Palestrina Returns to Church of the Advent

While there is no questioning the many opportunities to experience a wide variety of “serious” music within the San Francisco city limits, I have to say that it is more than a little disappointing that the music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is so seldom encountered here. The good news (for me at least) is that one of the few venues for such encounters may be found in the Civic Center. The Church of the Advent of Christ the King (which, ironically, is diagonally across the street from the SFJAZZ Center) has been very generous in offering Palestrina’s music thanks to the programming prepared by Director of Music Paul Ellison and his resident Schola Adventus singers: David Alban, Jennifer Ashworth, Lauren Carley, Tonia D’Amelio, Jefferson Packer, and Rowan Taymuree.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, all services were live-streamed; and only organ music was offered before and after Mass. Last night, however, Ellison returned from his sabbatical leave; and Schola Adventus was reassembled for the annual Procession and High Mass for The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Palestrina offering was the five-voice offertory for the occasion, setting the text “Assumpta est Maria.” The music for the celebration of the Mass was William Byrd’s five-part setting. The rich polyphony of this music was all the more absorbing for its one-to-a-part performance. In addition, the Palestrina offertory was complemented by a setting of the “Ave Maria” gradual composed by his English Tudor contemporary, Robert Parsons. The setting of the Introit Antiphon, “Rejoice we all,” on the other hand, was a twentieth-century selection by Canadian composer Healey Willan.

The service both opened and concluded with solo organ performances by Ellison. He began with Franz Liszt’s “Ave Maria” setting. The conclusion was a double fugue by eighteenth-century French composer Michel Corrette. This was a modal setting based on both the third and fourth “tones.” The elaborate polyphony of this instrumental music provided the perfect complement to Palestrina’s vocal polyphony.

I have never tried to conceal my atheism. However, this does not prevent me from showing proper respect when entering a church to listen to the music. That respect involves accepting the role of the congregation during the service itself, rather than making any defiant show of my personal beliefs. After all, the foundations of sacred music have to do with the associated rituals, not the abstractions of different approaches to music theory across the centuries.