Musica Sacra Chamber Chorale presents "Sacred Music: Different Views" May 4 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, West Seattle.

The Chorale asks, “How would the same text sound when set to music by different composers in different centuries?”

The musical program attempts to answer this question.

According to its press release, This concert series features three musical settings of four different sacred texts, with each setting taken from a different historical period or viewpoint. Choral music from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classic, Romantic and Modern eras will be presented. Well known composers such as as Mozart, Bruckner, DeLassus, Biebl, and Morten Lauridsen are heard as well as lessor known composers Michel-Richard DeLalande, Jacobus Gallus, Colin Mawby and Ralph Manuel. The texts selected include the Ave Verum Corpus, the Ave Maria and Sure on this Shining Night; as well as three Alleluia settings. Three spirituals based on a similar theme are also presented.

The next segment of our program presents similar sacred themes, and how they can be viewed within a musical tradition. Three spirituals will be performed, all of which treat the theme of how to prepare to pass from this world to the next. The spirituals include "Fix Me, Jesus"; "I'm Gonna Sing Til The Spirit Moves In My Heart" and "Precious Lord".

Following the spirituals we hear three Alleluia settings. The first is by the French Baroque composer Michel Richard de Lalande and comes from his "Regina Caeli" motet. This setting begins with the gorgeous "Ora pro nobis, Deum" and ends with the madrigal-like "Alleluya". The next Alleluia by the American composer Randall Thompson was written for the opening of the Berkshire Music Center. Our concert ends with the beautiful "Alleluia" by the contemporary American composer Ralph Manuel, who wrote it while teaching at the North Brazil Baptist Theological Seminary in Recife, Brazil.

Artistic Director/Conductor Bob Ingalls

Holy Rosary Choir Director, Bob Ingalls, is Artistic Director/Conductor of Musica Sacra Chorale, which began a year ago, January. He has his undergraduate degree with Julliard, his masters degree from Eastman School of Music. He played clarinet with the Seattle Symphony, Opera, and Ballet for over 20 years.

"All of our series has at least one concert in West Seattle because we consider it home," said Ingalls of Musica Sacra. "We receive such support from the community, and want to give back. And, in this case, our partner, the Nature Consortium is also located here, (in the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center) so that gives us even more synergy in this part of the city. The acoustics at Holy Rosary Catholic Church are probably some of the finest for chorale music in the entire Northwest."

Some of our readers may have attended the Chorale's Christmas concert at Holy Rosary last Dec. 17. Ingalls said it was a big success.

"The Christmas concert went wonderfully, just great," he said. "We partnered with the West Seattle Help Line and West Seattle Food Bank for that concert series, and offered a promotion. Those who brought either five cans of food, or a hat, gloves, and scarf set got tickets at a reduced price. We collected over 300 pounds of food, and about 56 sets of clothes."

For their Spring concert, when you purchase your ticket you have the option of having $5 of your ticket price go to the Nature Consortium.

Also, one featured composer, Morten Lauridsen, is a local talent who impresses Ingalls.

"Morten Lauridsen used to be a music theory teacher at UW and is now one of the finest contemporary choral composer of our day," said Ingalls. "He wrote a lot of his music sitting on pine of one of the more remote (Waldron) San Juan Islands, a place you can only access on a boat. He loaded his upright piano into his VW bus, put it on a barge and had it pulled to the island."

The above anecdote, and a taste of Lauridsen's music, is contained on the included video, a trailer to a new documentary about him.