MUSIC NOTES : CHANTICLEER WILL SING A MIXED BILL

Although known for specializing in music of the Renaissance, the all-male a cappella ensemble Chanticleer will sing a mixed bill Saturday night at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

“We’ll be doing Renaissance, pop, barbershop, spirituals and some contemporary things that were written for us,” music director Joseph Jennings said in a phone interview from San Francisco, home base for the 12-member company.

“We specialize in early and contemporary music, but our popular things--especially our spirituals--are very important to us. Many of our arrangements are not published because I do them myself.”

For authenticity, Jennings, a four-year member of the group, draws on his upbringing in Georgia, where he attended a Baptist church.

“We have different styles of spirituals. But we aren’t just limited to things written for male voices. With our (two) high male tenors, we can actually do music written for soprano, alto, tenor, bass--as long as the ranges are not too extreme.”

Jennings admits that unaccompanied singing is difficult, however.

“The voice is not like a piano or a horn where you push a button or hit a key and the note sounds,” he said. “A cappella singing requires great ear training and coordination, and also it requires great vocal stamina.”

Most people in the group, who range in age from the mid-20s to the mid-30s, have music degrees. Jennings himself taught chamber choir and other music courses at Pacific University in Oregon. But while some are able to support themselves by singing in church choirs, others earn their living working in offices.

Chanticleer was named after the famous rooster in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and also because the name “means to sing clearly,” said Jennings. But the group didn’t begin as a professional ensemble.

Artistic director Louis Botto and several friends in the choir at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco just wanted to explore the literature for fun. After giving several concerts, they drew professional attention and eventually were hired in 1981 by Columbia Artists to do community concerts.

Since then, the group has performed hundreds of concerts in the United States and Europe.

“Some things we do from facsimile (manuscripts) because the music is not available, but also we can get a better feeling for the period styles and see the musical lines a little differently,” Jennings said.

“We also change our sound from piece to piece. With early music, it depends on whether it’s secular or sacred, whether it’s French, German, Italian or English. We color it depending upon the language and the temperament of the people.”

The hall in which the group performs also has a bearing on its repertory, according to Jennings.

“We vary the program according to the building because some halls have slightly flat reverberation and some have no reverberation at all. So our ears have to adjust. Of course, it all changes when people get into the place.

“So probably none of our concerts turn out the same because of the variety.”

At home--San Francisco, Palo Alto and Concord--the group usually consists of 12 members, but on tour the singers are cut back to eight--two countertenors, two tenors, two baritones and two basses. “Some of our singers have families and full-time jobs and can’t get away to tour,” Jennings explained.

Audiences are frequently unfamiliar with the group’s early music repertory and the all-male a cappella sound.

“The problems for us generally have to do with with presenting unknown literature and getting people to try things, to come hear them for the first time,” Jennings said.

But the group is determined to keep its all-male identity.

“It’s distinctive and the sound that we can get with all-male voices cannot be gotten with mixed voices,” Jennings said.

“We have done some (accompanied) things with early music consorts and also sang some Mozart during the city’s (San Francisco’s) Mid-Summer Mozart Festival. But we keep coming back to a cappella because that’s what the group was founded on and what we wanted to do.”