The Age of Innocence

It's often remarked that Benjamin Britten was fascinated by innocence, and especially the fall of innocence, yet it's seldom noted that he was also fascinated by the supernatural. Maybe it's more accurate to say that his music often evokes the supernatural — shimmering through strange dissonances and ethereal harmonies. His Midsummer Night's Dream is as recognizable as his Billy Budd, and the crossover between the two — the innocent and the supernatural — is distilled in his Turn of the Screw and encapsulated in Serenade, in the short setting of Blake's poem "O rose." Nowhere is that theme better realized than in his church music for children, especially his lovely Ceremony of Carols. This 11-part setting of medieval and Renaissance poems that retell the birth of Christ was the centerpiece of the Pacific Boychoir's "Harmonies of the Season" concert Saturday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Oakland.

It takes an excellent chorus to sing A Ceremony of Carols. Britten's treatment does not discard complexity; there is nothing sentimental in his perceptions. The piece provides a changing panorama of otherworldly melodies, dissonant harmonies, and complexly textured canons, all of it supported by harp playing that recalls not only the natural world but also the mystery of creation that lies beneath that world. Riding above, and sometimes separately from, that musical texture are the solos and duets that focus the listener on a text of essential mystery. There is nothing like the sound of a boy soprano. The purity of tone carries an unadorned quality that rides through intricacy with a sense of rightness and the illusion of simplicity. Henry Nelson exquisitely sang the breathtaking "That yongë child":

That yongë child when it gan weep with song she lulled him asleep; That was so sweet a melody it passed alle minstrelsy.

Peter Kenton was the soloist in "Balulalow," leading and countering the chorus in overlapping melody and harmonies. And Calvin Acorn and Christian Ricco sang the duet of "Spring Carol," in which the singers alternate between singing the melody while the other holds the final note of his melody. The harp, played by Anna Maria Mendieta, acted as more than accompaniment and counterpoint to the singers. During its magical solo interlude it also conjured the world of winter through rapid glissandos and shifting arpeggios. Its frosty, twinkling notes continued through "In Freezing Winter Night," melting into warm harmonies and a quiet lushness in "Spring Carol."

Photo by Lisa Keating

St. Paul's Church, with its high vaulted ceiling and brick walls, provided the resonant church setting that Britten had envisioned, even though its "dime flat" organ required the harpist to retune and the singers to compensate for its less than perfect pitch.

Serenely Confident

The other stunning piece on the program was the second movement of Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. Set to the Hebrew version of the 23rd psalm — "The Lord is my shepherd" ("Adonai ro-i") — the movement has a soloist leading a treble chorus in a simple melodic phrase that divides into multiparts. In this case, singing the solo was the awesome Jack Lundquist. Not only was his tone beautiful, suggesting the young David, mythic Harper of God, but also he sang with confidence and serenity, anchoring the chorus and capturing the work's central mood:

Surely goodness and mercy Shall follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

Throughout the performance the Pacific Boychoir Academy's teenage chorus joined the treble chorus. Teen years are a difficult time for the male voice, and when these young men sang apart from the main chorus, they had issues. Dynamic control and variations of pitch plagued their blending, but overall, the sound was pleasing, and it was clear that on the other side of voice change, these young men could be remarkable singers. Sensitive to their age and its needs, Assistant Director Chris Kula provided an arrangement of Deck the Halls that melodically veered from Beethoven to Sondheim, with large sections of Orff's Carmina Burana thrown in for good measure. It made a gently comic distraction for the audience as we struggled to "Name That Tune" before it melted into another. Kevin Fox, director of the Pacific Boychoir, deserves great credit not only for leading a boys' choir of such grace and beauty but also for being one of the founders of the Pacific Boychoir Academy. One of two such organizations in the U.S. and the only one on the West Coast, the academy gives its students full academic training while emphasizing music and singing. The boys have one and a half hours of music per day and classes are organized and ordered around performances. The results are brilliant. Why shouldn't we place music first and encourage our children to sing every day?