Music / “Ave Regina”, Luminescence Chamber Singers, All Saints Church, Ainslie, April 3. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD

IN the appropriate Gothic ambience of All Saints church, the Luminescence Chamber Singers delivered a memorable concert of music focused on sacred music devoted to the Virgin Mary, and motherhood in a broader sense. 

It was a concert of two distinct halves, the first of Renaissance church music with the second half of contemporary music, all linked by the unlikely inclusion of the electric guitar playing (and compositional skills) of guitarist Jess Green. It was all done with flair and a sense of theatre which added to the music itself.

The Luminescence Chamber Singers consist of artistic director AJ America, Veronica Milroy, Rachel Mink, Jack Stevens and Dan Walker with Roland Peelman conducting. 

The concert began with the three women singers at the back of the altar singing a 13th century chant, “Salve Regina”, with Green holding a drone note on the guitar over the distant voices. The drone led into a short guitar solo while the five singers regrouped further forward and launched into the first of the four Marian-themed works from the 15th century. These were two by Guillaume Dufay and one each by Pierre De La Rue and Jacob Obrecht. 

Jess Green provided short guitar solos between each work that fitted in comfortably without jarring, even a 48-bar jazzy blues solo after the second of the Dufay pieces. This was quite long and the instrumental interlude may well have been a welcome break for the singers.

The cleverly programmed second half of the concert got progressively more adventurous, each work getting a bit further away from the Renaissance, but still managed to link it all together. Alice Chance’s “God Be with the Mother” hinted back to older music forms, but with the occasional unexpected harmony and got progressively more modern as it went through. 

The second work was “Our Mother’s Heart”, one of Andrew Ford’s Red Dirt Hymns, a suite of songs using poems by Australian writers, this one by Kate Fagan. This was sung by Rachel Mink, who turned it into a convincing Irish ballad with electric guitar accompaniment. 

Continuing the maternal theme was Jess Green’s newly commissioned work for the ensemble “I Heard You Sing”. Written just for the voices (no guitar) this charming work utilised many musical influences with suggestions of jazz, doo-wop harmonies, some minimalism and even flamenco hand percussion at the end. 

The concert finished with a work by British composer Gabriel Jackson, “Ave Regina Caelorum”, which fittingly combined Renaissance church music with electric guitar. This should not work at all, but it does, and was a satisfying and appropriate end to this concert.