Jesus Chronicles

The Chalice Consort brought its remarkable sound and splendid musicianship to St. Monica Catholic Church in San Francisco Saturday night, in an a cappella concert ably led by Matthew Walsh. The first half of the program was beautifully constructed, starting with unison chant, continuing with a confluence of chants, then alternating chant with solo ensembles, and finally singing in full four-part and six-part harmony. The subject: the birth of Jesus and the ensuing Epiphany, when the Magi come on their pilgrimage.

In the live acoustic of the St. Monica sanctuary, the eight women's pure, strong, focused voices carried wonderfully, unimpaired by any excess of vibrato. They led off with an Ambrosian chant, Videntes stellam Magi (The wise men seeing the star), which wove together the story of the Magi with elements of Mary's Magnificat and the Gloria from the Mass. The eight men followed with an anonymous Medieval double motet in three parts, each with its own text, two of them about the Magi and one telling the Christmas story of the angels appearing to shepherds. Epiphaniam Domino (The epiphany of our Lord), a 15th-century sequence by Guillaume Dufay, alternated chants and solo ensembles. The unison chants, some sung by the women and some by the men, led into chant-based trios sung by solo voices in various combinations. The full chorus continued with an electrifying performance of a 16th-century polyphonic motet. Reges Tharsis (The kings of Tharsis), by John Sheppard, took the sopranos up to stratospheric heights — a striking contrast with other Medieval and Renaissance repertoire — and the Chalice sopranos nailed it. Magi veniunt ab oriente (The wise men came from the East) by Clemens non Papa, and yet another Videntes stellam by Orlandus Lassus, also told the Epiphany story. In one of many marvelous moments, the chorus, in the Lassus motet, sang a suddenly hushed "they fell down and worshipped Him" ("procidentes adoraverunt eum"). A felicitous telling of the Birth story ended the first half of the program: Palestrina's A solis ortus cardine (From the rising of the sun). This was Palestrina at his best, alternating unison chants with four-part harmony, peaking to a superb five-part chorus on "gaudet chorus coelestrum" (The heavenly chorus rejoices) and culminating in a full-unison chant of the Gloria. The Chalice Consort was heavenly indeed, singing with perfect intonation and beautifully balanced sound.

On a Musical Mission

Chalice has been formed to seek out and perform relatively unknown music by both obscure and well-known composers. Most of the program's second half was devoted to the music of Gottfried August Homilius, an 18th-century composer who studied with J.S. Bach in Leipzig and spent the rest of his musical life in Dresden. According to the program notes, his music was popular well into the 19th century but "has since fallen into undeserved neglect" — a sad fate, particularly in regard to his Magnificat in A, in Latin, for double choir. Homilius harmonized the slow chants and alternated them with fast polyphonic sections. One chorus would start a section and the other would join it, echoing the entrance. Homilius was wonderfully attentive to the affect of each portion of the text: The spirit rejoiced, Mary was suitably humble, the Lord showed might in His arms, the rich were sent empty away (in the minor mode), the Gloria was glorious. Chalice gave the Magnificat a terrific performance, nuanced and spirited, inspiring spontaneous applause from the audience. Two other pieces by Homilius, both set to German Psalm texts, were less effective. Supposedly more simple, in the "style galant" of his day, the music was less engaging than that of his illustrious teacher. And there were signs of vocal discomfort in the performance, as well as a blurring of articulation in fast passagework. It was hard to know whether the problem was fatigue on the part of the singers, something unvocal in the composer's style, an acoustic ill-suited to that style, or the German language, which is less immediately singable than Italian Latin. Still, I would be happy to hear that magnificent Magnificat again. And also to hear a brief excursion that the consort made back to the 16th century: Mirabile mysterium (A wondrous mystery) by Jacobus Gallus (the nickname of a Slovenian composer, Jacob Handl). This motet was highly contrapuntal, theologically convoluted, and so chromatic as to be worthy of Gesualdo. Or maybe Schoenberg. I look forward to hearing more from Handl.