Washington University Concert Choir to perform music based on Old Testament texts April 13

The Washington University Concert Choir will present a concert of music based on Old Testament texts at 8 p.m. Friday, April 13, in the university’s Graham Chapel.

The concert is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences. Graham Chapel is located just north of the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-4841 or email staylor@wustl.edu.

John Stewart, director of vocal activities, directs the program, which will feature music ranging from the Renaissance to the 20th century. The concert will open with Sing we merrily unto God from Psalm 81, by the Renaissance English composer William Byrd (c. 1539-1643). Though Roman Catholic, Byrd served as organist at the Chapel Royal (the monarch’s private chapel) during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and composed music for both Anglican and Catholic services.

The program will continue with Tu solis, qui facis mirabilia (In you alone we seek refuge), a motet by Josquin Desprez (c. 1440-1521). A canon at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Hainaut near Cambrai, Josquin was one of the great composers of the high Renaissance. Tu solis, though similar in structure to his highly popular secular pieces, is based on a formula for psalm recitation in the Catholic mass.

Next on the program is Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz, a motet by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Set to text from Psalm 51 and composed in Vienna in 1860, this five-voice, tri-partite work demonstrates that Brahms — despite his role as a leading 19th-century composer — could craft fine choral works based on Baroque textures.

The concert will conclude with three selections from Randall Thompson’s The Peaceable Kingdom (1936), a sequence of a cappella choruses set to texts from The Book of Isaiah. Thompson (1899-1984) was a native of New York City and graduate of Harvard, where he taught for 17 years. His choral works, including his renowned Alleluia (1940), have been mainstays for college choirs for the last half-century.