PORT ANGELES — On the first night of December, your hosts beckon you toward an old-school musical journey.
The songs, about the season of light and hope, have an “ebb and flow, and the highs and lows of the music can transport our spirits,” said Michael Rivers, one of the people extending the invitation to the fourth annual Christmas concert at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.
Rivers’ Peninsula Men’s Gospel Choir octet; the 21-voice NorthWest Women’s Chorale; the Holy Trinity Chancel Choir; a handbell duet and a 15-member flute choir will gather for this event, titled Carols Galore!, at 7 p.m. tonight (Monday).
Admission is a suggested $10 donation at Holy Trinity, 301 E. Lopez Ave. The evening’s proceeds will benefit Northwest Harvest, which has distributed 263,729 pounds of food in Clallam County, including 111,600 pounds to the Port Angeles Food Bank, this year.
For information, phone the church at 360-452-2323.
2014’s theme is “Kneeling in Bethlehem,” said event founder Joy Lingerfelt, who will lead the Women’s Chorale as well as play Holy Trinity’s Bond organ through the evening.
Besides the variety of choirs and musical choices — from Rutter’s “Christmas Lullaby” to Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” — there will be short readings to link the pieces together.
The words come from Ann Weems, who writes: “In each heart lies a Bethlehem, an inn where we must ultimately answer whether there is room or not.”
Lingerfelt and company hope to open up room for rejoicing. Carols Galore! will have time for singing along on “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child,” with an introduction by the flute choir and the song sheet printed in the program.
The flutes will also introduce “All My Heart Again Rejoices,” a piece written for the organ but recast for Carols Galore!
“Joy came up with this wonderful prelude,” said Sharon Snel, leader of the flute choir. “She handed it to me and said, ‘Why don’t you do a little rearranging and see if your flutes can play it?’”
Snel did so, and she thinks the piece is turning out.
“We are all so delighted,” she said of her choir, which will also join in the night’s Christmas carol sing-along.
Rivers, for his part, looks forward to singing “Methinks I Hear an Heavenly Host” with his octet, which also features Victoria Helwick. The song has an “angel” part, he said, for a counter tenor and alto. Rivers is “tackling the stratosphere, something I haven’t really done since college.
“Fortunately,” he added, “I have the very capable Victoria doubling the part with me.”
It’s all about the drama, created by “Methinks I Hear” writer William Billings (1746-1800).
A composer of psalms and hymns, Billings was a good friend of Paul Revere. He was born with vision in only one eye and uneven legs, but started music lessons as a young boy with a local choirmaster. A studious one, he: By the late 1760s, Billings had become America’s first professional composer and, in 1770, made history with the publication of New England Psalm-Singer, also known as American Chorister. With a frontispiece engraved by Revere, the 120-piece songbook was the first collection of music completely written by an American.
In that spirit, Monday night’s gathering will flow the old-fashioned way: no applause between songs.
“We wait till the end,” said Rivers. “That can feel odd to more contemporary audiences used to responding immediately,” but he believes in the power of a whole experience of music pouring out, unbroken.
