Québec Musiques Parallèles (QMP), Le Vivier, and the Flux Festival are jointly presenting “a diverse program at the crossroads of cultures,” based primarily on a collaboration between Navajo composer and musician Raven Chacon, the Bozzini Quartet, the musicians of E27 musiques nouvelles, and the Oktoécho ensemble led by composer and artistic director Katia Makdissi-Warren.
One of the unique features of this program on Friday, October 3, is that it will be presented in two different venues connected by a procession in which audience members will accompany the performers from one location to the other, from the Cité des Hospitalières to La Chapelle. Since the works on the program are mostly by Raven Chacon, we met with him to review this rich and unique program, which includes Voiceless Mass, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize for music, which is no small feat.
PAN M 360: First, explain the fundamentals of your approach and where you are currently.
Raven Chacon: A large part of the music I make is written for classical musicians. I would say that the score allows me different possibilities and choices so that these musicians can produce sounds that I have never heard before. And from there, it becomes a process of developing sounds.
PAN M 360: What are the benchmarks?
Raven Chacon: What I incorporate into my music isn’t didactic. I don’t know myself if the influences are direct, but I can say that I make the music I want to make.
PAN M 360: In any case, a composer does not think about his references when he composes. His music emerges from his unconscious, whether his music is direct or not.
Raven Chacon: There are no quotes, in any case. As for my background, I am half Navajo and half Chicano, and I was born in the American Southwest. My other influences are thrash metal, electronic music, classical music, and other factors also influence my work, such as the location, the nature of the project, etc.
PAN M 360: Let’s take the example of Voiceless Mass, the work that earned you the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2022.
Raven Chacon: This piece is entirely influenced by sacred music, with the church organ being a central instrument in this composition. This piece is critical of the role of the Church on Indigenous peoples.
PAN M 360: In the United States as well as in Canada?
Raven Chacon: Yes, I think so. There was much greater awareness of the role of the church in residential schools for Indigenous peoples in Canada than in the United States. That certainly had an influence on this play.
PAN M 360: In the Americas, the church was part of the colonialist invasion.
Raven Chacon: Yes. The conquistadors came to convert the indigenous people to Catholicism, giving them an ultimatum to either be killed or convert. “Voiceless Mass” addresses this history and may lead the Church to acknowledge it and perhaps move toward reconciliation.
PAN M 360: How was the FLUX festival program designed?
Raven Chacon: There are six plays on the program in two different venues. More specifically, “Voiceless Mass” is built around the church organ. What it thinks, what it is influenced by different masses played on the organ and other sacred music. This forms the bedrock for other instruments that also tell this story. The piece is called Voiceless Mass because it is composed in the style of a choral mass. However, there are no voices, so no singers. Instead of voices, you have the organ, which embodies the religious institution, and the other instruments represent this lack of voices.
PAN M 360: Are there any quotations throughout this work?
Raven Chacon: I don’t quote any sacred works; I write inspired by the form.
PAN M 360 : Apart from your own career, what were the benefits of winning the Pulitzer Prize?
Raven Chacon: The good thing is that this play has contributed to the recognition of this role of the church in different places, and has also led church leaders to become aware of it and to combat this stance.
There are also three string quartets performed by Bozzini.
One was originally commissioned by the Kronos Quartet: The Journey of the Horizontal People. To return to the question of replication, I am not inclined to reproduce musical forms in order to create new ones, but I can reproduce certain protocols typical of the people I come from. For example, the piece is written in such a way that the string quartet separates from itself. Some measures are longer than others, so a violinist may have to speed up while the cellist has to slow down. One player may repeat a motif six times and the other five to eight times. So there are choices to be made.
This composition also tells the story of the different clans of ancient times who were searching for their kin. Over time, the different clans met, moved across the territory with their animals, found each other, and became the Navajo people.
There were times when the people were less united and a woman could be appointed to realign them with the right path, which is also evoked in this string quartet. This is a metaphor for matriarchal leadership in Navajo society. Structurally, this quartet evokes the way in which our communities are led by matriarchs, and also the constitution of the Navajo nation by different settlements.
