Seraphic Fire

The music of the Jewish diaspora of ancient Iraq propelled Seraphic Fire’s ”Out of Babylon” presentation Wednesday night at St. Christopher’s-by-the-Sea in Key Biscayne.

Cantor George Mordecai was once again a remarkable featured soloist, and two dynamic musicians played indigenous ethnic instruments in a fascinating evening of Middle Eastern music that transcended its historical roots.

After the forced emigration of the diaspora to ancient Babylon, a fusion of Judaic and Arabic musical traditions based on the Eastern scale mirrored social and business relationships. Marked by octave leaps and quarter tones, these works were passed down through an aural tradition. Austere and otherworldly, they fashion a unique world of sound that is consistently compelling.

It was wonderful to see artistic director Patrick Dupré Quigley, who missed the group’s recent Midwestern tour due to illness, back in command. For this program, Quigley led a choir of eight male voices and played the Indian harmonium, an instrument with a small keyboard capable of unobtrusive quasi-percussive sound effects. Daphna Mor contributed instrumental support on six varieties of the ney — an Arabic flute — as well as the more traditional recorder. Rajesh Bhandari became a one-man rhythm section with a brilliant display of Indian tabla drumming and the occasional cymbal.

At the center of this fusion of musicology and formidable contemporary performing forces stood the Australian-born Mordecai, former cantor at Miami Beach’s Temple Emanu-El. Whether spinning haunting incantation, displaying vocal acrobatics that prefigured Baroque roulades or delivering clipped, rhythmic anthems, Mordecai offered a stunning exhibition of indigenous vocal traditions. His vibrato-less voice and natural delivery are much closer to folk singing than is the modern classically oriented cantor tradition. With its vibrant, soulful immediacy, Mordecai’s sterling musicianship and absorption formed a model many artists could emulate.

Rather than attempting some variant of period performance, Mordecai and Quigley presented a thoroughly contemporary vision of an ancient culture, reverent and creative. The male choir sang vigorously in an unforced, populist manner that was light years removed from the ensemble’s pristine, finely polished Baroque offerings.

Mor’s opening flute solo resounded softly with almost New Age modernity but soon morphed into swirling Middle Eastern rhythmic patterns. At times her duos with Bhandari’s throbbing tabla swayed to variations of a cool jazz beat, but she excelled in spinning phrases of quiet stasis, evoking a land and sound far away and entrancing.

In the exciting El Nora, Quigley grafted a choral motet against Mordecai’s vigorous declamation — a truly modern reinvention of a rich tradition. In one of three songs of forgiveness, the choir added to the percussive underpinning by breathing in rhythm. Other highlights included a rousing Purim anthem, the hypnotic Eastern melodic colors of Yum ha shebath and the invigorating, hand-clapping finale of El Eliyahu. With uniquely gifted guest artists, Seraphic Fire produced a deeply moving evening of music from another world that spoke in a remarkably contemporary voice.