Director David Vernier has set an ambitious program for the Peterborough Chamber Choir for this fall’s concert: music spanning more than 500 years and ranging in emotion from the frivolous to the serious.

Describing the choir, which will perform Sunday at 4 p.m. at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Peterborough, Vernier says their greatest strength is their versatility, making the program an exciting prospect to perform.

In the same afternoon, Vernier says the choir will sing a madrigal from the 16th century by William Byrd that was a dance. This will be juxtaposed with a heavier, 21st-century piece by contemporary composer John Rutter.

“It is a much more modern sounding thing with a more dense texture,” Vernier says of the Rutter piece. “We try to sing that with a modern flavor, a jazzy pop kind of sound to it, and we would never do that with a William Byrd piece.”

The specific theme of Sunday’s concert is performing a composer’s sacred and secular works side-by-side.

“Sometimes you get an interesting situation where you have these dance-like madrigals to these secular themes and the same composer writing a sacred piece,” Vernier says. “They are different when you hear them.”

Vernier is thrilled to bring these pieces before his choir, which he says can sound bright or dark as needed, adjusting to the music.

The differences between the sacred and the secular in Vernier’s mind have to do with just that sort of subtle adjustment. One supposedly lighter piece involves complex rhythmic syncopation, and while the words and notes are lighter and freer, the rhythm holds a listener’s attention.

“In the end, it is just fun,” Vernier says of the piece. “Then you hear the same composer doing a sacred piece and it grips you in a certain way because of how it is put together harmonically and melodically. You notice different things about it you didn’t see in the secular piece.”

Vernier says he works on adjusting and working with the different voices in the choir, instructing on when to sing loudly and when to sing soft. Sopranos, like piccolos in orchestras, will often be heard even when they sing softer, Vernier says, while basses have to work a little harder to get their sound heard.

The Peterborough Chamber Choir has been around for about 20 years, Vernier says. Most years, they do two or three concerts, but Vernier says lately they have started to perform four or five per year.

“We never charge admission to concerts and whatever donations we get we donate to a particular local organization,” Vernier says.

For this concert, donations will be sent to the Monadnock Area Food Bank.