Please note that music files that are linked to are not necessarily the same edition we will be using on the night and therefore there may be some slight differences.
Viadana Exsultate justi or YouTube link SATB
Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (1564-1627) was a Franciscan friar who held a number of musical posts in churches and cathedrals throughout Italy. A prolific composer, he wrote in a number of styles, from Renaissance polyphony to Venetian polychoral and, because of his importance in the development of figured bass, helped develop the transition from Renaissance to Baroque eras. His influence stretched as far as Germany to Schütz, Scheidt, and Schein.
Exsultate justi, with a text from Psalm 33:1- 3. is from Concerti Ecclesiastici, Op. 12, a collection of one hundred pieces finished in 1602. Double and triple meters alternate in this joyous piece, with the voices imitating the harp and lyre of the text.
Weelkes As Vesta was or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATTB
Thomas Weelkes, organist at Chichester Cathedral, was a colourful personality: as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography puts it, ‘he was not the only disorderly member of the cathedral establishment, though in due course he would become its most celebrated’. In 1616 he was dismissed for being drunk at the organ and using bad language during divine service. He was however reinstated and remained in the post until his death (although his behaviour did not improve!). Weelkes’ compositions are exquisite and his madrigals have often been compared to Wilbye’s.
There is some glorious word-painting in this well-known Oriana madrigal. Look out for, and enjoy ‘hill’, ‘descending’, ‘ascending’, ‘running down’, ‘two by two’, ‘three by three’, ‘all alone’, and ‘Long (live fair Oriana)’. The musical architecture is ABCDCBA, based not on musical themes but on contrasts of texture. We last looked at this just over a year ago but it is well worth a second visit.
Morley In ev’ry place or YouTube link SATB
From Madrigals to 4 voyces (1594). A short but exquisite piece on the pains of love. Slow and delicate, note especially its plangent suspensions on ‘and grief doth so torment me’ and a sweetly evocative ‘O gentle love’.
Tomkins Music divine or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATTB
This extraordinary piece displays Tomkins’ command of all the sophisticated Italian madrigalean techniques, with daring chromaticism and bold, expressive harmonic gestures melded with a more characteristic English sweetness. You will hear expressive dissonance, sudden shifts of harmony, a free alternation between homophony and polyphony and speech-like text settings. There is delicious word-painting too: note rising intervals on the two syllables of ‘above’, soaring ‘heavenly harmony’, homophonic ‘tuneful concords’ and the chromaticism of ‘unjust slander’. I also love how the meandering lines on ‘sweetly do agree’ finally come together on reaching the cadence.
It is dedicated ‘To Mr Dr Heather’, William Heather being a London singing man known for his musical connoisseurship. The text is also typically Italian, highlighting mutually exclusive emotions – in this case, love and lust.
Vautor Sweet Suffolk Owl or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
Back by special request, Sweet Suffolk Owl, from the composer’s one published book of madrigals, Songs of Divers Airs and Natures (1619), is Vautor's best-known piece. It’s a fun sing, with imitative ‘te whit te whoo’, some great word-painting on rolling quavers, and sudden changes of texture. Towards the end the duple meter is interrupted by a section in 3 time - ‘and sings a dirge for dying souls’ - a possible quote from William Byrd's keyboard piece The Bells. ‘Dight’ means 'dressed'.
Morley Fyer, fyer or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
We’ve done this piece before, but it isn’t straightforward and is well worth another visit. It is a clever re-working of Marenzio’s A la strada. Its text is simple: ‘Fire, fire, my heart; o help! I sit and cry me, but none comes nigh me’ and echoes the desperate cries of the lovelorn, but Morley invests it a great amount of energy and musical interest. It is full of rhythmic intensity and mock-tragic suspensions, juxtaposing groups of voices at high speed and following their cries with robust fa-las. ‘O help!’ is set in a similarly frenzied style, limited to the upper voices for stridency and contrasting with the weight of the ‘ay me’ section, which uses long notes, a chain of mock-tragic suspensions and a pathetic rest in all voices. The final fa-la section offers a lengthy imitative playing-out of a syncopated motive, as if to deny the poor burning-hearted poet any rest until the very end.
Please note that music files that are linked to are not necessarily the same edition we will be using on the night and therefore there may be some slight differences.
Viadana Exsultate justi or YouTube link SATB
Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (1564-1627) was a Franciscan friar who held a number of musical posts in churches and cathedrals throughout Italy. A prolific composer, he wrote in a number of styles, from Renaissance polyphony to Venetian polychoral and, because of his importance in the development of figured bass, helped develop the transition from Renaissance to Baroque eras. His influence stretched as far as Germany to Schütz, Scheidt, and Schein.
Exsultate justi, with a text from Psalm 33:1- 3. is from Concerti Ecclesiastici, Op. 12, a collection of one hundred pieces finished in 1602. Double and triple meters alternate in this joyous piece, with the voices imitating the harp and lyre of the text.
Weelkes As Vesta was or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATTB
Thomas Weelkes, organist at Chichester Cathedral, was a colourful personality: as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography puts it, ‘he was not the only disorderly member of the cathedral establishment, though in due course he would become its most celebrated’. In 1616 he was dismissed for being drunk at the organ and using bad language during divine service. He was however reinstated and remained in the post until his death (although his behaviour did not improve!). Weelkes’ compositions are exquisite and his madrigals have often been compared to Wilbye’s.
