Singing the sacred pieces of Verdi

Young Chang

The attorney, the paint-seller and the retired mechanical engineer got

together Tuesday to make music that seemed to make a tall tree branch

just outside the window wave in rhythm.

It was chorale music -- the kind with layers and echoes and soul.

Conductor William Hall led the William Hall Master Chorale that evening,

interjecting comments, singing along and sometimes stopping everything

because something just didn’t sound right. Then he made an announcement.

“I got a call from Rome today,” his voice echoed in the St. Andrews

Presbyterian Church sanctuary. “The pope definitely wants us to sing the

Mass, so we’ll be in the first 20 rows.”

Rehearsing for Sunday’s “Verdi and Friends” concert in Newport Beach,

chorale members nodded. The news was getting bigger and closer -- not

only will the 120-member group made of people from all different walks of

life open the Festival of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome for Pope John

Paul II and the Vatican in late June, but they will now sing for the

festival’s closing mass as well.

“Everybody’s extremely excited,” said Hall, a dean of the School of

Music at Chapman University in Orange. “The pope said he would come and

bless the concert and televise it internationally.”

The chorale, in its 45th year, has performed around the world. The

Vatican engagement is special, though, in that it marks the 100th

anniversary of Verdi’s death. About 800 singers from various chorales

will perform Verdi’s Requiem Mass in a concert at St. Paul’s

Outside-the-Walls Basilica with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra.

“It’s Verdi’s centennial year, so they wanted to do a special

concert,” said David Masone, general manager of the William, Hall

Chorale. “Dr. Hall was on tour recently in Italy with the Chapman

University choir and became acquainted with the director of music at the

Vatican.”

But before they fly overseas, this group of various professionals from

all over Southern California is focusing on their most immediate local

commitment: Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces at St. Andrews.

The first part is the “Ave Maria,” which is arranged in numerous scale

modes and keys. It’s a piece Verdi wrote as an exercise and labeled

“never to be performed in public,” Hall said. This is also one of

Irvine-attorney David Wald’s favorite Verdi pieces.

“I like the way it’s written in an enigmatic scale,” said Wald, who’s

been a chorale member for a year now. “It’s not so melodic, it’s very

unusual, I like how the harmonies work.”

The second part is titled “Stabat Mater,” which means “weeping mother

at the cross.” The third is “Te Deum.” The last is “Laude Alla Vergine,”

a women-only song of praise to the Virgin Mary.

Bruce Van Patten, a paint salesman from Brea who works in Los Angeles,

calls Verdi’s music “lush.”

Hall said the four pieces are very close to his heart. Verdi wrote

them at the end of his life and two of the numbers need organ

accompaniment.

“So the [St. Andrews] sanctuary itself is a wonderful place to

perform,” he said. “It’s a very good sound.”

For Charles Brown, a retired musical engineer who’s been with the

group for 18 years, singing and being involved in the chorale is what he

holds close to his heart.

“I had read about it in the paper, and I auditioned to go on a trip to

China with them,” Brown recalled. “The first music was the Mozart

Requiem, and I was hooked.”

FYI

WHAT: “Verdi and Friends”

WHEN: 4 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, 600 St. Andrews Road, Newport

Beach

COST: $20

CALL: (714) 997-6504