The Lament for Beowulf: See summer off with a howl

Enjoy the sounds of summer’s end Sunday with a concert provided by the students in USC’s Summer Chorus program.

The concert will be held at 4 p.m. in USC’s School of Music Recital Hall (Room 206). The chorus of 71 singers includes students and community members.

The performance will be conducted by Larry Wyatt, director of choral studies at USC’s School of Music.

The chorus will perform “The Lament for Beowulf” by Howard Hanson and “Solemn Mass” by César Franck.

“The Lament for Beowulf” is a setting of a few lines from the classic Old English poem. Beowulf was written sometime around the 10th century by an unknown author and is considered the oldest surviving text in the English language. It is the story of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf who saves the Danes from the monster Grendel and, then from Grendel’s mother. He dies an elderly man in his home country during an epic battle with a dragon.

Wyatt describes the story as “reminiscent of current adventure stories such as in Harry Potter and “The Hobbit.”

“The music is a setting of only a few lines of the story. It is haunting and beautiful and at times rhythmically exciting,” Wyatt said.

The “Mass in A by Franck” is “a deliciously rich setting of the traditional Catholic Mass,” featuring soloists accompanied by organ, harp and cello, Wyatt said.

The concert is free and open to the public.

The USC School of Music is at 813 Assembly St. in downtown Columbia.

Bridget Winston, Special to The State

This story was originally published August 1, 2015 at 5:00 PM.