The Chattanooga Bach Choir and Orchestra, David Long, artistic director and conductor, opens its 35th consecutive season of Masterworks concerts with “Choral Masterpieces Based on Gregorian Chant.” The concert takes place on Saturday, November 16, 2019, at 8:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chattanooga. Admission is $25; students are free. Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.chattanoogabachchoir.org or at the door on the evening of the concert.
“Choral Masterpieces Based on Gregorian Chant” features Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem (chamber orchestra version) and a cappella works including Missa Pange lingua by Josquin des Pres and settings of Ubi Caritas et Amor by Duruflé, Ola Gjeilo and Paul Mealor. The Bach Choir and Orchestra will be joined by guest artist Paul Thomas, organist at St. Paul’s.
David Long, the Bach Choir’s artistic director, comments, “For this concert we explore works based on Gregorian chant, a body of unaccompanied sacred song created in the early days of the Christian church that became the foundation of Western liturgical music. Our program features choral works from the Renaissance to the present that set or incorporate these chants in music that expresses the calm, meditative atmosphere of prayers. We start in the a cappella tradition with the profoundly beautiful Missa Pange lingua by the Renaissance composer Josquin de Pres, hailed in his own time as ‘the master of the notes,’ in which he uses the hymn Pange Lingua Gloriosi (Sing, my tongue, the Savior’s glory) by St. Thomas Aquinas to create one of his most famous mass settings. The chant Ubi Caritas et Amor (Where Charity and Love are, there God is) dates from the earliest days of the Christian church and is also found in Anglican and Lutheran liturgies. The Bach Choir will perform Ubi Caritas in three modern motet settings by Duruflé (1960), Ola Gjeilo (2001) and Paul Mealor (commissioned for the wedding of Prince William in 2011). The second half of our program is devoted to Duruflé’s Requiem (1947), a sonically gorgeous 20th century recreation of the essence of Gregorian style for solo voice, mixed chorus, chamber orchestra and organ. A particular favorite of founding Chattanooga Bach Choir conductor J. James Greasby, the Requiem is based on Gregorian chant melodies from the Mass for the Dead, yet Duruflé infuses the work with peace and comfort and leaves listeners with a lingering mood of hope. We are joined by the fabulous organist Paul Thomas, playing on St. Paul’s Casavant organ, which is highly suitable for French music. Concertmaster Mark Reneau leads the Bach Choir Orchestra.”