What a pleasure to attend a concert that includes three pieces (one a world premiere) written by contemporary composers, and come away beguiled, spirits soaring. No screeching of strings. No wailing of wind instruments. No washboard percussions. Just beautiful music that uplifts the soul.

Praise for this belongs to Gordon Getty for two of three items on the program, to William Hawley for the third, and to Robert Bass, music director of the Collegiate Chorale, for having the good taste to present them.

It all happened Sunday afternoon at St. Bartholomew's Church on Manhattan's Park Avenue. The concert was the first of five to be presented by the church, that magnificent landmark whose architectural integrity has been so much in the news lately.

Gordon Getty's contribution included "All Along the Valley," part of six a cappella choruses that had their New York premiere in April. His is a delightful, ethereal setting for Tennyson's poem of the same name, sung by sopranos and altos. It's an unpretentious piece, yet deeply felt and sung beautifully by the choir.

Who doesn't know Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee? " It was part of the curriculum in the nation's schools until the era of relevancy caused the abandonment of Poe, Hawthorne, and Emerson by so many of our high school English teachers. It was a favorite of soldiers on both sides of the Civil War, as well as a staple of parlor musicales until the advent of radio. Getty ventured his own setting last April in Carnegie Hall. In July, he expanded the instrumental interludes and divided the voices in certain spots. The revised version, given for the first time Sunday, is haunting and thoroughly modern without violating the poem's romantic integrity. I don't know of a better acoustical setting than St. Bart's for this absorbing piece.