Noe, Noe, Psallite Noe
The Falls Church, Falls Church, VA
Sun Dec 6 2009 at 3 pm

The first concert of the 2009-10 season, Noe, Noe, Psallite Noe ("Noel, Noel, Sing Noel"), consisted of a parody mass and sacred motets from French, Italian, and German composers. Some selections will be performed a cappella by the entire Chorale and feature small groups. Other selections are composed for double choir and will be performed in an antiphonal setting with organ.

Good Friday Service
Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land
Fri Apr 2 2010 at 8 pm

This season marked the 21st year the Chorale has performed the Good Friday service at the Church and Monastery of Mount St Sepulchre, a Franciscan monastery and Commissariat of the Holy Land in America, located in Washington, DC.

The Passiontide music consisted mostly of Renaissance sacred motets. Although selections in other Chorale concerts typically are performed in their original languages (whether Latin, German, French, or Old Church Slavonic), the practice for the Monastery service is to sing more selections in English. In addition, all music for the service must be performed a cappella.

The selection Good Friday was composed by longtime Chorale member Mimi Gonigam Stevens, based on words from the Gospel of Luke. The service ends with the life-size statue of Jesus being placed in the tomb, with the Chorale singing the spiritual Were You There? featuring soprano soloist Veronica Precup.

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets — works emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length. His compositions helped define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies.

Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) was a Liechtensteinian-born, German-domiciled organist and composer whose religious works include twelve masses (one for double chorus, three for four voices a cappella, three for women's voices and organ, two for men's voices, and one with orchestra), a requiem, and a stabat mater. A prolific composer, his other works include several operas, symphonies, chamber music, and choral works.

Requiem and Mass in E-flat
St Mark's Lutheran Church
Sun May 2 2010 at 4 pm

The last concert of the 2009-10 season featured Anton Bruckner's Requiem in D Minor and Josef Rheinberger's Mass in E-flat Major.  Also included were two Bruckner motets, Ave Maria and Os Justi.

Bruckner's Requiem in D minor (WAB 39) was his first truly large-scale composition and first significant work. It is a setting of the Missa Pro Defunctis for vocal soloists, horns, trombones, strings, and organ with figured bass.

The piece shows clear influences of Mozart's Requiem (also in D minor) and similar works of Michael Haydn. It was written to memorialize Franz Sailer, the notary of the St Florian monastery, who bequeathed Bruckner a Bösendorfer piano. Requiem premiered on September 15, 1849, a year after Sailer's death.

Rheinberger's Mass in E-flat Major (Op 109), is an intimate work that expresses the text of the Mass almost conversationally. With its broad, antiphonal strokes, its judicious balance between homophony and counterpoint, and its clearly declaimed text designed for liturgical use, this unaccompanied Mass composed for double choir demonstrates clear links with classical model.

The piece was composed in 1878 and dedicated to Pope Leo XIII who rewarded Rheinberger with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Saint Gregory.