The Game of Catch

In Restoration England, a robustious culture surrounded the pious fortress of the church like a red satin garter on a maiden's thigh. Trapped inside the fortress all day, church composers slipped out at night to meet in taverns where, in naughty laughter, they celebrated secular gaiety by composing bawdy songs to one another. Now, three young singers who call themselves "The Catch Club" are running through a lighthearted repertory of the old songs, proving nicely that spicy jokes are almost ageless.

The songs, called "catches," depend for their spice on stout voices singing the lyrics alternately. As the lyrics interweave, words overlap and innocent verses yield bright fruit: a catch that begins "He tickled her fancy and told her his tale" is sure to come out "And he fancy-tickled her tail." Jonathan Swift was an eager catch lyricist, but the biggest tease of all was Henry Purcell, the saintly master of the High Church hymn. After hours, Purcell forsook cantatas in favor of catches and "hockets"--a trick of song in which a voice may boldly interject one word of a verse. In Purcell's Jack, Thou'rt a Toper, the hocket turns his message into "Jack, thou'rt a cuckold--and so are you, and so are you."

Catch Club Leader Dave Reznick, 23, discovered the songs while studying composition in the U.C.L.A. graduate school. In Fellow Students Ted Rusoff, 23, and Larry Pack, 27, he found just the right voices to join him. They address their songs with earthy humor, belting them out with comic-opera polish and horsing around to the brink of buffoonery. Embarked upon their first big tour, they have bookings in seven cities and a Capital Records album to show for their success.

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