If I cannot fly, let me sing. Stephen Sondheim

There’s a good reason choral music has enjoyed such enduring popularity through the centuries — right up through our own. The human voice has a built-in advantage over all other instruments in its ability to connect with us emotionally, because we’re programmed to respond to it the moment we emerge from the womb. We have virtually no choice in the matter — with eyes still unable to focus, we’re totally dependent upon hearing and touch for our survival.

The experts tell us that, “The inner ear is fully developed by about 20 weeks of pregnancy, and babies are born with fully developed hearing, so your baby is ready to listen and learn from the get-go . . . right from birth, babies pay close attention to voices, especially high-pitched ones,” and that “. . . by around 2 months, most babies get quiet when they hear familiar voices and make vowel sounds. At about 4 months, babies start to look for the source of a sound, and by 6 months they try to imitate sounds. By 8 months, they babble and respond to changes in tone of voice.”

In any case, there’s lots of free spring choral music just ahead, much of it emanating from the halls of academia in this most college-studded of valleys.

Greenfield Community College

Nearest, is the April 9 appearance of the Greenfield Community College Chorus, continuing its concert series with a free concert titled, “Music for Chorus, Strings, and Piano.” The performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. at Second Congregational Church, Court Square in Greenfield. As usual, the ensemble will be under the direction of Margery Heins, with pianist Marilyn Berthelette accompanying.

Soloists from the choral ranks will be featured and guest graduate student string players from the University of Massachusetts will perform in several selections.

The musical fare will be a variety of sacred and secular choral music from 1750 to the present, in English, Latin, German, and French, including two early-American numbers, “O Music,” a round by Lowell Mason, and “Euroclydon,” an extended “Anthem for Mariners” by William Billings, as the press release describes it, “. . filled with plenty of drama and storytelling, with words from Psalm 107 and by the composer himself.” There will also be Haydn’s Psalm 41 and an excerpt from the 1959 “Wedding Cantata” by American composer Daniel Pinkham: “Awake, O North Wind” (from “The Song of Songs”). The music is characterized by soft dissonances and driving rhythmic effects. Other music from the 20th century includes Benjamin Britten’s lulling “Concord,” No. 2 of the ³Choral Dances² from his seldom-heard opera “Gloriana,” whose subject was Queen Elizabeth I. “Tiger” is a recent composition by Lauren Bernofsky, which sets the famous six-stanza poem “The Tyger” by William Blake. One of John Rutter’s serene benedictions will also be heard.

Amidst the string-accompanied works are “Cantique de Jean Racine” by Gabriel Fauré, Ludwig Van Beethoven’s miniature “Elegischer Gesang,” (Elegy) Op. 118, and other selections.

The program also includes a Gospel- style piece by contemporary composer Rollo Dilworth, a solo by Charles Gounod performed by tenor Henry Gaida, and C. V. Stanford’s “Bluebird,” performed by a semi-chorus, as well as the French folk song, “Auprès de ma blonde.”

Mount Holyoke College

The Voces Feminae, a women’s vocal ensemble of the Five College Early Music Program, is offering a pair of concerts titled “Songs of the British Isles,” on Sunday, April 24 at 7 p.m. at Sweeney Concert Hall, Smith College and Monday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Abbey Chapel, Mount Holyoke College, both under the direction of Catherine Bell.

The program includes music of England, Scotland, and Ireland, written from the Middle Ages through the 18th century. The Sunday concert will include the Five College Early Baroque Singers, and on Monday at Abbey Chapel, the Five College Medieval Ensemble and the Five College Viol Consort will join Voces Feminae.

The Arts Block in Greenfield

Meanwhile, the Boston-based Rêve d’Amour Ensemble will present a program titled, “Musical Love Letters: Clara, Robert and Johannes,”at the Arts Block in Greenfield on Sunday, April 10 at 3 p.m., with music that “. . .will explore the passion, romance and friendship shared between these three musicians as expressed in musical composition as well as letters.”

Soprano Jessica Rossi will join forces with valley cellist Rebecca Hartka and Polish-born pianist Barbara Lysakowski.

Hartka and her various ensembles have unfailingly delivered sensitively rendered, high-quality performances through the years, unique not only for their fine musianship, but for their unusual programming design.

The Arts Block, 289 Main St., Greenfield. Tickets are available at the door and are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and students and children under 12 are free. 413 774-0150.

UMass

Then there’s the Vocal Jazz Ensemble’s Spring Concert on Sunday, April 24, at UMass’ Bezanson Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m., under the direction of the Department of Music and Dance Professor Catherine Jensen-Hole.

The gig features new arrangements of jazz standards and original compositions by Catherine Jensen-Hole and graduate students Jen Allen, Michael Caudill, George Kaye, Dan Thomas and Christian Tremblay.

Tickets are $3 for UMass students, $5 for other students, seniors & children and $10 for the general public. Tickets are available at the Box Office, by calling 413-545-2511 or online at: fineartscenter.com/musicanddance

First Congregational Church in Amherst

Sunday, April 24, is a big day for area choruses, with a free choral fest, including University Chorale, Women’s and Recital Choirs, and the Minutemen’s Chorus, variously conducted by UMass Department of Music and Dance Professor Stephen A. Paparo and graduate students Eric Berthiaume, Dan Fleury, and Kyle Ransom. The festival begins at 3 p.m. It will be held at the First Congregational Church, 165 Main St. in Amherst.

The music: “. . .an enormous variety of music by Renaissance (William Byrd, Hans Leo Hassler), Romantic (Brahms, Rachmaninov), and Contemporary/Modern (Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Copland, Aguiar, Brinsmead, Antognini) period composers. Also, on the program are Japanese folk songs and a medley of pop songs, plus tunes by Billy Joel and Paul Simon.”

Women’s Choir, conducted by Kyle Ransom and Eric Berthiaume, will perform the “Love Knows No Boundaries” program featuring music set to text about loving and accepting people regardless of race, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs. That includes Charles A. Tindley’s “The Storm is Passing Over” and Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

It’s a program sure to harbor delights for listeners of diverse musical tastes.

More at UMass

Also at UMass, the final Spring orchestral event will be held on Monday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall. It will feature “Catfish Row,” a work that, while containing no singers, was drawn from George Gershwin’s classic opera, “Porgy and Bess.”

Now, quite frankly, there’s almost no way to blunt the beauty and power of a Gershwin tune — even when there’s no one singing it – and, in my experience, hearing melodies that were first heard coming through human lips now being ‘sung’ by flutes, oboes, clarinets, violins, cellos, trumpets and trombones is quite fascinating. What often happens is that one finds that the memorable lyrics are being sung by some internal singer, while the orchestra goes about unravelling the lovely melody lines, which is a testament to just how deeply imprinted his music has become in the American psyche.

An added, but less obvious benefit to hearing ‘voiceless’ vocal music, is that in listening, we come to a new level of awareness — not that we’re not distracted by the magnificent tenor or stunning soprano — of just how exquisitely crafted the musical fabric, the shifting harmonies and tone colors are, and that we are, in fact, hearing much more than a simple song.

Also on the program are Jan Sandstrom’s “Motorbike Odyssey,” with trombone soloist, and Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88.  

The orchestra is under the direction of UMass Department of Music and Dance Professor Ng Tian Hui.

So come, sit back and listen to the voice in all its many glories, just as you were programmed to do all those many years ago, waiting to be born.