Event

Mass of the Children

The Praeclara Vocal Company joins with the UA Little Rock Community Chorus, the adult and youth choirs of Second Presbyterian Church, the Mount St. Mary Academy Concert Belles, and professional orchestra players from across the state to present two glorious choral compositions that celebrate the fusion of English poetry and song.

John Rutter's "Mass of the Children" mixes the traditional Greek and Latin text of a missa brevis with the English poetry of William Blake and Bishop Thomas Ken. First performed in 2003, this uplifting work brings together soprano and baritone solo passages that both harmonize and contrast with the choral passages sung by the children's voices (the songs of innocence) and by the adult group (the songs of experience).

Artistic director Bevan Keating prefaces the larger Rutter work with Vaughan Williams's 17-minute "Serenade to Music," also a study in contrasts. Vaughan Williams wrote the work to showcase specific individual voices in his small choir, each part matched to a particular soloist for color, expressiveness, and tone. The result is that the voices are almost as varied and distinctive as orchestra instruments: a challenge well-suited for the professionals who make up Praeclara's elite vocal company. The text of the piece is taken from the fifth act of William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice."