Michael Reckord, Contributor
The Jamaica College Chapel Choir goes through one of their pieces at their 20th Anniversary Recital held at Saxthorpe Methodist Church, Constant Spring Road on Sunday. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
THE SPIRIT of Christmas was prolonged to New Year's Day by the Jamaica College Chapel Choir's concert at Saxthorpe Methodist Church, St. Andrew. Marking the end of the choir's 2005 performance season, the concert included several Christmas carols.
The carols, like the other items performed under the direction of choirmaster Randall Campbell, were well received by the audience. Included in those items were the evening's major ones, Giovanni Pergolesi's Magnificat and Georg Handel's Zadok, the Priest.
Sponsored, for approximately 10 years, by the Saxthorpe Methodist Church's Men's Fellowship, the concert was one of the group's many outreach programmes.
In the first section of the programme, the near-30-strong choir of past and present Jamaica College boys and men sang five items. The first three, including the hymns O Master Let Me Walk With Thee (R.F. Swift) and For All the Saints (Ralph Vaughn-Williams), indicated clearly the concert strengths and major failing.
CHOIR OVERWHELMED
The latter is not difficult to fix, but it has been taking place over some years and occurred two or three times in Sunday's concert. Organist Paul Bicknell, though generally excellent, at times overwhelmed the choir with his playing. This happened with the Swift piece and later, in Section 2, with Lo, He comes With Clouds Descending (David Willcocks).
On the positive side, the strengths of the choir were a pleasant tone, good diction, nice blend of voices and fine harmony. A solo segment for the treble voices during the Vaughn-Williams hymn was particularly pleasing.
Then came the testing, complex Pergolesi and Handel pieces. They call for concentration, emotion and sudden, often brief vocal entries and exits by various voices and at varied volumes. They are difficult pieces for some boys who have only been singing since the start of the school year.
It was no wonder, as the conductor told The Gleaner, that he took three weeks to decide the choir would tackle the Handel. But the enthusiastic applause at the end of the pieces showed that the choir's performance pleased.
After that, the relatively simple hymns and carols of Section 2 would have been a breeze. This is not to imply that they were any less pleasing, or that they were given scant treatment. Far from it.
The 10 items were carefully ordered, so that the audience enjoyed variety, in moods, styles, tempo, and even content and language (German, Latin, English). For example, the solemn carol In the bleak Mid-Winter (Gustav Holst) was followed by the sublimely beautiful Stille Nacht (Franz Guber), then the more up tempo Angel Tidings (John Rutter) and then the tremendously merry In Dulci Jublio (R.L. Pearsall).
Later, the simple, well-known Jingle Bells (Willocks) was given a fun-filled four-part harmony treatment, and finally the choir sang, with great sincerity and joy, Willcocks' magnificent O Come all Ye Faithful.
The choir, conductor and accompanists(the second was Audley Davidson) deserved the standing ovation the audience afforded them.
