Summer Singers Make Fine Music

Sanders Theatre rang with the sounds of fine singing yesterday evening. The occasion was the annual concert of the Summer School Chorus. For the third successive year the Chorus was trained by Harold C. Schmidt '32, professor of Music and choral director at Stanford University; and for the third successive year the results were remarkable.

Schmidt deserves tremendous credit for his ability to take an anonymous group of 80 amateurs and mould them in only six weeks into a single responsive musical body that can hold its own in a community accustomed to the very best in choral singing.

Schmidt chose a varied program wholly devoted to intriguing and rather out-of-the-way items. The opening "Hail, bright Cecilia," by Purcell, had the proper majesty, though there was a bit of trouble with a few of the tricky entrances. Brahms' brooding and richly colored Song of the Fates fared well, and again showed that Brahms has no superior in the handling of the choral medium.

For the group of madrigals Schmidt used a reduced chorus of two dozen. An interesting comparison was afforded in two settings, a half century apart, of the same text--one, by Vecchi, lyric and smooth; the other, by Arcadelt, more dramatic. The singers displayed excellent precision in Lo Schernito, one of the bright and rapid fa-la-la pieces that Gastoldi made a specialty. There followed an amusing Impromptu, written last year by the talented young composer Kirke Mechem.

The group ended with a captivating performance of Monteverdi's Vago Augelletto. The work requires besides a chorus six vocal soloists, two solo violins and basso continuo (here executed by 'cello, bassoon and harpsichord). This piece of shifting moods makes use of countless different combinations of the solo, choral and instrumental forces.

The full Chorus, with soprano soloist Dorothy Crawford, gave three excerpts from Vaughan-Williams' enchanting In Windsor Forest? the jaunty "Falstaff and the Faries," the lush "Wedding Chariot," and the sturdy "Epilogue."

The final work was Ode to the Virginian Voyage, written a year ago by Randall Thompson '20 for the Virginia 350th Anniversary Commission. This big piece is in the tradition of the great Baroque "occasional" odes; in fact it is about two-thirds Handel and one-third Thompson. The third of the seven movements is a first cousin to the "Londonderry Air," and the fourth is based on the hymn "O God Our Help In Ages Past." There are fanfares and a full-blown fugue and finale. This is all effective writing, and the chorus produced some glorious sounds.

Duo-pianists Anne Chamberlain and Rafael Ferrer were an able substitute for an orchestra.