The title proved to be the most intriguing aspect of Paul Crabtree's new Tenebrae Responsories on Songs by Bob Dylan, the largest item on Conspirare's concert last Saturday night. The top-drawer pro chorus, based in Austin and directed by the extraordinary Craig Hella Johnson, performed in the vast space of Alamo Heights United Methodist Church.
Crabtree told the audience that Dylan was very well hidden in the piece, a setting of nine texts from the Catholic and Anglican liturgy for the Wednesday before Easter.
A narrator recited Dylan lyrics that closely paralleled the ideas in each section of the liturgy, but the music was not noticeably Dylanesque.
Crabtree's music was conventionally, gently modern in its harmonies. Its main distinction was a propensity to repeat short phrases in a kind of rocking motion that served to extend the line and sustain tension at important moments.
It was all very attractive, carefully made and highly suitable for its purpose, but it didn't have a strong profile.
Much the same could be said of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Romancero Gitano, performed with the excellent Austin guitarist Klondike Steadman. Think Manuel de Falla on Valium.
The shorter pieces had more to say, musically.
James MacMillan's Changed, a setting of Wallace Stevens' poem The Man With the Blue Guitar, was also in a gently tonal idiom, but with urgent lines and prickly harmonies.
Best of all were Johnson's arrangements of songs by Joni Mitchell ( Blue ) and Dolly Parton ( Light of a Clear Blue Morning ) the latter was particularly complex, almost epic in scope and stunningly beautiful.
Both also had the benefit of a superb soloist, soprano Kathlene Ritch Brown.
On Sunday, Johnson prot g Joey Martin conducted four community and college choral groups from the region in works by Maurice Durufl his lovely Requiem setting and Four Motets on Gregorian Themes.
Sharing the platform at Travis Park United Methodist Church were about 125 choristers drawn from the Alamo City Men's Chorale and the Texas State University Singers and Chorale Martin is in charge of all three and the Tapestry Singers, an Austin-based women's chorus directed by Jennifer Whatley.
The Johnson pedigree was evident in the unity, transparency and fine balances Martin got from this large miscellany of choruses, and in the directness and fluidity of his lines.
Between the Durufl works, Martin's two TSU choirs sang Jeffrey Ames' consoling In Remembrance, a beautiful piece, splendidly performed.
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