Choir to perform European music

Popular Christmas music has its place but not necessarily with the Salt Lake Children's Choir. So when the children present their annual holiday concerts, Ralph B. Woodward focuses on the season's rich European musical tradition.

"I resonate most with this music," Woodward said. "It can carry you to the heights and take you away from the mundane."

The Salt Lake Children's Choir will perform its Christmas program next Saturday and Sunday in the Cathedral of the Madeleine, at which the group has been a fixture every December since 1984, five years after Woodward founded the choir. Accompanying the choir will be harpist Lisa Rytting and organist Heidi Alley.

Programming a choral concert that doesn't feature a large-scale work can be a challenge, Woodward said. "All of these pieces we sing are short, so it can be difficult to program. And one has to find pieces that resound best in (the cathedral). But on the other hand, it's always refreshing to deal with works that get to the point fast."

Anyone who has attended the choir's holiday concerts knows there is a certain pattern to the program. And this year will be no exception. "We're going to follow the form we traditionally utilize and which audiences have come to expect," Woodward said. "We're going to start with two early polyphonic pieces, Palestrina's 'Gloria Patri' and a 16th-century German piece, 'Lobt Gott."'

The program will be predominantly European. "A large part of our ancestry, though not all, is from Europe, and I love to tap into that heritage."

Having said that, however, Woodward points out that the choir's holiday programs go beyond the realm of European art music and traditional songs. "I love to explore the expressions of culture from somewhat beyond that sphere."

Among pieces the choir will sing that lie outside the western European tradition is Pavel Chesnokov's "Cherubic Hymn," op. 9, no. 7. "It's from the Russian Orthodox tradition and a beautiful piece that we've done in the past."

Woodward also incorporates a number of songs from Latin America into his programs. Having traveled and lived there, he has a fondess for the music of the region.

The children will sing a piece from Chile, as well as one of Woodward's own compositions, which reflect the character of the music. "I borrowed a Latin American text to set it and based it on Andean sonorities. It conveys the atmosphere from that part of the world and the feeling of devotion you get in those places."