BYRD 400: APPRENTICE TO MASTER / Chroma / Review

BYRD 400: APPRENTICE TO MASTER

Chroma

St Gregory Church’s

Monday (21 August 2023)

 

One of the best-kept secrets in Singapore musical life is the wonderful space of the Armenian Apostolic Church of St Gregory the Illuminator, simply known to all as the Armenian Church. Built in 1835-1836 to serve a small local Armenian community, it is also Singapore’s oldest Christian church. If there be any concert in that venue, one is urged to just go for it, and one will not be disappointed. The hall, which seats between 80 to 100 under its rotunda, has close to perfect acoustics – richly reverberant but never laden with echoes.

 

Choral concerts are a particular favourite here, so it was a great pleasure to have attended a concert by newly-formed vocal ensemble Chroma (http://www.facebook.com/chroma.sg) in an hour long programme commemorating the 400^th death anniversary of English composer William Byrd (1543-1623). Byrd lived during the Elizabethan era, a composer of Roman Catholic faith operating within a milieu of Protestant monarchy. He thankfully received royal and private patronage, which allowed his many religious works to be conceived and performed. The programme also featured works of Byrd’s teacher Thomas Tallis (1505-1585), whose Salvator Mundi opened the concert. A rich and lovely resonance enveloped the hall, with the ten singers projecting the polyphony well.

 

Chroma’s leaders, soprano Ellissa Sayampanathan and baritone Gerard Lim, took turns to address the audience, sharing the history of Byrd’s legacy and those of his forebears and disciples. There was an effort to vary the programme such that Byrd’s Emendemus in Melius and Vigilate gave an idea of his versatility. While the former was meditative, the latter exhibited urgency, a plea for believers to be vigilant and prepare themselves for the coming of judgement. Ne Irascaris Domine and Civitas Sancti Tui continued in Latin, the liturgical language of the Catholic church.

 

The purpose of sacred music was to prepare believers for worship, when a spirit of contrition and repentance is imperative. Having pledged and reaffirmed the creed, the worshipper is grateful, joyous and offers praise to the Almighty. For lay people to better relate to their faith,  vernacular English was also used by the composers, represented by motets I Am The Resurrection by Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656) and Almighty and Everlasting God by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625). The excellent diction and consonance by Chroma enabled much of the words to be discerned. Although this was not a worship service, a reverent silence was maintained until the very end of the concert.  

 

The full complement of Chroma’s 13 singers performed Byrd’s Sing Joyfully, which was exactly as the motet had exhorted. This might have been the most technically challenging of all the pieces, the singers having to juggle multiple lines at a lively tempo. It seemed implausible at first, but hearing is believing. The sonorous effect created was simply marvelous.

The concert also included a selection from Tomkins’ Burial Sentences and Tallis’ Nine Tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter. To close, Byrd’s eucharistic motets Ego Sum Panis Vivus and Cibavit Eos completed a very satisfying programme. The audience clamoured for an encore, and Byrd’s more well-known Ave Verum Corpus was their just dessert. One looks forward to further concerts by the excellent Chroma, and another visit to the Armenian Church hopefully in a not-too-distant future.