BRATTLEBORO — The Blanche Moyse Chorale will make a joyful noise with performances of sacred works by the German composers Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) and Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847).
The concert will be performed twice: on Friday, April 11, at 8 p.m. at the Immanuel Episcopal Church in Bellows Falls, and Sunday, April 13, at 3 p.m. at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro.
Under the direction of Mary Westbrook-Geha, the chorale will treat its audience to a rich selection of a cappella works - by Schütz from the heart of the Baroque period and by Mendelssohn from the heart of the Romantic period.
The selected texts used by both composers are similar - either psalms or shorter biblical excerpts - but their musical settings differ strikingly. The contrast between their dynamic, harmonic, and polyphonic treatment opens a fascinating window into the cultural evolution that took place over the two centuries between the composers' births.
The concert's title, “Make a Joyful Noise,” is derived from the text of Psalm 100, which appears twice in the program, in contrasting musical interpretations by both composers.
The Blanche Moyse Chorale, founded in 1978 as a program of the Brattleboro Music Center, is a chamber chorus of approximately 30 singers who strive to attain the high level of musical artistry exemplified by its original director, Blanche Moyse.
The Chorale was the choral arm of the New England Bach Festival for many years.
Since 2007, director Mary Westbrook-Geha has led the chorale in performances of works by Handel, Copland, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, Britten, Palestrina, Schütz, Brahms, and J.S. Bach. Although it's based in the Brattleboro area, the chorale includes singers from neighboring states and beyond.