernlieder” are lyrical, tuneful and folk-like with beautiful harmonies, and reflect a history of blooming and disaster; conflict and change; hurt and hope. They express inner resolve, deep piety, devotion and resilience in the face of extreme hardship. The composer “remind(s) the listener of the beauty of faith. Faith is not only profound, but contains enormous joy.”

In the first movement, a sonata, the melodies portray a crisis of faith; an exuberant beginning gives way to doubt and struggle which dissolves once again into joyous celebration.

Variations on the melody of In the Rifted Rock I’m Resting (Wehrlos und Verlassen) form the second movement, which increases in complexity and then moves toward beauty and simplicity. The third part is a rondo, a series of repeated themes centering around the song How Sweetly Chime the Sabbath Bells (Wie süss tönt Sabbat Glockenkang). The audience responded with a standing ovation. According to Ben Horch, “Victor Davies has caught the essence of our spiritual history and interpreted it in a new form, essentially re-creating Mennonite history in the Mennonite Piano Concerto.” In 1986, a score for the concerto was published for two pianos, four hands, and this version has been performed across Canada, the USA, in Bulgaria and China.