Sounding Joy
Presents:'A Concert
For Our Times'

FINE TUNING Rochester percussionist Mickey Carter listens carefully as she tunes the RUHS tympani, which is on loan for this weekend's pair of "Sounding Joy!" concerts: Saturday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 8 at 4 p.m. at Bethany Church on Main St. in Randolph. (Herald / Bob Eddy)

An evening of brilliant choral music from master composers is on store in two concerts this weekend in Randolph. The 25-person singing group, Sounding Joy!, will perform Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon at Bethany Church on Main Street in Randolph.

A small orchestra will join Sounding Joy! for concerts Saturday evening Jan. 7 at 7:30 and Sunday afternoon, Jan. 8 at 4 p.m. Admission to both concerts will be by free-will donation. A reception will follow the Saturday evening concert.

Sounding Joy! is calling this "A Concert for Our Times" because the main piece, the great "Lord Nelson" Mass by Franz Joseph Haydn, was written under circumstances that seemed as horrifying to Haydn and his Viennese circle as the wars and natural disasters that have afflicted the world during the last year.

Haydn himself called his work the "Mass in Time of Fear," as Napoleon's armies were advancing throughout Europe. The terror and confusion of that period were dramtaically reflected in the beginning of his masterpiece, according to Dick Drysdale, who is guest conductor for this concert.

"The first movement of this mass, in its sheer intensity, is unlike anything I've ever heard in Haydn's music," Drysdale explained. "Nevertheless, Haydn manages to turn this anguished, traumatic beginning into a piece flowing with tenderness and joy. This is truly a musical miracle of the first order. It's the reason why the Lord Nelson Mass has such enduring popularity."

The nickname "Lord Nelson" became attached to the piece because the English admiral won a big victory over Napoleon in the Battle of the Nile about the time the mass was written in 1798, and a couple of years later Nelson passed through Vienna and himself heard Haydn conduct the music.

Also on the program will be the 500-year-old "Ave Maria" of Josquin DesPrés and the inspirational "Dona Nobis Pacem" that concludes J.S. Bach's b-minor mass.

For this weekend's performances, Sounding Joy! will be joined by a seven-piece orchestra of strings, trumpets, and tympani. Two vocal soloists, bass Gary Moreau of Burlington and tenor Scott Neal of Northfield, will also join the group.

The performance will demonstrate the talent and depth of the Sounding Joy! soprano section, as important solos will be sung by no fewer than five of them—Marjorie Drysdale, Jan Fowler, Kay McLaughlin, Jennifer Moore, and Julia Pattison. Founding SJ! member Maria Lamson will sing the alto solos.

Marta Borgstrom, the regular accompanist for SJ!, will accompany at the piano.

Sounding Joy! was founded almost 20 years ago by Marjorie Drysdale and has performed widely throughout Vermont, including twice in the Vermont State House in Montpelier. The women of Sounding Joy! recently took part in a choral concert on the stage of Carnegie Hall in New York City.