By Ben Triscuit ’14
Photo Courtesy of singers.com
Ben Triscuit is a sophomore and the musical director of Lafayette’s all-male a cappella group, the Chorduroys. He attended the concert at Williams Center for the Arts last Friday evening which featuredCantus, the all-male a cappella group named by Fanfare classic music magazine to be “the premier men’s vocal ensemble in the United States. He shares his reflection of the experience with us below.
On Thursday, February 9, the Lafayette College Chamber Music Series presented a real treat, the Cantus male vocal ensemble.Cantus is based in Minnesota and consists of nine gentlemen who perform solely with their voices, a style known as a cappella.
As musical director of Lafayette’s own all male a cappella group, theChorduroys, I was eager to see what we could learn from the concert. I came expecting a few great performances, but instead I left having seen twenty breathtaking ones.
When you think of a cappella music, you would often expect quirky mash-ups and covers of pop hits from past and present. Cantus defied my own expectations by performing a set consisting of classical chamber compositions and inspirational Michael Jackson and The Beatles arrangements, among other pieces.
Though the set-list clearly catered to connoisseurs of classical music, their performances mesmerized the entire audience. From a technical standpoint, the concert was pure brilliance. The voices of the nine men resonated throughout the theater with impeccable blend. What amazed me the most was hearing that flawless blend even in the most quiet and subtle moments of the concert.
I have always believed that a cappella music provides a truly visceral listening experience and Cantus confirmed that.
Perhaps the most engaging aspects of the concert were the sentimental introductions some of the men gave before each subset of songs. The name for the concert, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” was inspired by a Sir Isaac Newton quote: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Cantus believes that if we celebrate the glory of our past, then we can reach greater heights in the future. The most powerful theme of the night was music as a source of remembrance and identity. An emotional performance of MLK by U2 served as a memorial for the late Martin Luther King, Jr. Goosebumps crawled across my skin when the tenor soloist transcended the rest of the group with his sublime tone. The seamless integration of profound messages and heavenly vocals definitely heightened the experience far beyond my expectations.
The night was somewhat of a musical baptism: it helped me appreciate the rawness of music and its origins. Sometimes we need to be reminded of how powerful music is, null the synthesizers and bass lines of today’s music.