In a voice without restraint

On Saturday (10th Feb) night the Slothette and I went to see the Tallis Scholars. I'd heard of the Scholars, but I'm not sure that I'd actually ever heard any of their music, and we went along as an impulse, on the back of a positive puff piece in the paper. We both enjoy choral music, so it's passing strange that the Scholars had not registered on the radar before this. For the uninitiated, the Scholars focus on Renaissance choral music: no instruments, no accompaniment, simple, pure voices.

In short, the concert was sublime. The highlight was the performance of Thomas Tallis' motet for 40 voices, the mighty Spem in alium, performed with the assistance of the Sydney Chamber Choir. So good they did it twice, and I would have stayed for a third helping, had they offered. Also on offer were goodies such as Byrd's Mass for four voices and Parsons' Ave Maria.

I usually listen to music at work or on the bus, making it secondary to whatever distraction is at hand. Music in a concert is a different proposition, you're forced to listen to and concentrate on the music. The concert hall becomes a sensory deprivation tank where your only remaining sense is your hearing. This music allows your mind to float free, to flow with every swirl and eddy in its currents. At times the choir sounds like murmurings of a curiously harmonious crowd, perhaps a busy choral cafe, but occasionally a voice will soar free for a split second, like a silver fish breaching a stream. Other pieces have strands woven together into a tapestry, so that the listener can choose to follow either the warp or the weft of the harmony, or to sit back and feel the warmth and colour of the whole. At other times the choir sings with one voice, an instrument of clarity and power. Spem in alium, in particular, was mesmeric and shattering, destroying the soul for its duration.

So, yes, I loved it. It might be a measure of the concert's success that Sydney's notorious coughers seemed to have been silenced for the duration. The SMH also has a more polished, but still very enthusiastic review.