Citadel Square Baptist Church rang last Thursday evening to the ravishing sounds of Chanticleer : America’s most successful professional choir. Many of us (like me) know this amazing 12-voice men’s ensemble only via their many excellent CDs – so the Charleston Concert Association did me (along with Chucktown’s small army of choral fans) a huge favor by including us in their current tour itinerary. Fabulous though their recordings may be, nothing can beat a live performance.

It’s a very special tour, too – being part of Chanticleer’s 30th anniversary celebrations. Thus their touring program – entitled “My Spirit Sang all Day” – sports a broad array of music selected to show off the group’s hallmark sonic glory and stylistic diversity. And – with an active repertoire stretching from Gregorian chant to music written for them just last year – diversity is one of their many strong suits.

They lost no time in taking us straight to heaven with a set of the Renaissance era’s finest sacred pieces – the sort of stuff that first made Chanticleer’s fame back in the 1970’s. Plush tribute to early English master William Byrd came with two of his best motets: Sing Joyfully – an exuberant song of praise – gave way to Ave Verum Corpus, an incredibly lovely and limpid bit of choral magic that I got to sing with my choir in church just last month. Then came the flowing, eight-part polyphony of Italian master Giovanni de Palestrina’s Ave Regina Coelorum. Their antiphonal interplay was something special: you could hear every part … and their trio of stunning male sopranos delivered the upper lines with searing beauty of tone.

Then it was on to some secular gems from the same general period, beginning with El Grillo, a funny little rapid-fire number by Josquin des Pres that he apparently wrote to remind a stingy royal patron to pay his court musicians. The same composer’s Mille Regretz followed – a marvel of exquisite homophonic-polyphonic contrasts. The set ended with a pair of charming madrigals by Andrea Gabrieli: A le Guancie di Rose is a masterly eight-part number for double choir about the vagaries of love, and La Battaglia reflects the fad back then of glorifying warfare in music, using nonsense syllables to mimic the sounds of battle.

Leading up to intermission, our singers fast-forwarded a few centuries to the work of contemporary American composer Steven Stucky: his engaging set of three Cradle Songs that set lullaby texts from Brazil, Poland and Tobago. The final Caribbean-flavored Buy Baby Ribbon was a particular treat. Next came Samuel Barber’s rich and intensely spiritual Heaven-Haven (a Nun Takes the Veil), followed by the opulent, layered harmonies of Gustav Mahler’s Ich bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen (now there was a piece to wallow in).

The singers returned after halftime to deliver I Have Had Singing: an engaging contemporary plum by American tunesmith Steven Sametz. Moving on, we got Four Little Prayers of St. Francis of Assisi – a winsome foursome of small sacred gems that can’t fail to stir the soul when sung by the likes of these gents. The evening ended – all too soon – with the group’s customary bracing finale, with signature numbers from the folk, jazz and gospel genres. We tapped toes to Michael McGlynn’s smash-hit Dulaman (you can find it onYouTube HERE) and English folk-settings by Vaughan Williams and Rutter, before indulging in the sweet nostalgia of American folk numbers like Wayfaring Stranger. Things came to a sonorous and soulful close with a medley of choice, gospel-tinged spirituals (another Chanticleer specialty) … plus one more as an encore.

As anybody who helped pack the Citadel Square Church for this event can attest, this was choral music at its beautiful, soul-soothing best. Here’s hoping that Chanticleer’s next thirty years will see their unique brand of musical joy spread even further.