Preserving tradition of chant
Published 12:00 pm Monday, October 27, 2003
You don’t have to be Catholic to enjoy Compline.
Traditionally the last service of the day – the Latin root means “completion” – the monthly program of singing and scripture draws to St. Cecilia’s an ecumenical crowd, who come for the candlelit tranquility, the psalms and especially for the music.
The 14 men’s voices chant the same melodic lines that echoed off stone cathedral walls in medieval times.
“Some of the chants we sing have been associated with the office in the mists of time,” said music director Bill Pelandini, who founded the choir in 1992, and has directed it ever since.
“If you could go back 900 years, you’d hear the same chant. It’s a humbling thought.”
The Compline service emerged some 1,100 years ago, when monophonic, unison chant was the only form of singing, Pelandini says.
Written for men’s voices, the music stays in the lower registers, with a range from bass to alto.
Created as an outlet for this musical tradition, the Compline choir has remained remarkably stable. Half of the 14 members have been with the group since the beginning, while newer members – chosen by group recommendations – have been around for five or more years.
The singers are a diverse lot, with Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Lutherans and vocalists representing other denominations filling the ranks.
“Only three of us go to St. Cecilia’s,” Pelandini said.
Far more important than religious uniformity is vocal unity, Pelandini says.
“We need to sound like one voice, with the same tonal qualities,” he said. “We’ve worked hard over time, with lots of practice.”
After years of hard work, the group is so adept that just a few hours of rehearsal before the service often suffice.
For vocalist Tim Tully, who has sung with the group since it formed, Compline is the spiritual opening to the new month.
“And there is something about putting on those robes,” he said. “it gets you in touch with tradition.”
But it’s a tradition that came close to being lost.
Thirty years ago, Pelandini says, while one might find Vespers afternoon services at large cathedrals, Compline was virtually unknown.
It wasn’t until Peter Hallock, choir director at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, started a Compline service there in 1954 that a move to restore the last of the day’s eight prayer cycles spread nationwide.
When he isn’t leading Compline on Bainbridge, Pelandini joins the St. Marks’ choir for the service.
“I enjoy both roles, but sometimes taking refuge as a singer is nice,” he said.
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Islanders of all faiths are invited 8 p.m. Nov. 2 to St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church for the day’s last prayer, Compline, sung by the ecumenical 14-voice men’s choir.
Compline services are the first Sunday of the month from October through May. The women’s choir, Schola, sings on the third Sunday of each month.
Call 842-3594 or 842-8123 for more information.
