It started with a bunch of guys...

It started with a bunch of guys who wanted to sing together. Now the group, Chanticleer, is on the road 24 weeks a year, and one of its stops will be at Pomona College’s Bridges Hall of Music on Tuesday night.

The 12-member, all-male a cappella choir based in San Francisco was started in 1978 by Louis Batto, now the group’s artistic director.

“It was actually (begun) just for fun,” said music director and choir member Joseph Jennings, who joined in 1983.

The group is named after the rooster in The Canterbury Tales, although Jennings isn’t sure exactly how that came to be.

“I think somebody in the early group was reading Chaucer at the time, and in French it means to sing clearly, so it all connected,” he said.

Now, “we perform all the time, year-round,” Jennings said. “This is all that we do.”

They give a series of concerts in San Francisco, as well as perform programs for the schools there.

Chanticleer sings music from the Renaissance, as well as folk songs, spirituals, jazz and contemporary American pieces.

“We are quite active in commissioning music,” Jennings said.

Tuesday’s program--sponsored by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles--will consist largely of motets, or sacred Renaissance music, with one Gregorian or plain chant, a 20th-

Century Ave Maria by Franz Biebl, two French folk songs and other more contemporary pieces.

The $20 tickets for the 8:15 p.m. program can be obtained by calling the Gay Men’s Chorus at (213) 383-6770. Tickets will also be available at Bridges Hall, 150 E. 4th St., Claremont, on Tuesday evening.