Tallis Scholars resound with 'Magnificats'

Author: Rachel Greenhaus

Last Sunday, Middlebury College's community had an opportunity to hear the world-renowned Tallis Scholars in Mead Chapel. The group, made up of five women and five men, is visiting as part of their 2006 US tour. For their concert at Middlebury they performed a set rather uncharacteristic of their usual repertoire, drawing from late Renaissance-era music in Germany. The program, entitled "Mozart's Roots," began with a setting of the "Magnificat," by Praetorius. The piece opened with a solo chant line to introduce the melodic theme of the piece and the male soloist's voice was a beautiful preview of the choir sound that came in a moment later, pure but full, loud without any hint of strain. The piece utilized an almost constant echo effect between the women's and men's parts until they converged together at the very end with "Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto" and a strong, clear "Amen."

The first half of the program continued in the Latin sacred tradition, with three more pieces by Praetorius including one other "Magnificat" setting. The group also sang a harmonically intriguing "Ad dominum cum tribularer" by Hans Leo Hassler. a 16th-century German Renaissance composer and organist. What began as chordal harmonies were made unsettling by chromatic notes that were introduced in the higher parts. Phrases of irregular length alternated with more predictable lines. The sound was liquid and pleading, so legato that it almost seemed to ooze from note to note, leaving a melancholy sound that fit perfectly with the song's words, "In my distress I cried to the Lord, and he heard me. O Lord, deliver my soul from lying lips and a deceitful tongue."

The second half of the program began, after some shouts and cheers from the audience, with "Ave Maria," the last Latin piece of the evening, by Ludwig Senfl, a Swiss Renaissance composer who was director of the royal court's music under the Holy Roman Empire. .

After this began the German portion. The middle three songs of the second half were by Heinrich Schütz, one of two of Germany's most influential 17th-centurycomposers, and included "Deutsches Magnificat," a German setting of the same text as the two Praetorius pieces from the first set. This piece was one of the highlights of the evening, especially since the same concert brought two other versions of "Magnificat."

The Schütz piece did not include the traditional chant line as in the Praetorius piece, but instead began with all parts in unison and continued with a tenor leading line set mostly in ensemble singing. This allowed the group's gorgeous blended sound a chance to shine. Schütz's "Magnificat" was also much more rhythmically precise than many of the other works in the program, swaying rather than scooping. It was energetic in a way that the other versions of "Magnificat" were not. The counterpart in combination with the articulation made this piece much more like the antiphonal brass pieces that were composed during the same time in Europe.

This led very nicely into the final piece of the evening, J.S. Bach's "Komm, Jesu, komm." The Bach piece was a fusion of the traditional melodies of chant with more complex choral harmonies of superbly fluid lines and tasteful articulation. The runs and ornamentations flowed flawlessly together in the choir's execution - they literally sang like one, multi-voiced individual. The high soprano lines floated above everything and, similarly, the low bass part set a firm and solid foundation for the sound but none of the parts overwhelmed the others. The choir was in perfect balance and when the Bach ended, the crowd exploded with applause.