The Daily Campus

Issue date: 11/16/06 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Al Valerio Students played traditional and classical music on Wednesday during a performance by the UConn Collegium Musicum at Saint Mark's Episcopal Chapel. The event kicked off the holiday season and honored the late UConn Professor Peter John Sacco.

With two days to go until Thanksgiving break, everyone on campus is focused on getting home and enjoying their holiday. What many of us do not yet realize is that when we return to UConn, it will only be a few short weeks before the next big celebration; Christmas.

Fortunately, the UConn Collegium Musicum has brought the upcoming holiday into our foremost consciousness with their performance Wednesday night. The group presented "This Day Christ Was Borne," an array of English musical responses to Christmas from the Medieval and Renaissance periods.

The concert, held at Saint Mark's Episcopal Chapel and sponsored by the UConn Department of Music and the School of Fine Arts, entertained a large variety of musical genres from consort music and motets to medieval carols and instrumental pieces.

"I thought it was very impressive," said Josh Pittman, 1st-semster computer science engineering major. Many of the pieces were sung a cappella and there were multiple soloist and group songs that showed the wide range of talent in both the male and female sections.

While a number of the pieces were in traditional Latin verses, some of them were sung in old English, including "Gabriel fram heven-king" mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and "Green groweth the holly" written by King Henry VIII.

"It's great to hear music that's pre-Renaissance period," said Caroline O'Dwyer, a 1st-semester music education major, "The tone is very beautiful in general." In conjunction to the singers, students performed on reproductions of period instruments. The audience was introduced to the medieval viele, the renaissance tabor, crumhorn, and sackbut which added to the authenticity of the concert. Voices and instruments blended together to fill the chapel with heavenly melodies, appropriate for one of the most celebrated dates in the Christian calendar.

In addition, the concert was dedicated to the late UConn Professor Peter John Sacco, and his memory was certainly honored by the beautiful performance. Even though the majority of the pieces had unknown composers, due to the turbulent time period in which they were written, the program featured the music of William Byrd.

"William Byrd is one of the most important composers in English music history," said Eric Rice, director of the Uconn Collegium Musicum.

Indeed, the two and a half hour performance ended with a standing ovation from the audience after the full group performed Byrd's "This Day Christ was Born (A Caroll for Christmas Day)." Singers, players, and audience alike were happy to get into the Christmas spirit.

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