By Nancy Plum

The Christmas season and choral music are practically synonymous. To many audience members, the only choral concerts attended during the year are annual Messiah performances or carol sings. The Princeton area has always had many high-quality musical Christmas events to choose from, and one of the finest this year took place this past weekend. Chanticleer, a professional men’s vocal ensemble based in San Francisco, brought its special artistry to the Princeton University Chapel on Saturday night as part of the Princeton University Concerts series. The 12-member ensemble’s music director, Tim Keeler, was a 2011 graduate of Princeton, and the chorus has maintained a close association with the community. The nearly-full house in the Chapel on Saturday night was a tribute to both Chanticleer and the region’s appreciation for choral music in the holiday season.

Saturday night’s concert featured more than 20 choral selections grouped in a variety of ways, including works on the same texts by composers of different eras sung in succession. Chanticleer opened the evening with a candlelight procession singing four settings of a ninth-century Christian hymn of praise to the Virgin Mary. Beginning with the stark open chords of early 15th-century composer Guillaume Du Fay and leading to the complex melodic writing of Renaissance master Tomás Luis de Victoria, Chanticleer’s presentation of “Ave maris stella” traced the evolution of music history at the highest level of singing. With six counter-tenors, the upper voices carried well through the expansive Chapel space as the singers made their way down the long Chapel center aisle. As with most of the music within a given “set,” the works were sung one after another without pause, and before the audience knew it, 150 years of music history had passed, and the musicians were in position on the chancel steps.

Chanticleer subsequently returned to varied treatments of the same text with two pieces based on the medieval English poem “There is no rose of such vertu.” While the anonymous 15th-century carol was sung with spacious open intervals and with alternating solo and ensemble voices, Benjamin Britten’s setting (from A Ceremony of Carols) flowed seamlessly between English and Latin with Britten’s trademark harmonies. Performing this piece without its usual accompanying harp, Chanticleer presented Britten’s music almost as a Renaissance motet. Another selection from Britten’s Ceremony, “Balulalow,” was performed with the choristers singing the harp accompaniment in close harmony style under a soaring counter-tenor solo.

In keeping with a commitment to contemporary choral composition, there were a number of newer works in this Christmas celebration. Canadian Sarah Quartel’s “This endris night” was centered on a folklike melody sung with a well-blended sound and diction which was well heard throughout the Chapel. Lance Wiliford’s arrangement of the Welsh lullaby “Suo Gân” was composed with the clarity of voices and melodic sensitivity of someone raised in a rich choral experience (Williford was a member of Princeton’s American Boychoir as a boy chorister) and the Chanticleer singers conveyed this precision well. The chorus has long had a solid partnership with local composer Stephen Sametz (conductor of The Princeton Singers), and in Sametz’s arrangements, his appealing musical style emerged effortlessly from the original medieval tunes. Keeler also provided a sensitive and effective version of the traditional Appalachian Mountain folk song “And the Trees Do Moan” to the program.

Chanticleer has a few signature pieces in their repertory with which they have built their world-wide reputation as an “orchestra of voices.” The ensemble’s graceful yet dramatic rendition of Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria,” which interspersed medieval chant in a mellifluous choral setting, showed why Chanticleer’s adoption of this piece as an unofficial anthem launched Biebl’s music into worldwide choral popularity.

Chanticleer’s concerts also traditionally include spiritual arrangements by former music director Joseph Jennings. “Somebody’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Jesus” highlighted the tenor section, with several stand-out solos. The closing spiritual, “Oh, Jerusalem in the Mornin’” demonstrated how Chanticleer takes full advantage of the talent in the chorus, with call-and-response solos sprinkled throughout.

Saturday night’s performance was the first foray of Princeton University Concerts into holiday programming on a Saturday night event. Chanticleer has been heard in Princeton before, and last weekend confirmed that the ensemble is welcome back anytime.

Princeton University Concerts has a full schedule of musical experiences in a variety of formats and locations. Ticket information can be obtained by visiting concerts.princeton.edu.