reviewvancouver: Vancouver Chamber Choir, Eton Choirbook

Long before the 19th century fantasies of Wellingtonian playing fields, Eton College Mess or the Boating Song, King Henry VI established Eton College as an educational foundation to train poor boys for a career in the Church. As well as lessons, masters and boys, clergy and clerks were required to sing the liturgical hours throughout the day, at regular Masses and at special services. These motets, used over decades, were collected and copied into what is now called the Eton Choirbook around1501. Besides the 54 motets there are settings for a Mass and nine settings of the Magnificat.

This music is not dramatic in the sense that there is very little word-painting and the meaning of the words seems not to be reflected in the musical lines. Even the vivid “Crucifige, crucifige” of William Cornysh’s “Stabat Mater,” Vancouver Chamber Choir’s opening piece, hardly disturbs the flowing and spacious melismas which form a cloud of airy sound. And yet, as a sound scape of profound sympathy for the Virgin at the Cross, it succeeds across the centuries.

Walter Lambe’s “Nesciens Mater,” is a more intimate work, less complex but full of variety. The three middle voices began, undulating gently towards a perfect fifth and opening into a wide and clear duet for the top and bottom voices. Various permutations of two and three voices with the full choir rose and fell in a calm beauty.

In contrast Robert Wylkynson's Salve Regina employs nine voices. Three times three is a significant number in Christian theology but there is speculation that this is a case of one-up-man-ship on the part of the composer with reference to fellow composer John Browne's setting for eight singers. Wylkynson was also informator choristam, the choirmaster, so perhaps he was setting the boys a challenge. This piece also has its dramatic moments with special emphasis on certain words and places in the text. "Salve", "O Clemens", "O pia" resounded with special force. Celestial heights and ringing depths are interlaced with intricate middle parts so that the music swells and fades in grand waves.

When the Eton boys were on holiday, soaring soprano lines were absent and the men sang music set for lower voices only. William Cornysh’s Ave Maria Mater Dei for just four voices is relatively austere and private, a simple prayer to be kept safe.

The concert closed with Magnificat Regale by the Robert Fayrfax. Long melismatic lines alternating with Gregorian chant radiated a plangent sonority through St. Philip’s space, bringing peace at the end of the day.

It takes a very good choir that can sustain the long lines, accomplish the intricate melismas and manage the complexities of construction that this music demands. VCC under the constant baton of Kari Turunen can do all that and maintain energy and interest at the same time. Richness in the bass lines, ethereal, floating sopranos, broad generosity in the middle, a suave blending of voices produced a glorious, hypnotic swath of sound both worshipful and contemplative. This was a concert to treasure.