Glee Club and Choral Society

Choral music has been orphaned in this century. Estranged from the church, it no longer has strong institutional backing. Cut off from contemporary experimentation, it wanders among neoclassical revivals, folk song arrangements, and patriotic hymning. The program of the Choral Society and the Glee Club set high standards of taste for the moderns to match when they opened with Thomas Tallis's Lamentations of Jeremiah and Heinrich Schutz's 34th Psalm; three contemporary madrigals and Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex met them generally well, but Roger Sessions's Turn, O Libertad did not.

Stravinsky created a unique form in Odeipus Rex, for its drama has neither opera's action nor the oratorio's formal units. Yet the music is crammed with references to this style or that, to Handel and Verdi, little touches that jar the listener at first but later seem almost ironical.

But Oedipus's driving, primitive strength saves it just as the chorus's menacing force did the performance last night. Long 9/8 measures contrast with abrupt triplets to overshadow with a barbaric grandeur the occasional lapses of style. Forbes even took the chorus too far in this direction, for after a rather stale opening the melodic line became jerky; but this flaw disappeared when the chorus greeted Creon and Tiresias with excellent dynamic control and superb forcefulness.

The soloists presented a startling contrast to the chorus. Their expressiveness was moving, but I do not think it is correct here. As Oedipus, Archie Epps displayed a dazzling agility with the intricate melodies in an interpretation of Oedipus that communicated pathos and feeling rather than pride and firmness. As Tiresias, Bentley Layton had warmth and resonance, too, but made the jagged melodic line too fluid. Lacking great vocal strength, he presented a too apologetic Tiresias. The result of both solos was closer to the personal expressiveness of Carissimi's Jeptha than the square, forthright objectivity of Stravinsky's score.

Triteness and cliches plague modern choral music--patriotic pieces especially--and Session's Turn, O Libertad in particular. Complex accompaniment and dissonance cannot hide its dullness and essentially barber-shop harmonies. Such was not so with Elliot Forbes's madrigal Music whose harmonies seemed amazingly fresh and lacking in cliches. The madrigal form, Emerson's text and a modern spirit, surprisingly, did not conflict. John Crawford's two madrigals have a complete texture and greater richness; both had the indispensable virtue of good musical taste.

The chorus's light, luminous sonority, when it sang Tallis's Lamentations of Jeremiah, almost seemed to dim the lights, as is the tradition when the text is sung in Holy Week Matins. Nonetheless, its complex fabric was not very apparent. In Schutz' 84th Psalm it displayed excellent control of its vigor and contrasts. The Choral Society contributed six delightfully cool and sweet songs by Schumann, the chorus maintaining an airy tone and a group of soloists spun an intricate, but occasionally ill-balanced, texture. Three choruses of Haydn ended the concert on a tender, almost sentimental note. They were, indeed, typical of the evening: sometimes erring in treatment, but often technically excellent.