CHORAL EXCELLENCE VIA THE PHILLIPSES
              And Booming Canonical Firepower to Boot  
                                              By D. Rane Danubian
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of March 29, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 11, No. 84

            BERKELEY---The choral director Peter Phillips greeted Peter Philips as though they were shaking hands. And they’re only four centuries apart.
            Phillips’ elite renaissance choral group, the Tallis Scholars, returned and brought some music of the other Philips (ca. 1560-1628), probably as a subtle in-joke for the legions of their fans that packed the First Congregational Church on March 28. It was all part of a double-chorus (eight-part) display of unaccompanied liturgical  renaissance polyphony, one of the most difficult of assignments in that huge repertory that seems to dominate the reference stacks of our university music libraries.
            Phillips, who had founded the ensemble in 1973, was working on his home grounds here, so to speak, in style and repertory. But in addition, he strove to show a rarely noticed evolution from renaissance toward baroque music style within choral music (and not in opera, where it is usually credited). The move toward vertical writing, contrasted to the earlier horizontal/contrapuntal emphasis of high complexity, is found already in music of obscure figures like Dominique Phinot and Hieronymus Praetorius that presumably musicologist Phillips himself ferreted out and performed here.
            This music of the High-Church Latin liturgy is absorbed by some as a religious experience of the pre-Easter season, by others as a revel in the best of the renaissance riches. But whichever of the three entry points you prefer, this high-quality concert by five men and five women without accompaniment was a revelation.
            Renaissance music is different, quite apart from the elaborate embroidery of the multiple vocal lines. What are called basses are actually high baritones, as the era did not treasure deep voices. The top voice is not the lead voice either; indeed it conventionally finishes on the third or fifth degree, not on the home-base tonic. And the leading tone (the note B, for instance, in the key of C major) is almost nonexistent, never used as a pathway to the closing tonic. 
            Tallis unearthed incredibly obscure early composers here, including Alonso Lobo and Jean Mouton, worlds apart, yet both reveling in writing canons galore with relish. There was an entire mass by the incredible prolific Orlando di Lasso of Munich. And the transition music of that other Philips, an émigré Englishman,  showed both antiphonal echoing of a double chorus as well as a Monteverdian (baroque) influence. 
            The Tallis singers are of course a legend. Its men have a more robust sound compared to other groups, but they are versatile enough to turn highly lyrical in choice spots like the halo-like “Incarnatus est” (He was incarnate) in di Lasso’s Credo.
            Tallis Scholars, presented by Cal Performances series attractions. For info:  (510) 642-9988, or go online. 

        ©D. Rane Danubian 2009
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        D. Rane Danubian has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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