J.J. Wright, director of the University of Notre Dame Folk Choir, has already undertaken several ambitious large-scale music projects.

Most of them, such as 2019’s “Vespers for the Immaculate Conception,” recorded with the Fifth House Ensemble and St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir, combined sacred choral music and improvised jazz. His new work for the Notre Dame Folk Choir is “The Passion,” a 90-minute description of the events leading to the death of Jesus Christ.

There is no jazz this time around, but the spirit of improvisation permeates the work. For some passages, the musicians play a loose set of chord changes, deciding on the details themselves. The singers get to do the same.

“Even some of the choir parts have aleatoric sections,” Wright says, referring to what’s also known as “chance music,” where the composer gives the performer the freedom to…