Tuesday's performance - sung in Hebrew, French and Turkish - will feature composers Salamone Rossi Hebreo, Clment Marot, Thodore de Bze and Ali Ufk. Gabbitas says Sarband founder and director Vladimir Ivanoff pulled the strands together to show the "extreme similarities."
"He's shown that the same words and themes, even the same melodies are used in the Jewish faith and also in the Islamic faith," Gabbitas says.
The King's Singers formed in 1968 at King's College. They are six men: bass, two baritones, a tenor and two countertenors. The sound is unique, with a vocal range in which the falsetto of the countertenors can reach the F of a soprano, while the bass can explore the basement with a low B flat.
Since forming there have been only 19 singers in its exclusive membership; and Gabbitas is the newest, joining in 2004.
"To be honest, they welcomed me with open arms, they're extremely kind and caring and a generous bunch of people with their time and the way they welcomed me in," said Gabbitas, jokingly calling himself "new guy."
The King's Singers' unique style is complemented by the wide variety of music. In a church concert it may be works from the Renaissance. Visitors to the group's Web site may be serenaded by the tight harmony a capella version of the Beach Boys classic "Good Vibrations." The group travels all around the world, performing about 100 concerts a year.
When the group joined Sarband in May 2005 to record a CD at St. Andrew's Church, Toddington, Gloucester, it crossed a couple of new musical bridges, as well. Gabbitas said Sarband vocalist Mustafa Dogan Dikmen did 99.9 percent of the singing in Turkish, "and did it jolly well," allowing the King's Singers to add a new language to its musical rsum, albeit, briefly.
"It has been an interesting experience; we're used to singing in French, we're used to singing in German and Latin, even Hungarian, Finish and Polish, but not so much Turkish," he said.
And while they've sung with church organs and symphonies, being accompanied by Sarband's reed flute, bowed three-string fiddle and trapezoidal zither, was a first.
"The three-string fiddle is unlike any Western instrument. It's a tiny instrument played resting on the knee of the player. You don't push the strings down, you place your finger by the side of the strings, which gives it a slightly reedy harmonic sound," Gabbitas says. "It was fascinating."
Reprinted with permission from the Gainesville Sun: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051006/SCENE/51006003&SearchID=73222762229609
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