A dynamic chamber ensemble heralded the traditional Christmas feast days with a concert in Sechelt on Dec. 30, mixing millennia-old liturgy with contemporary vocalizations.
The 10-voice Motet chorale was founded 10 years ago by Gibsons music educator David Poon. Its annual Twelve Days of Christmas program at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church was paired with a subsequent performance at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Vancouver.
“This is my colour palette of the twelve days of Christmas,” said Poon. “There are no maids-a-milking, no swimming geese, no partridges. Instead, there are saints who are known for great things — and for dying in terrible ways.”
Among the ill-fated saints commemorated by the musical program was Saint Stephen, who was martyred early in the first century and is venerated on Dec. 26. In his honour, Motet performed a 16th-century offertory, Elegerunt Apostoli by English composer Peter Philips. Thomas Becket, a onetime archbishop who was murdered a century after the Norman invasion of Britain, was recalled through a setting of the Magnificat written by Renaissance organist Thomas Weelkees.
The concert also marked a post-pandemic return of robust audience numbers for the seasonal showcase. At Motet’s 2021 performance, following its COVID-19 hiatus, singers onstage outnumbered the spectators seated in pews.
Each year Poon recruits singers for Motet from among his network of musicians and other choirs he leads.
“Really, one day isn’t enough to do Christmas justice,” said Poon.
At the midpoint in its program, the Motet singers formed a procession to the organ loft and sang the remainder of their selections from the elevated perch behind their listeners.
In a case of function following form, they continued with an antiphon chant by William Byrd to commemorate Sylvester I, a fourth-century bishop of Rome. Antiphonal singing is traditionally conducted as an alternating call-and-response between distant groups — or segregated divisions of an organ’s pipes.
Poon handpicked a number of 20th-century composers and arrangers whose works reinterpret timeworn texts. To mark the tenth day of Christmas, Motet performed a swinging version of a traditional French carol. Ding Dong Diggety!, by contemporary British arranger Janet Wheeler, recasts a melody originally devised in the 16th century. “E’en so here below, below / let steeple bells be swungen,” the choir sang.
Another piece, I saw three ships by the Dublin-based organist Stuart Nicholson, demonstrated the ensemble’s mastery of complex harmonies and rapidly shifting key changes while accompanied by Poon on organ.
The final setting — by Cambridge-based composer Lucy Walker, of the poem In the bleak mid-winter — was written as recently as 2022. Its organ introduction echoed the Westminster chimes before Motet’s voices blended in a song of singular devotion.
Motet traditionally performs twice yearly, in winter and spring. Dates for its springtime Rosary Project: Traditional Mysteries will be announced via its website at motet.ca.
