Chattanooga Bach Choir readies for Lent

The Chattanooga Bach Choir continues its Barnett & Co. Cantata Series on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 17, with Music for Septuagesima Sunday (the third Sunday before Lent).

Artistic Director David Long has chosen choral works appropriate for that particular Sunday in the liturgical calendar. The hour-long program will include Bach's Cantata BWV 144, (Take what is yours and go your way), and Heinrich Isaac's a cappella motet "Circumdederunt me" (The sorrows of death have assailed me), transcribed by Chattanoogan Corinne Cooze.

"The lively opening movement features the chorus tossing fragments of the melodic line back and forth while the orchestra is playing the same notes as the choir. Bach playfully repeats the words 'go away' 60 times within 68 bars of music," says Long.

"Heinrich Isaac, active in the late 1400s throughout Europe, is regarded as a master of Renaissance contrapuntal choral writing, but his music also touches and moves us deeply, especially this serene motet for unaccompanied voices based on verses from Psalm 114, which would have been performed at the beginning of the worship service for Septuagesima Sunday."

Also performed will be Bach's Fugue in C Major for organ, BWV 547; and the first movement from Bach's Concerto for Violin in A minor, BWV 1041, featuring young violinist Kathleen DuRoy.

Joining the Bach Choir are solo artists Cynthia Johnson, soprano, vocal instructor at Lee University and music director at Broad Street United Methodist Church in Cleveland, Tennessee; Rachel Walls, alto; James Harr, tenor, director of choral programs at McCallie School; and Karla Fowkes, organist.

The choir's cantata series explores more than 200 cantatas Bach wrote for every Sunday in the church year. Director Long introduces each selection with a brief explanation to place the work within its liturgical context.

For more information: www.chattanoogabachchoir.org.