Music Department Presents an Evening of Choral Music

The SUNY Plattsburgh College Chorale will open the concert with an a cappella part-song of Brahms that serves as a lyrical ode to nature and the peace of mind it brings to listeners. The choir will continue with several 20th-century choral pieces. The audience will recognize the nursery rhyme lyrics to English composer John Rutter's contrapuntally playful "Sing a Song of Sixpence." John Gardner sets the hymn text "Nearer, my God, to Thee" in a popular style, with piano and electric bass accompaniment. The choir also will perform Moses Hogan's harmonically rich setting of "Deep River."

The SUNY Plattsburgh chamber choir, the Cardinal Singers will begin their portion of the program with 20th-century American composer Samuel Barber's a cappella piece "The Coolin," a setting full of rhythmic and melodic motifs that will charm the listener. The chamber choir will continue with Baroque works accompanied by instrumental chamber ensembles. They will sing two movements from Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, which juxtapose the chant-like settings of the liturgical text with highly complex rhythmic writing. The choir will conclude with J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 23, "Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn," set for two oboes, strings and continuo. Within this cantata, Bach wrote melodically sophisticated men's and women's duets. The Cardinal Singers will display their vocal dexterity by performing these duets using full choral sections, rather than solo voices.

The combined chorus of College Chorale and Cardinal Singers will conclude the program with a moving setting of "Ave Maria," set by 20th-century composer Franz Biebl. Combining the style of chant and the texture of double chorus writing, Biebl infuses the work with warm harmonic progressions that make this work one of the most popular pieces to be performed by classical a cappella groups today.

For more information, please call the SUNY Plattsburgh Performing Arts Information Line at 518-564-2283.