This is the very first time that I have admitted to something so publicly but last night I had the fortune to indulge in one of my secret passions that very few know about - choral music.
It's strange the things that makes one tick. Of all the art forms, of all the performance, of all of the ways to express our humanity, to my mind nothing beats the emotion of
experiencing live choral music.
And last night was one of those enigmatic evenings that I have been thinking about all day today.
As part of a Symposium on Spanish liturgical music manuscripts held by the University of Sydney a concert was held at the beautiful Christ Church St Laurence in Railway Square.
Sponsored by Instituto Cervantes and the Consulate General of Spain, the Singers of St Laurence led by director Neil McEwan enveloped the church in the pure and simple beauty of the human voice in a concert entitled Solving the Salamanca Riddle. Battling the roar of trucks and cars motoring up George Street they soon had you meditating through the chants of some of the most revered composers of the Salamanca Cathedral; Vivanco, Mateo Flecha, Guerrero and Morales.
What was most astonishing about the evening was that the choir performed some chants that have not been heard for nearly 400 years. The very thought, the very concept, the very idea of this historical moment had this audience member entirely riveted.
Music is an oft forgotten aspect of the late Middle Ages and early renaissance period, with the collective human memory tending to only think about the advances in visual arts and sculpture. However, last night we experienced the commissions of Popes, Cardinals and Priests that were just as important, if not more so, than the decorations of their holy shrines.
What was quite beautiful about the programming of the event was that it delicately swept over the slight progressions that choral music had between the three ages of the medieval, the baroque and the renaissance. The way that harmonies became more complicated and the way that the chant, primarily for one voice, expanded to include the full range of vocals.
It was one of those rare evenings. Beautiful, soulful and utterly urbane.
Music from Spain for the Cathedral, Court, City and Cloister
PROGRAMME
1. Motet. Circumdederunt me (Morales)
2. Invitatory chant (St. Barbara) From Salamanca Cathedral Ms 10.
3. Gloria Laus (chant/polyphony) From Seville Cathedral Manuscript.
4. Chant: Alleluia (St. Barbara) From Salamanca Cathedral Ms 10.
5. Mensural Credo from Fisher Ms 327.
6. Offertory Motets:
i) O crux ave (Gabriel Mena)
ii) Dum complerentur
7. i) Salamanca Lamentations chant: Feria VI/Lectio 2 From Fisher Ms 335.
ii) Motet: Versa est in Luctum (Vivanco).
8. Communion Motet: O Domine Jesu (Guerrero).
9. Ensalada El Toro (Mateo Flecha).
Image: The so-called 'Turkey manuscript' was used in celebrations of the feast of Christmas. The pages are made of calf skin (vellum) and many of the illuminated illustrations are gold.
It's strange the things that makes one tick. Of all the art forms, of all the performance, of all of the ways to express our humanity, to my mind nothing beats the emotion of
experiencing live choral music.And last night was one of those enigmatic evenings that I have been thinking about all day today.
As part of a Symposium on Spanish liturgical music manuscripts held by the University of Sydney a concert was held at the beautiful Christ Church St Laurence in Railway Square.
Sponsored by Instituto Cervantes and the Consulate General of Spain, the Singers of St Laurence led by director Neil McEwan enveloped the church in the pure and simple beauty of the human voice in a concert entitled Solving the Salamanca Riddle. Battling the roar of trucks and cars motoring up George Street they soon had you meditating through the chants of some of the most revered composers of the Salamanca Cathedral; Vivanco, Mateo Flecha, Guerrero and Morales.
What was most astonishing about the evening was that the choir performed some chants that have not been heard for nearly 400 years. The very thought, the very concept, the very idea of this historical moment had this audience member entirely riveted.
Music is an oft forgotten aspect of the late Middle Ages and early renaissance period, with the collective human memory tending to only think about the advances in visual arts and sculpture. However, last night we experienced the commissions of Popes, Cardinals and Priests that were just as important, if not more so, than the decorations of their holy shrines.
What was quite beautiful about the programming of the event was that it delicately swept over the slight progressions that choral music had between the three ages of the medieval, the baroque and the renaissance. The way that harmonies became more complicated and the way that the chant, primarily for one voice, expanded to include the full range of vocals.
It was one of those rare evenings. Beautiful, soulful and utterly urbane.
Music from Spain for the Cathedral, Court, City and Cloister
PROGRAMME
1. Motet. Circumdederunt me (Morales)
2. Invitatory chant (St. Barbara) From Salamanca Cathedral Ms 10.
3. Gloria Laus (chant/polyphony) From Seville Cathedral Manuscript.
4. Chant: Alleluia (St. Barbara) From Salamanca Cathedral Ms 10.
5. Mensural Credo from Fisher Ms 327.
6. Offertory Motets:
i) O crux ave (Gabriel Mena)
ii) Dum complerentur
7. i) Salamanca Lamentations chant: Feria VI/Lectio 2 From Fisher Ms 335.
ii) Motet: Versa est in Luctum (Vivanco).
8. Communion Motet: O Domine Jesu (Guerrero).
9. Ensalada El Toro (Mateo Flecha).
Image: The so-called 'Turkey manuscript' was used in celebrations of the feast of Christmas. The pages are made of calf skin (vellum) and many of the illuminated illustrations are gold.
6 comments:
I trust you were stoned? This kind of sh*t is much more interesting when you're ripped, I find.
I thought Ensalada was Spanish for Salad. Strangely, it is!
So ...
Bull Salad!
How good is that?!
At first I thought it was a menu ... starting with a nice glass of Moet.
Well given SAJ's sometime alarming deconstruction of the correct order in which letters fall within the construct of an instantly recognisable word, you may be forgiven Anon, for imagining that he might have meant that to be Moet. But what you're really doing is just highlighting your own ignorance.
I should never have admitted to this... but anyway!
And yes Anon 1 - you are correct, ensalada does mean salad which has the meaning of "any mixture or assortment". As in the 'usual salad of bloggers, writers, poets and choir lovers'.
Funny how those bracingly ignorant posters are always Anon. Why is it so? Usually the cry of wankery rises up over new stuff, so it's kind of refreshing to see the old masters being abused as well. V democratic. Depressing, admittedly. But at least philistine in all directions.
Admitting to depression betrays insecurity as much as wanking about one's cultural superiority with words, words, words congealed with clotted smugness.
How revealing is it that a vaudeville derivative of a literary classic is gushed over to the squeal of "more too than George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion", itself the very revelation of the shallowness of pompous self-importance in the face of integrity and respect for individual worth?
Perhaps a (re)read of GBS's 'Pygmalion', with attention to the last scene, might better serve the reviewer as to the real worth of 'My Fair Lady' the musical, gutted of the moral core and essential social commentary GBS intended.
That learnt, then the offending 'comment' would, or should, not ever have been made.
Anon 3
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