There is also a string quartet entitled Horse Notations, which is the result of a long process inspired by an article published in 1874 in Popular Science Monthly, which attempted to analyze and classify different horse gaits, from a slow trot to a full gallop. This data was then transposed into rhythms for this piece.
PAN M 360: So these different horse steps were translated into rhythmic instructions.
Raven Chacon: Yes, exactly. And so this piece refers to that article written at the beginning of the industrial era and what that might have meant at the time. The whole piece then becomes a contemplation of speed and rhythm, reminiscent of the automobile replacing the horse. It also brings to mind the airplane, which took on the role of the bird.
PAN M 360 : Parlons de Tiguex VI: Downhill Procession (Procession 1)
Raven Chacon: The entire piece was performed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is a huge piece, divided into 20 different movements performed in different parts of the city. The sixth movement is intended to be a procession. We chose it because the Bozzini Quartet asked me how to link the two venues, and I had this procession in my repertoire that had not yet been performed anywhere other than Albuquerque. So we will have eight musicians walking with the audience between the church and La Chapelle theater, meaning there will be no interruption in the program.
PAN M 360: OK! So let’s talk about what’s next at La Chapelle theater. First there will be (Bury Me) Where The Lightning [Will] Never Find Me , for percussion, violin, cello, bass clarinet and then…
Raven Chacon: The first string quartet, Horse Notations, has already been performed. The second, The Journey of the Horizontal People, will be performed in the second venue.
It will be followed by Double Weaving, a string quartet originally written for Ethelm, a New York ensemble. I composed this piece while mentoring students on Navajo and Hopi reservations (Native American Composer Apprentice Project), as the students composed their own works.
PAN M 360: Now we are seeing a very significant movement among Indigenous composers in many complex musical styles. We see it in jazz, in written music, in contemporary music, in electronic music, in noise music. So you are one of the pioneers of this indigenous emergence.
Raven Chacon: Yes, thank you for recognizing that. Contemporary music, classical music. Creative music. Creative written music, electronic music, free improvisation, invented instruments, and installations have been part of my work for a long time. I actually have an exhibition on this theme at Concordia University. I’ve also played in metal bands and composed folk songs.
PAN M 360: How do you see yourself today? As a representative, a representative of your community? Isn’t your Pulitzer Prize also very important to your community?
Raven Chacon: I was honoured, along with some of my Indigenous colleagues, to be able to present the work we do. You know, many of us don’t come from big cities. So if I can also inspire emerging artists from Indigenous communities, I am honoured to be able to contribute to that. I also believe that Indigenous artists have a responsibility to draw attention to some of these lesser-known or forgotten topics, whether historical or contemporary, and to suggest a different perspective.
PAN M 360: And how does the situation in the United States compare to that of Canada’s indigenous peoples?
Raven Chacon: In this regard, there has been more attention in Canada than in the United States on the work of Indigenous artists. In the United States, as you know, we are experiencing a very intense climate, and the arts in general are not prioritized there. So we must continue to amplify what we do and not take for granted the opportunities we have had as artists. I often tend to think that I am as much a musician, sometimes more than a composer, because I enjoy collaborative work in creation.
ARTISTES
e27 and Oktoecho:
Mélanie Bourassa: clarinet
Michel Dubeau: flutes, multi-instruments
Raphaël Guay: percussion
Katia Makdissi-Warren: musical director, oud
Bertil Schulrabe: percussion
Nina Segalowitz: voice, throat singing
Procession et autres pièces de …
Programme
- Raven Chacon: Voiceless Mass , 2021 (17′) for organ, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 percussionists, string instrument, and sine wave generator
- Raven Chacon: Horse Notations , 2019 (25′) for flûte, percussions & string quartet.
- Raven Chacon: Tiguex VI: Downhill Procession (Procession 1) , 2025 (12′) for 8 mélodic instruments.
- Raven Chacon: (Bury Me) Where The Lightning [Will] Never Find Me , 2014 (8′) for percussions, violin, cello, bass clarinet
- Raven Chacon: The Journey of the Horizontal People , 2016 (8′) for string quartet
- Raven Chacon: Double Weaving , 2014 (8′) for string quartet
- Katia Makdissi-Warren: Écliptique , 2025 (40′) for voice, oud, shakuhachi, percussion and clarinet