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The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

Chapel walls echo with ethereal voices

A crowded candle-lit chapel filled with the sound of angelic voices, singing two of the most beautiful, and most difficult choral works composed in recent history, according to director Nathan Kreitzer.

Sunday afternoon, community members and music lovers came to the historic St. Anthony’s Seminary on Garden Street to hear the second performance of a concert entitled “Polychoral Music,” sung by City College’s Quire of Voyces.

“Thank you everyone for coming,” Kreitzer said at the opening of the performance. “We are very proud to present two of my favorite works, two of the greatest early twentieth century choral pieces ever written.”

He went on to explain that the works are not performed often, because of their difficulty, but the singers never appeared to be challenged by the pieces. Both were sung with perfection and finesse.

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“It was lovely,” said audience member Kathy Hancock.

The first piece, “Messe pour double choer a capella,” was written in the early 1900s by Frank Martin, and published in 1963. Featuring complex harmonies and melodies with the haunting sound of Gregorian chants, the five-movement work spanned the classic words of praise from Christian texts.

Sound filled the air so that there was no room for more. The crisp consonants of the Latin text created percussive punctuation, in the midst of the full, round harmonies.

The chapel at St. Anthony’s was built to hold performances of this nature, if more for religious purposes than that of music appreciation.

A wall of sculpture dedicated to the Catholic faith rose behind the singers, amplifying the sounds of their singing, and adding poignant context to the songs. The likeness of Jesus Christ hanging from the cross stood out among scenes of saints, and images of the heavens.

The second piece, “Requiem,” was written by Herbert Howells in 1936, and published in 1980.

This work was made up of six movements, three which were sung in English. While the Latin text brought a feeling of old religion and gothic times, the words sung in English seemed to bring the music closer to the audience. Reading translations from the program cannot replace understanding the words as they are sung, and for an audience of English speakers, these movements were much easier to understand.

Four dynamic soloists were feature on this piece as well: soprano Jennifer Johnson, alto Rochelle Hahn, tenor Temmo Korishelli, and baritone David Hodges.

Their distinct voices carried out into the chapel, soaring over the choir behind them, and carrying the song alone when the choir dropped out to let the solo take flight.

Quire of Voyces was created by Kreitzer in 1993 “to rediscover the sacred a cappella choral music of the Renaissance and the modern age,” according to the program notes. The Quire is also known around Santa Barbara as one of the best vocal groups in the area.

“I used to sing in choirs, and I love the Quire,” said audience member Dwight Gregory, who comes to these performances as often as he can. “They’re the best in town.”

The complexity of the pieces, Kreitzer said, is one of the reasons the concert went so well.

“I think it inspires everyone,” he said.

He went on to compliment his singers on their performance of the difficult works.

“I thought it was excellent,” he said. “The singers sang above themselves.”

Though this particular concert is over, the Quire plans to record “Requiem” this week, and the recording will be released later this year, along with other pieces.

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