This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 8, 2010 - Regional admirers of a cappella music will have their second chance of the season to savor its splendors this Sunday. The St. Louis Chamber Chorus will offer a characteristically imaginative concert that afternoon at 3 p.m., at Congregation Shaare Emeth (at the corner of Ladue and Ballas Roads). The theme chosen by Artistic Director Phillip Barnes for the 2010-11 season is "Progressions - Transitions." For this concert, that means the selections all deal with the notion of exile (the Jewish captivity in Babylon) balanced with the idea of a return home, to joy, or to a sense of completion.
As is typical of a Chamber Chorus performance, works chosen range from the traditional -- settings by Billings, Palestrina and Gesualdo, plus a modern variation of Bach -- to the modern, including a 20th century work by British composer Herbert Sumsion, and a pair of commissioned pieces.
One of the commissioned pieces is a world premiere called "A Bird is Singing," composed by Judith Bingham. It is a celebration of married love that makes use of both Belarus folk songs and the imagery of Marc Chagall's stained windows. The other new piece, by Clare Maclean, is one of many settings during the concert of Psalm 137, the lament that begins "By the waters of Babylon we sat and wept / when we remembered Zion." Maclean's honors Shaare Emeth Cantor Seth Warner. Her work is a rainbow coalition of motifs, including a Schumann melody, a Lutheran chorale, birdsong and (appropriately) synagogal chant.
Variety of musical provenance, and variety of venue, are two watchwords of the chorus, now celebrating its 55th year. (The group was founded in 1956 by Ronald Arnatt, another distinguished and polymath Brit.) Under Barnes' creative direction (it's his 22nd season), Chamber Chorus concerts always include a mix of the earliest European works for voice and the contemporary, including commissioned works -- typically a St. Louis, American or (as here) world premiere. Barnes' commitment is announced in the season brochure, which notes that "performers and listeners alike relish the 'new'."
A season's venues are also typically varied. This year's six locales (the group performs roughly once a month, October to May) include a Lutheran church, this week's synagogue, several Catholic churches and Washington University's Graham Chapel. Music lovers who commit for the season also get a bonus: They receive an extensive supplementary education in learning about architectural styles, about the history of each individual church and about the larger St. Louis history of that church. The handsome season brochure also includes a full-page glossary of musical and technical terms, from "anthem" to "tutti," with a further reminder about how the Italian language forms plural nouns from singular ones. Education is, in short, another vital Barnes and Chamber Chorus tradition. Barnes has a day job as a teacher of Classics at John Burroughs School.
Barnes is experiencing his own special return this year, following a year's deeply educational sabbatical in England. He found his British experience a bit humbling, but returns to direct a chorus that, under his guidance, has evolved a very "demanding" tradition. The word "daunting" is used, not inaccurately, to describe the effort the chorus is expected to make for each concert and throughout the season. Its singers have in recent years had to master lyrics in 10 languages, not to mention the widely varying musical styles and national traditions every concert offers. Barnes' serious intent is reflected firm prohibitions not only the self-evident "cell phones, beepers and whispering," but even the apparently innocent practice of "knitting."
Both the Chamber Chorus and its artistic director assume that listeners who come to their concerts come to listen and come to be informed. It has been my experience that they invariably come away not merely informed but delighted.
Further information about tickets is available at 636-458-4343.
Jamie Spencer is a freelance writer who has long followed classical music.