The effective blending of voices in a vocal ensemble is not about the character of the voices themselves, it is to do with how well each singer listens and adapts to the other voices.

Volume, phrasing, timbre, character and tone are all important, and skilled ensemble singers learn to adjust each of these elements to produce the required sound, mood and style of each piece in whatever acoustic they are required to perform in.

It is rare to hear a group do this with such precision, across such a range of musical styles, as The Song Company managed on a warm Sunday afternoon in Canberra.

The Song Company performs Journeying to Finisterre. Photo © Dalice Trost

The concert’s title sounded esoteric: a collection of 18 works symbolic of pilgrimage, stretching from Spain in the 12th century to 21st century works by American composer Edie Hill and Australia’s Paul Stanhope.

In the Middle Ages, Cape Finisterre in northern Spain was (as the name suggests) regarded as the end of the Earth. It is here that the shrine of the apostle St James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela that the famous Camino pilgrimage...