The Bermuda Festival Tenebrae

St. John's Church Tuesday

February 12

At the human voice's best, there is no instrument that touches it.

The voices that comprise Tenebrae certainly achieved those levels, and on Tuesday evening, they left their Bermuda Festival audience convinced that there is no other orchestra superior or that is so great a pleasure to hear.

This small choir is made up of voices that are honed and pure, and selected from some of the best-known choirs and choral groups in English music to blend as flawlessly as possible.

The result? The purity and melodiousness of Tenebrae, an accomplishment that is simply beyond imagination.

This chamber choir performed in St. John's Church, which is one the best places acoustically in Bermuda, as well as providing the perfect backdrop for an evening of 'spiritual and musical reflection', which is always their aim.

Their a cappella performance that evening toured 500 years of music, and they took full advantage of the church, dividing the choir and performing in part Thomas Tallis' 'Te lucis ante terminum', from the back of building, which gave the opening piece something of a homogeneous quality.

Beginning there, it allowed the singers to develop the texture of the pieces that followed, which they did to great effect.

Thomas Tallis was the earliest composer of the evening — he lived between 1505 and 1585 — and the beauty of this very early music is in its regularity of rhythm and disciplined dynamic variation, which endows it with its meditative quality.

This beautifully paced first piece was followed by the composer's equally beautiful 'Sancte Deus' and 'Loquebantur'.

The concert moved on through the years to the latter part of the 1500s with John Weelkes 'Hark all ye lovely Saints', which provided a contrast and fascinating lesson in the development of music.

The composer allows the singers a little more latitude than does Tallis, and has embraced clear influences from outside the church.

They responded with a lovely tapestry of sound, which then contrasted with John Bennett's mournful 'Weep O mine eyes', for just four voices. The smaller group allowed these extraordinarily fine singers to harmonise with particular care, and the result was outstandingly lovely rendering.

In contrast, an impressively held 'A round of three country dances in one' by Thomas Ravenscroft was lively and fun, with the male voices taking on various roles, and becoming a little raucous, as the song invites its performers to do.

A gently happy song, 'As Vesta', another by John Weelkes, builds to a lovely climax via elements of a round.

Adventurous rhythm and the opportunity for the singers to create a lot of interest with the dynamics are hallmarks of two pieces by a much more recent composer, Sir Hubert Parry, who was born in 1848.

'There is an old belief' is clearly much more modern, and here, the rhythm is exploratory. Tenebrae took advantage of this to create a lot of interest with the dynamics as well.

'At the round earth's imagined corners' is an interesting exploration of sound to create a sense of mystery, and paint a picture of these unknown parts.

'The Lamb' is a favourite of many vocal enthusiasts, and this piece by modern composer Sir John Tavener is extremely haunting and, many people would argue, one of the most beautiful pieces written for voice.

Tenebrae's performance of this was an extraordinary one, as perfect as one could wish for.

The first half of the concert concluded with Sir William Harris' dynamically exciting 'Faire is the Heaven'.

When the singers returned to the church, they once again divided themselves around the building, and once again, some sang from the back, achieving their extraordinarily beautiful meditative quality.

In this case, however, it was to perform 'Three Prayers' by the modern composer Philip Moore.

From heartfelt submission, to passion and thankfulness, some 500 years later, these were as deeply felt as Tallis' religious works.

The words of Shakespeare are always inspiring, and certainly 'Three Shakespeare Songs' by Ralph Vaughan Williams was a delight and an '...infinite variety' (Anthony and Cleopatra). They have been described as "a triumph of a cappella composition".

The first two songs are from 'The Tempest', and the last is from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

'Full Fathom Five' is composed to convey the effect of underwater voices and bells, while contrasting with this, 'Cloud Capp'd Towers' is calm and dignified, and contrasts again with the carefree 'Over Hill'.

The turn of the century was the period for the three songs that followed, and from Elgar's calming lullaby 'There is sweet music' to the very lively, fast and indeed brief, 'Quick! We have but a second' by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, the development of choral music in comparison to the 1500s was clear in these widely varying pieces that drew on the earliest as well as much more modern influences.

The concert concluded with three Lennon and McCartney songs: 'Blackbird', 'Yesterday' and 'Goodnight', which impressed the audience from two standpoints: the beautiful arrangements of these well known songs and the musical integrity of the original composition.

Jonathan Rathbone's 'Blackbird', in particular, is a lovely arrangement which truly demonstrates the folk song roots of this much more modern music. 'Goodnight' is a beautiful lullaby and was a perfect way to end the concert.

The audience, enraptured by this performance, demanded an encore, and so Tenebrae performed a gorgeous Irish love song before finally leaving the stage for the last time of the evening.

By Rebecca Zuill