Had halberds guarded a torch-lit stage in Sanders Theater Sunday night, the setting would have been complete for the fine concert of fifteenth and sixteenth century choral music. Second in a series of three chamber music concerts for the benefit of the Radcliffe Seventieth Anniversary Fund, Sunday's program followed its predecessor in featuring rarely heard "old" music. Once your ear was tuned to the modal harmonies and the hollow sound of open fifths, you could close your eyes and hear Buxtehude, DesPres, Lassus, and Dufay, dreaming of gold brocade and tapestries.

Lorna Cooke DeVaron, who now teaches and conducts at the New England Conservatory, led the group from the Glee Club and Choral Society through the difficult but rewarding concert. She deserves high praise, first, for planning a unique program which made no apologics to anyone, and, second, for her graceful and precise direction. She managed to keep her singers where they belonged through most of the rhythmically complicated numbers; particularly effective was Le Jeune's "Revecy venir du printans."

She gave Dufay's Magnificat in the Eighth Mode a more forceful interpretation than the other old works on the program. Had her treatment been more Gregorian and less like Bach, I think she would have achieved a more impressive effect. Robert Gartside's tenor solo had a harshness quite congenial with the mystical quality of the work; in chorus parts, however, his strong voice too often stands out over all others.

High point of the concert were the five Spanish songs by anonymous sixteenth-century composers. The two for Christmas, "No la devemos dormir" for its wonderful tenderness and "Rin, rin, chin" for its powerful devotion, provided an exciting contrast in religious feeling. But the delicate subtlety of this group were not sufficient preparation for the Hindemith and Copland with which the program closed. Although they fitted in far better than would any Classical or Romantic music, several of the Hindemith songs were spent adjusting the audience to modern dissonance and counterpoint. In the last selection, Copland's pictorial "Lark," Paul Tibbetts' magnificent baritone solo reaffirmed the eloquence and competence of the group's first rate performance.