Day 10: “O Lord Jesus, I adore you” is from Victoria’s 1576 motet collection and is also for six voices. All settings after Josquin Desprez are in that titanic shadow, especially in Rome where Josquin’s music was kept alive in the Sistine Chapel longer than any composer up to that time. Like the Palestrina setting, […]
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Free Nordic Voices Track Day 9 – Victoria for Trinity Sunday
Day 9: As we go back to Victoria, there is an unusual thing to know about him. First, a brushstroke portrait: he came from Avila, was an exact contemporary of the Carmelite Saint and mystic Teresa of Avila, was famous for introspective and contemplative music; he was supposedly disinterested in patronage and the secular world, […]
Read More…Free Nordic Voices Track Day 8 – Palestrina and Lamentations for Holy Saturday
Day 8: As we did with Victoria, we hear today the beginning of Palestrina’s setting of the Lamentations on Holy Saturday. He used seven different voice parts here and there throughout this entire series of pieces for Holy Week; some as few as three voices when he wanted to intensify a high sound, a low […]
Read More…Free Nordic Voices Track Day 7 – Palestrina and Lamentations
Day 7: If the Gesualdo waters seemed rough, we are back on the solid (and good) earth with Palestrina, our musical companion for the next days. It has always struck me that the great choir directors I have interviewed may have this or that specialty in various areas of choral music, but as they age, […]
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