This Saturday's Chorale performance, People of Passion: A World in Song, reminded me why I enjoy attending musical concerts so much--far more than I like listening to any recorded version of song on a digital device. It's because, simply put, there is just no way to transport the immense beauty and melodiousness of live song combined with the incredible feeling of fraternity amidst an audience of fellow music-lovers onto the limited boundaries of a musical recording.

The evening began with two selections from America, Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal and Simple Gifts, an American folk song arranged by Aaron Copland, perhaps the most representative composer of the Americana sound which is characterized by simple, open and pure harmonies. This makes for a very exposed type of music that demands assiduous care, so that the open consonances sound just right. Even without the instrumental accompaniment, Hark began and ended with a clear, strong wave of sound that demonstrated to the audience early on the kind of combined and individual talents that the singers on stage possessed. Each burst of praise and "Hallelujah" was bright and hopeful, and Lindsay Garrard '13, the solo soprano for the song, delivered the high notes gracefully. This American spiritual was bookended by the African-American spiritual Ride On King Jesus, with piano accompaniment by Sarah Chant '11, whose job of complementing the voices of the song made for a rousing companion piece.

From America the choir made its way across the pond to England, featuring the quintessentially British and markedly different composers, Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Williams' "Youth and Love," from the song cycle Songs of Travel, was a marked departure from the dissonant and agitated staccatos of "This Little Babe" from Britten's A Ceremony of Carols. Instead, "Youth and Love" was a simple, but emotionally abounding piece, with Kevin Baier '11 as the baritone solo portraying the traveler's narrative about the possibilities of youth. Aided by a gentle-sounding piano accompaniment from Joyce Moulton, Baier conveyed the hopes and faint fears of the traveler, expressed in his delicate crescendos and nuanced musical timing.

From Scotland, came a woman's lament for her lover, who was mired in the crux of war and thus unable to return home, in "My Love's in Germany." The despondent emotion tucked away in their exhausted cries seemed so sincere and so real that for a moment I could almost picture the aftermath of the war and the kind of desolate, all-consuming void that overtook the families of men who never returned. This contrasted with the two other folksongs it was placed between, which were cheerful and light hearted. And it wouldn't be Scotland without some Robert Burns. Jim Rockafellow '10 did an excellent job with his solo "The Lovely Lass of Inverness," especially in expressing the Scottish vernacular of Burns' poetry.

My favorite selection of the night was "Kala Kalla" (Light Bride) from the Five Hebrew Love Songs by Eric Whitacre, which represented Israel. Although I couldn't understand what the lyrics meant at the time, there was something so intrinsically beautiful and passionate about the music--the slow moving, descending lines that lingered on the sweet dissonances, the alternation between the men's longing and the women's playful enticements--that when the voices finally came together, the resulting effect was absolutely enchanting--a musical kiss, as the lyrics (which I looked up later) suggest: "Light bride/ She is all mine/ And lightly/ She will kiss me!"

The evening concluded with the addition of the African Drumming Ensemble bringing the complex rhythms and distinct sound of West Africa to the mix of Western music. Both versions of Noel were exciting and uplifting, and the chorale seamlessly combined the standard western rhythmic structures with those of West Africa. All in all, the sheer quantity of songs included made for an ambitious program that was dexterously executed. Perhaps the concert's claim that it was a "world in song" was not so well argued, since songs from Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe were left out of the collection of music. But, in terms of the varied intonations and perspectives of "passion" that the show promised to deliver, it did a fine job. What a refreshing performance!