Music Director Gerald Weale halts the music abruptly. He's heard a hard "G" sound coming from the Newburyport Choral Society that shouldn't be there.
Someone in the chorus is pronouncing "Agnus Dei," Latin for "Lamb of God," as though it were "Agnes Dei."
Weale explains that the "gn" letter combination in Latin or Italian sounds like "ny."
So "Agnus," he says, is pronounced, "Ann-yooss."
"Ann-yooss," the chorus responds.
The singing resumes.
Weale and the choral society's 91 singers were rehearsing Samuel Barber's 1967 choral adaptation of his work "Adagio for Strings" last Saturday in preparation for their spring concert series this weekend at Newburyport High School Auditorium.
The rehearsal was combined with a celebration of the 95th birthday of the society's oldest member, Elizabeth Adams Gillette, known to all as Betty.
"The choral society has been very close to my heart for a very long time," Gillette said in a recent interview at her home in Newbury. "It's been a big part of Newburyport's cultural life and an important part."
Gillette was present at the creation. She is one of the founding members of the choral society, which held its first rehearsal on Dec. 11, 1934, and performed its first concert the following April 29 in City Hall auditorium.
There were 126 singers at that first performance, 89 of them women, including a soprano listed in the program as "Miss Betty Gillette." At times, the membership ranks have swelled to as high as 200, usually for popular holiday concerts, said the society's historian, Ralph Johnson.
Clifton Lunt, the moving force behind the choral society, was its first conductor and the music director for more than 20 years. The chorus performed works by Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy — along with an English folk song called "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker."
For its second concert, in 1936, the choral society put up $10 to hire a New England Conservatory student as its soloist, a 20-year-old soprano named Eleanor Steber. Steber went on to become one of opera's reigning divas in the 1940s and '50s, singing no fewer than 28 starring roles in more than 400 performances with the Metropolitan Opera.
Gillette said there was always music in her home when she was a child. Her great-aunt and namesake, Elizabeth Adams, was the lone music teacher in the Newburyport school system for many years.
"I can't remember when I didn't sing," she said.
When Gillette graduated from Newburyport High School in 1931, it was in the depths of the Great Depression and there was no money for college. Then an aunt died and left a bequest that covered Gillette's tuition costs at Boston University. She commuted on the train every day, earning both a bachelor's and master's degree in music.
Her career as a public school music teacher took her away from the choral society at times. She began teaching in Maine, then moved to New London, Conn., to Concord, N.H., to "a horrible year in New Jersey," to Concord, Mass., and finally to seven years at Salem State College.
She came back to Newbury in 1970 and rejoined the choral society. She has been singing with the group ever since.
Gillette considers the music in this weekend's program - works by Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams, as well as Barber - to be "beautiful but challenging."
Weale said modern classical music has become technically more difficult than the works of the composers of the 18th and 19th centuries.
"If this program is unusual, it's because we're a little more daring," Weale said.
He said he was confident the chorus could deal with the complexities of the music, but also told the singers not to get rattled if they made a mistake.
Near the end of the rehearsal in the Newburyport High School Auditorium, he urged the chorus members not to lose their focus.
"The important thing is, don't get thrown," he said. "Don't react as if anything were wrong."
Gillette said that as a music director, Weale is "the best I've ever worked with."
"He's a very good orchestral director, which you don't always get with choral directors," she said.
The regard is clearly mutual. After last Saturday's rehearsal, chorus members went to the cafeteria for Gillette's birthday party.
"Betty has been very much the heart and soul of this entire organization," Weale said, raising a toast before the cake was cut. "She's also a model of how to grow old gracefully. The Newburyport Choral Society belongs to Betty in a way it will never belong to anyone else."
Then, at a signal from the maestro, 90 voices burst into a hearty rendition of another 20th-century choral classic — "Happy Birthday to You."
IF YOU GO
r What: Newburyport Choral Society's spring concert series featuring choral music of the 20th century, including works by Britten, Vaughan Williams and Barber
r When: Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
r Where: Newburyport High School Auditorium, 241 High St., Newburyport
r How: Tickets $20 adults, $18 students and seniors (plus $2 online surcharge). Visit www.newburyportchoralsociety.org.
Newburyport Choral Society
By the numbers
7: Number of conductors since 1934
126: Number of original concert singers
91: Number of singers today
1: Number of original members still singing
26: Age of youngest singer
95: Age of oldest singer
2: Number of concerts per year
28: Number of hometowns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire where members live
For a slide show on Betty Gillette and the Newburyport Choral Society, visit newburyportnews.com.
Killer of Fla. Girl Found in Landfill Gets Life
Army Orders Bradley Manning Court-martial
Cancer Charity Revives Breast-screening Grants
Heavy Snowstorm Hits Colorado On Its Way East
2nd Teacher From LA School Arrested on Sex Claim
Prosecutors Close Armstrong Inquiry, No Charges
Sights and Sounds: Football Fans Pour Into Indy
Unemployment Rate Down to 8.3%
Obama: Still Far Too Many Americans Need Jobs
GOP: Jobs Numbers Welcome, Can Do Better
Fla. Man Adopts Girlfriend in Legal Battle
More Deaths As Egypt Clashes Continue
Raw Video: Prince William in Falklands
Egpyt Protesters Blame Police for Soccer Deaths
'Lucky' 9-Year-Old Receives 6-Organ Transplant
Raw Video: Michelle Vs. Ellen in Pushup Contest
First Person: Will Peyton Manning Stay in Indy?
Egypt Shaken After Deadly Soccer Riot
New Suits, New Starts for New York's Unemployed
Hall of Famer Dorsett Speaks Out on NFL Injuries
