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Local voices

Central Oregon Mastersingers begins its 7th season


By David Jasper / The Bulletin
Published: October 21. 2011 4:00AM PST

The 40-piece Central Oregon Mastersingers will kick off its seventh season tonight at First Presbyterian Church in Bend (see If you go) with what director Clyde Thompson promises will be a big concert. Thompson is referring to Morten Lauridsens Lux Aeterna and Leonard Bernsteins Chichester Psalms, two pieces that he says are widely considered to be among the greatest choral works by American composers. They are certainly two of the most popular, he said. Theyre part of a program that also includes choral works by Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Pavel Tschesnokoff and others. All in all, the concert has been a pretty big undertaking, Thompson said last week, adding with a chuckle, Its a little bigger even than I realized when we started off. Since its premiere in 1997, Lux Aeterna has become one of the most frequently performed choral works in the world, according to Thompson. Lux Aeterna means Eternal Light, he said, and you can hear the image of light pervading the whole 25-minute piece the textures that Lauridsen creates for the choir just seem to shimmer. The music has a sort of translucent quality. Its a gorgeous work. Lauridsen was awarded the National Medal of Arts in a White House ceremony in 2007, and according to Thompson, musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple has called him the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic, (whose) probing, serene work contains an elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all the questions have been answered. The inimitable Leonard Bernstein composed Chichester Psalms in 1965 for the annual music festival at Englands Photos by Andy Tullis / The Bulletin Director Clyde Thompson leads the 40-voice Central Oregon Mastersingers during last Sundays rehearsal

Chichester Cathedral. The infectious rhythms and heartcatching melodies in this three-movement setting of psalm texts has made it a perennial favorite with both singers and audiences, and one of Bernsteins most beloved compositions, Thompson wrote in a press release for the event. His music is so passionate and visceral in every way melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic it makes this piece a great joy to sing as well as to listen to, Thompson said. Well be performing it with two pianos and two percussionists, and a whole battery of percussion instruments, so it will be quite exciting. James Knox (director of the Cascade Chorale) will be singing the countertenor solo in the piece. Thompson said the program will be rounded out by other classics in the choral repertoire: Works by Vaughan-

for this weekends concert, featuring popular choral works by American composers Morten Lauridsen and Leonard Bernstein.

If you go
What: Central Oregon Mastersingers When: 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday Where: First Presbyterian Church, 230 N.E. Ninth St., Bend Cost: $15, available in advance at www.comastersingers.com or 541-385-7229 or through Visit Bend (541-382-8048) Contact: 541-385-7229 or www.co-mastersingers.com

Williams, Tschesnokoff, Randall Thompson, Franz Biebls great setting of Ave Maria, settings of old American hymns by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker and a spiritual by Moses Hogan. Its just gorgeous, gorgeous choral music, he said of this weekends program. Theyre all really standard pieces in the repertoire, most of them. Reporter: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com

Published Daily in Bend Oregon by Western Communications, Inc. 2011

www.bendbulletin.com

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