MUSIC / CHRIS PASLES : Men of Chanticleer Lift High Their Voices

Whether it’s singing rarefied masses, contemporary commissions or spirituals, Chanticleer, the all-male vocal group from San Francisco, is dedicated to proving that a cappella music is “a living, breathing, viable art form, not something that’s very ancient,” says Joseph Jennings, the group’s music director.

To that end, Chanticleer has so far released more than 10 compact discs and made numerous appearances in the United States and Europe. It has built such a following that it has been able to become the only full-time professional classical a cappella group in the country.

All this sprang from a single outing in 1978 at San Francisco’s Mission Dolores.

“It has been a steady process of just growing,” Jennings says. “When Chanticleer was first organized, it was not organized as a professional vocal ensemble but as a way to get people together to sing for fun.”

The 12-man group took its name from the feisty and arrogant rooster who manages to talk his way out of becoming a fox’s dinner in the humorous “Nun Priest’s Tale” from Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.”

One definition of the word chanticleer is “to sing clearly”--a meaning that critics and audiences readily apply to the ensemble.

Chanticleer will sing a Christmas program today at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The program, sponsored by the Philharmonic Society, will include music ranging from Renaissance church works to seasonal favorites. The society will donate money from the sale of 300 tickets, priced at $40 and $60, to AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County.

Jennings is one of Chanticleer’s three countertenors. He joined in 1983 and became artistic director a year later, after founder Louis Botto turned his attention to the increasingly demanding business concerns.

“Countertenors can be used not only on the classical (opera) stage,” Jennings maintains, “but in a variety of other ways. We hear the sound in pop music, too, but it’s not termed a countertenor or falsettoist.”

The Chanticleer countertenors actually sing in falsetto, which is more an artificial way of reaching higher notes, because they are also required to sing in the lower tenor range, too. “In some regions, that (high male) sound is unfamiliar, yes,” he says.

Although there is still some debate about interpreting the musical notation of works from the Renaissance and earlier periods, Jennings prefers to leave those questions to “scholars who deal with that sort of thing.

“We sometimes sing from notation and sometimes from modern editions. We have certain guidelines for interpretations, but they are just that--an interpretation of someone’s idea of what it sounded like.

“But it’s the same way about most of the music in the standard repertoire. Not every (performance of) Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony sounds the same. If it did, we would not need to have lots of people doing it. People bring their own experiences and reading to every piece.”

Chanticleer frequently performs in churches and smaller halls, which allows the members to reposition themselves for various effects during the concert. “Sometimes that’s for hearing purposes, both the audience’s and ours,” he says. “We change parts for variety. Also, we get to hear the sound from different perspectives, and that’s helpful. But just within the context of the ensemble, it’s a lot easier to see who’s doing what in a small hall.”

He’s not, however, particularly worried about singing in a hall as big as the 3,000-seat Performing Arts Center.

“It is large,” he says. “But we’ve sung in several large halls and not had any trouble being heard. If the hall has good acoustics, then it’s fine. If not, we can only do the best we can.”

Over the years, there has been a great deal of turnover in the group. Indeed, “there are no original members singing now,” Jennings said. “Some people can’t sing as much as (the group demands), or they can’t take the traveling. Or they go back to school or pursue solo careers. It’s very variable.

“But I enjoy ensemble singing a lot. I like what we do, as far as doing different kinds of music. It always keeps things fresh and exciting.”

So far, Chanticleer has few rivals. But Jennings wouldn’t mind a few. “It would be a welcome thing to have colleagues,” he says. “If other groups could make a living, then it would certainly seem what we’re doing is a lot more viable and not just a strange sort of occurrence.”

* Chanticleer will sing a holiday program today at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. The program is sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society. Tickets: $9 to $26. (Tickets to benefit the AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County are $40 and $60). (714) 553-2422.