A fitting sound for Holy Week; Philip Key Arts Diary MUSIC Renaissance Music Group Liverpool Cathedral.Byline: Glyn Min Hughes COMPOSERS of church music, from centuries past at least, could draw on huge riches to support their artistry. The wealth of their patrons - sacred or secular - allowed them to compose, in many cases, without financial insecurity. And then there's the sheer wealth of subject matter. If anything, things come to a head at two periods of the year: Christmas and the times around Passiontide and Easter. In many ways, Christmas has hijacked the musical agenda, often for the wrong reason and with third-rate music pushing the products of the great composers aside. But Easter is still one of those periods which, comparatively, remains somewhat unexplored, for performers, at least. The Renaissance Music Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. Defining the beginning of the era is difficult, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century. Group's performance of music by Palestrina and Gesualdo was a fitting introduction to the penitential pen·i·ten·tial adj. 1. Of, relating to, or expressing penitence. 2. Of or relating to penance. n. 1. A book or set of church rules concerning the sacrament of penance. 2. A penitent. aspects of Holy Week, weaving a musical path which started with Palm Sunday Palm Sunday, in the Christian calendar, the Sunday before Easter, sixth and last Sunday in Lent, and the first day of Holy Week. It recalls the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding upon an ass, when his followers shouted "Hosanna" and scattered palms in his path. and ended up at Easter Day. The ensemble, under their director Morris Davies, showed just how adaptable they are, performing the perfect counterpoint of Palestrina and then quickly adapting to the complex tonal language of Gesualdo. There were a few rough moments, especially when the tenors were called upon to take the lead They were well balanced with, often, a wide tonal spread: Velum velum /ve·lum/ (ve´lum) pl. ve´la [L.] a covering structure or veil.ve´lar velum interpo´situm ce´rebri membranous roof of the third ventricle. templi by Gesualdo, for instance, plumbed some considerable vocal depths in what was a highly confident performance. So, too, was the performance of Palestrina's hauntingly beautiful Stabat mater dolorosa Stabat Mater Dolorosa (stä`bät mä`tĕr dō'lōrō`sä) [Lat.,=the sorrowful mother was standing], 13th-century hymn of the Roman Church attributed to Jacopone da Todi. , though in Gesualdo's Animam meam dilectam, the choir was less happy, the tonality tonality (tōnăl`ĭtē), in music, quality by which all tones of a composition are heard in relation to a central tone called the keynote or tonic. wavering somewhat. Slightly less confident were the plainsong plainsong or plainchant, the unharmonized chant of the medieval Christian liturgies in Europe and the Middle East; usually synonymous with Gregorian chant, the liturgical music of the Roman Catholic Church. performances, often performed in too straight-laced a manner: a little more flexibility would have added much. David Houlder's solid performance of organ works by Sweelinck and Bach added much to a valuable exploration of music which makes Holy Week special. |
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