Also this issue:

Nashville's Back Lot
The Folk Alliance Showcase reveals the gears of the music-licensing machine.
-Mary Armstrong

Keep Moving
The Secession Movement is a band with a plan.
-Paul Burress

Aereogramme
-John Vettese

The Aislers Set
-Sam Adams

Lo-Hi
-M.J. Fine

TV Smith
-Sam Adams

Mary Timony
-M.J. Fine

Dysrhythmia
-Paul Burress

March 27-April 2, 2003

music

Old Gods Alive Again

The Choral Arts Society exhumes our musical lineage.

by Peter Burwasser

The great historical bridge connecting ancient Greece, the Etruscans and Rome that is now being celebrated at the University Museum was freighted with the culture that formed the basis for our own civilization. Music was a central element. The rules of intervals and harmony established by Pythagorean theory still define the basic structure of composition after thousands of years.

So it is more than fitting that the Museum's splendid new permanent exhibits should be honored in song, with a special concert this weekend by the Choral Arts Society, 110 voices strong. Ironically, there are virtually no extant examples of Greek, Etruscan or Roman music, but as the music on the program attests, there is still a rich lode of inspiration for contemporary composers. Artistic Director David Tang has assembled music that draws from the long threads of stimulation that intertwine multiple art forms: "Music for these cultures for large mixed chorus, singing anything other than chants, does not exist. But the practice of chanting religious text has influenced music throughout history, just as the Greek, Roman and Etruscan visual arts have influenced Western visual art for centuries."

In addition to music by Whitacre, Argento, Rorem and Pizzetti, the concert will include a world premiere by the acclaimed American choral composer Robert Convery. He has conceived a paean to the cult of Diana, a goddess of multiple concerns, including the hunt, the moon and (for a Middle Ages cult of Wicca) witches. Her serene temple is at Lake Nemi, on the outskirts of Rome, and several artifacts and statuary from Nemi are in the dazzling new Roman gallery at the University Museum. Convery, a composer of subtle and variegated emotional impact, has constructed a cantata for unaccompanied mixed chorus for the occasion.

The concert will close with a work that combines both the thematic material in the museum, specifically, the Etruscan civilization, and a visceral quality of celebration. As Tang explains, "Eric Whitacre's Cloudburst captures the mystical quality and raw power of storms more colorfully than almost any other piece of music ever written. The chorus not only sings, but chants, plays handbells, snaps their fingers, rubs their thighs and claps in order to create a vivid sonic storm." And may the gods rain fortune and peace on us all.

Choral Arts Society: "Worlds Intertwined" takes place Sat., March 29, 8 p.m., $30-$35, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 3260 South St., 215-893-1999.