Cover image: Cappella Romana in rehearsal for ‘Venice in the East’ (Photo: Cappella Romana)
Hearing Cappella Romana singing in St. James Cathedral is to hear a slice of heaven. For its final concert of the 2017-18 season, the Portland-based group took on the Renaissance music heard in the Greek islands of the Venetian empire, a combination of sometimes-Roman Catholic liturgy, sometimes-Greek Orthodox, a relatively tolerant sharing of two ancient traditions.
As always, the presentation was scholarly, as accurate a portrayal of the music as it would have been performed as can be ascertained through diligent research. Alexander Lingas, founder and conductor of the group, is a worldwide renowned scholar in the field. Six women and eight men, nine if you include Lingas, a tenor, who often sang as well, performed a variety of works in both Greek and Latin from many contemporary sources, some where the actual composer is known.
Much of it was sung in unison over a bass drone. This is chant, not songs in stanzas with a specific rhythm. That pacing was often a slow steady beat, with occasionally melismatic coloring or emphasis on a word with more than one note and tone to a beat. Quite often one of the group sang solo phrases or longer passages, most often basses Mark Powell or John Michael Boyer, both of them cantors in the Greek Orthodox Church.
All of the choir have an understanding of the voice production used to sing in that style: a sonorous sound which seems to come from the back of the nose, reaching each note from slightly underneath, and with tiny ornaments from time to time. It’s particularly notable from Boyer. The women seem to use that style less. In some cases, the group sang in simple harmonies, one piece with a rhythm to it as well, probably the only 16th-century work on the program until the encore.
Within that steady beat and minimal dynamic range (mostly medium loud), the group could still bring out expressivity. Thus one piece sounded devout but on the cheerful side, another contemplative, another vigorous and full of praise. Throughout, there was a sense of serenity which washed over the listener.
For an encore, the group sang a very beautiful motet by a composer who started as a Cretan organist but made his way via Italy to Munich and the influence of Flemish composer Orlando di Lasso.
