If San Francisco Chanticleer had been around sixty years ago, when Princeton University's a cappella Tigertones was founded, the two vocal ensembles would no doubt have been instant collaborators and musical "best friends for life." Chanticleer may have set the recent standard for a cappella vocal performance in this country, but all-male ensembles have been flourishing on university campuses for generations, with the Tigertones one of the oldest at Princeton University. These two ensembles came together Friday night in Richardson Auditorium in a concert presented by the Princeton Tigertones Alumni Association to celebrate the Tigertones's 60th anniversary. Although the Tigertones and Chanticleer unfortunately did not perform any numbers together, their two separate "acts," presented to a nearly sold-out house at Richardson, were each full of precise and well-tuned choral singing.
The vocal tradition of the Tigertones has been primarily the lighter works of popular arrangements and vocal jazz, and the twelve members of the ensemble began the evening with forty minutes of their best work. The voices of the Tigertones are young and fresh, and these singers have obviously been trained in the merits of uniform vowel production, which kept the tuning intact. Senior Tim Callahan is listed as Music Director (and kept musical flow going through much of the concert), but these singers could easily lead themselves. The members of Tigertones also doubled as soloists; one of the downsides of the ensemble's fully democratic approach is that the soloists were not identified, but all were excellent in their own way. The vocal background of each piece was well blended, with an especially good low bass sound on their arrangement of Eric Clapton's "You Look Wonderful Tonight." The ensemble seemed to thrive on clearly-defined cadences (such as in "My Girl"), and the tuning was particularly commendable in the high registers of Paul McCartney's "Long and Winding Road" (an especially tricky arrangement).
The twelve voices of Chanticleer were understandably more mature and the range of the voices extended through the alto and soprano registers, but Chanticleer shared the same vocal exactness and clarity of the Tigertones. Chanticleer focused much of its presentation on classical choral literature, ranging from a medieval chant to 20th century French impressionism. The ensemble is renowned for its performance of music of the Renaissance period, and their presentation of Palestrina's motet "Veni Sponsa Christi" did not disappoint in its perfect octaves and clean soprano sound. The subsequent arrangement of the same piece by French composer Jean Yves Daniel-Lesur brought out the ensemble's ability to maneuver tone clusters and driving harmonies, creating the effect of bells.
The ensemble continued its journey through contemporary choral repertoire within the evening's theme of "Love's Messengers," with the most interesting vocal effects coming from British composer John Tavener's "Village Wedding." Tavener's music is rooted in his two decades in the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as his travels through the world to experience the music of other religions. Chanticleer presented this work performing in a circle, the octave tunings were pure and the shifts between major and minor (marked by the typical Tavener vocal drones) were clean. Jeeyoung Kim's arrangement of the Jindo Arirang folksong from the South Jeollo Province of Korea also allowed the ensemble to explore a more nasal and rough vocal tone, followed by a sublime arrangement of the well-known Hawaiian Aloha Oe. Long-time Music Director Joseph Jennings joined the ensemble for their closing set of jazzy and popular works, always a huge hit with audiences.
Friday night's concert presented some of the best vocal singing of Princeton University, together with the ensemble at the top of the heap in a cappella male singing. The Tigertones have a shared link with Chanticleer in one of their graduates, who was part of Chanticleer for several years. Hopefully, this collaboration will last long into the future.