By Nancy Plum

Princeton Pro Musica took on a challenge this past weekend with its final performance of the season. Connecting back to World War II, the 100-voice vocal ensemble presented British composer James McCarthy’s 2014 Codebreaker: The Alan Turing Story, an oratorio for chorus, soprano, and orchestra depicting scenes from the life of famed mathematician, inventor and codebreaker Alan Turing. Turing’s incalculable role in history was rooted in his responsibilities during World War II for cracking naval Enigma codes and his invention of a machine to significantly speed up the decryption process and anticipate enemy moves. Considered one of the great intellectual feats of the 20th century, Turing’s invention was credited with saving millions of lives during the War. Writing that there are few people who have “achieved so much of profound consequence for humanity in so little time,” McCarthy approached setting Turing’s life and accomplishments in musical form as a “portrait of a living, breathing human being and not the musical equivalent of a marble monument to a Great Hero.”

In Sunday afternoon’s concert at Richardson Auditorium, Pro Musica Artistic Director Ryan J. Brandau opened with a one-movement string piece of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The 1977 Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten was a tribute to a composer from Turing’s time and a connection to the era and country in which the events of the oratorio took place. The 15 string players assembled for this performance began Cantus quietly, as conductor Brandau allowed the music to unfold on its own. The musicians initially played with almost no vibrato, but as the work progressed, the musical fabric became warmer.

Joining Pro Musica and the orchestra for Codebreaker was soprano Margaret Carpenter Haigh, often singing the character of Turing’s mother. With a libretto compiled by the composer from unpublished writings of Turing and his mother, as well as the verses of American and English writers, the work was divided into three sections, each representing a different event or period in Turing’s life. It was clear from the outset that McCarthy’s musical style could change on a dime, with the “war section” especially infused with energetic music capturing what McCarthy called the “spirit of brilliant young minds working together to one end.” The composer also well captured the tragedy of Turing’s life through arias poignantly sung by Haigh, especially the closing “Mother’s Lament” for the death of her son.

Led by Brandau, Pro Musica began Codebreaker with a majestic block of sound and crisp diction in more chipper musical sections. A cappella choral sections, which tended to move the narrative along, were well-blended, in particular a setting of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s formal apology in 2009 on behalf of the British government for the “inhumane” treatment of Turing following the War. A setting of the Wilfred Owen’s poetry showed particularly rich harmonic writing, stretching the sopranos into high registers and with chords that gelled well. Turing’s own musing of “can machines think?” was heard cleanly from a cappella chorus accompanied by low strings, and a De Profundischoral soliloquy, taken from the writings of Oscar Wilde, expanded in hymn-like fashion with the voices of Pro Musica well balanced.

McCarthy superimposed former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s declaration of war over an orchestral interlude leading to powerful movements conveying war, decisively presented by both singers and orchestra. Relentless rhythmic repetitions depicted the brutality of battle, the urgency of the times and the precise mechanics of the codebreaking technology, and Brandau built tension well throughout it all. The orchestration included solo winds and brass, with each instrument adding varied colors and shadings to the musical palette. Pro Musica brought the oratorio

further to life with a post-concert demonstration of an actual Enigma cipher device which audience members were able to try out. Seeing the complexity of this machine in action, combined with McCarthy’s interpretation of Turing’s life and accomplishments, was a fitting tribute to an individual who may well have saved humanity in an incomprehensible time.

Princeton Pro Musica has announced the 2025-26 season, which will include a “Bachtoberfest” in October, a holiday concert in December, and performances in honor of the United States’ 250th Anniversary in the spring of 2026. Information Pro Musica’s upcoming season can be found by visiting princetonpromusica.org.