Transcendence to Transparency

A before-and-after look at the changing face of sacred music in Europe during the Reformation, with Latin and vernacular works by the greatest composers who lived and worked through this tumultuous time, including Walter, Clemens non Papa, Sweelinck, and Tallis.

As part of the celebrations for the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation, we will be touring this program throughout the 2017-2018 season.

“The perfectly balanced voices of the vocal ensemble ‘Les Canards Chantants’ merged from the duo and trio sections into a powerful whole, letting the individually- flung melismatic passages to transparently emerge. The ensemble…brilliantly held the tension across the vast, sophisticated melodies in the music of the English Early Renaissance.”
– Soester Anzeiger, 2013

Programme:

Clemens non Papa – De profundis
non Papa – selections from the Souterliedekens
non Papa – Qui consolabatur me

Johann Walter – Ascendo ad patrem meum
Walter – selections from Eyn Geystliche Gesank Buchleyn
Walter – Beati immaculati in via

Thomas Tallis – O sacrum convivium
Tallis –  Psalm tunes from Archbishop Matthew Parker’s Psalter
Tallis – Salve intemerata virgo