MUSIC REVIEW : Waverly Consort Delivers a Medieval ‘Story’

In its beautifully sung, carefully wrought staging of “The Christmas Story” at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium on Friday, the Waverly Consort managed the nifty feat of giving a seasonal program with a fresh--and ancient--spin. This setting of liturgical music from the early part of the millennium, played out on a sparse but evocative stage set and with singers in period costumes, sprang out of the tradition of medieval plays staged in churches.

As annotated in a handsome and informative program book, this Christmas Story--”as told in the Music of the Middle Ages”--takes a longer, deeper view of the story central to the Christian faith. The staging began with the 10th century Spanish “The Song of Sibyl,” the ensemble singing from the lobby and descending in procession to the stage, and the musical material never veered closer to the present day than a piece by 15th century composer Guilluame Dufay.

Along with familiar, benevolent elements of the story, from the Nativity to the Adoration of the Magi, the play also incorporated “the Slaying of the Innocents,” Herod’s enforced slaughter of infants.

Uncommon period instruments enhanced the historical exoticism of the experience. With the slide trumpet, bending tones recalled a human voice, and the spare instrumental complement included recorders, a gemshorn, shawm, psaltery, citole and “nun’s fiddle.”

For the closing “Hymn of Thanksgiving,” a Spanish piece circa 1300, the vocal forces exited amid the atmospheric swirl of a chiming hand-bell choir, filing off the stage and up the aisles. The last sound we heard was of bells and well-attuned voices mingling in the lobby, leaving a darkened theater. Overall, the effect of the performance was one of ritual, spiritual splendor.