There is some glorious word-painting in this well-known Oriana madrigal. Look out for, and enjoy ‘hill’, ‘descending’, ‘ascending’, ‘running down’, ‘two by two’, ‘three by three’, ‘all alone’, and ‘Long (live fair Oriana)’. The musical architecture is ABCDCBA, based not on musical themes but on contrasts of texture. We last looked at this just over a year ago but it is well worth a second visit.
Morley In ev’ry place or YouTube link SATB
From Madrigals to 4 voyces (1594). A short but exquisite piece on the pains of love. Slow and delicate, note especially its plangent suspensions on ‘and grief doth so torment me’ and a sweetly evocative ‘O gentle love’.
Tomkins Music divine or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATTB
This extraordinary piece displays Tomkins’ command of all the sophisticated Italian madrigalean techniques, with daring chromaticism and bold, expressive harmonic gestures melded with a more characteristic English sweetness. You will hear expressive dissonance, sudden shifts of harmony, a free alternation between homophony and polyphony and speech-like text settings. There is delicious word-painting too: note rising intervals on the two syllables of ‘above’, soaring ‘heavenly harmony’, homophonic ‘tuneful concords’ and the chromaticism of ‘unjust slander’. I also love how the meandering lines on ‘sweetly do agree’ finally come together on reaching the cadence.
It is dedicated ‘To Mr Dr Heather’, William Heather being a London singing man known for his musical connoisseurship. The text is also typically Italian, highlighting mutually exclusive emotions – in this case, love and lust.
Vautor Sweet Suffolk Owl or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
Back by special request, Sweet Suffolk Owl, from the composer’s one published book of madrigals, Songs of Divers Airs and Natures (1619), is Vautor's best-known piece. It’s a fun sing, with imitative ‘te whit te whoo’, some great word-painting on rolling quavers, and sudden changes of texture. Towards the end the duple meter is interrupted by a section in 3 time - ‘and sings a dirge for dying souls’ - a possible quote from William Byrd's keyboard piece The Bells. ‘Dight’ means 'dressed'.
Morley Fyer, fyer or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
We’ve done this piece before, but it isn’t straightforward and is well worth another visit. It is a clever re-working of Marenzio’s A la strada. Its text is simple: ‘Fire, fire, my heart; o help! I sit and cry me, but none comes nigh me’ and echoes the desperate cries of the lovelorn, but Morley invests it a great amount of energy and musical interest. It is full of rhythmic intensity and mock-tragic suspensions, juxtaposing groups of voices at high speed and following their cries with robust fa-las. ‘O help!’ is set in a similarly frenzied style, limited to the upper voices for stridency and contrasting with the weight of the ‘ay me’ section, which uses long notes, a chain of mock-tragic suspensions and a pathetic rest in all voices. The final fa-la section offers a lengthy imitative playing-out of a syncopated motive, as if to deny the poor burning-hearted poet any rest until the very end.
Please note that music files that are linked to are not necessarily the same edition we will be using on the night and therefore there may be some slight differences.
Viadana Exsultate justi or YouTube link SATB
Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (1564-1627) was a Franciscan friar who held a number of musical posts in churches and cathedrals throughout Italy. A prolific composer, he wrote in a number of styles, from Renaissance polyphony to Venetian polychoral and, because of his importance in the development of figured bass, helped develop the transition from Renaissance to Baroque eras. His influence stretched as far as Germany to Schütz, Scheidt, and Schein.
Exsultate justi, with a text from Psalm 33:1- 3. is from Concerti Ecclesiastici, Op. 12, a collection of one hundred pieces finished in 1602. Double and triple meters alternate in this joyous piece, with the voices imitating the harp and lyre of the text.
Weelkes As Vesta was or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATTB
Thomas Weelkes, organist at Chichester Cathedral, was a colourful personality: as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography puts it, ‘he was not the only disorderly member of the cathedral establishment, though in due course he would become its most celebrated’. In 1616 he was dismissed for being drunk at the organ and using bad language during divine service. He was however reinstated and remained in the post until his death (although his behaviour did not improve!). Weelkes’ compositions are exquisite and his madrigals have often been compared to Wilbye’s.
There is some glorious word-painting in this well-known Oriana madrigal. Look out for, and enjoy ‘hill’, ‘descending’, ‘ascending’, ‘running down’, ‘two by two’, ‘three by three’, ‘all alone’, and ‘Long (live fair Oriana)’. The musical architecture is ABCDCBA, based not on musical themes but on contrasts of texture. We last looked at this just over a year ago but it is well worth a second visit.
Morley In ev’ry place or YouTube link SATB
From Madrigals to 4 voyces (1594). A short but exquisite piece on the pains of love. Slow and delicate, note especially its plangent suspensions on ‘and grief doth so torment me’ and a sweetly evocative ‘O gentle love’.
Tomkins Music divine or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATTB
This extraordinary piece displays Tomkins’ command of all the sophisticated Italian madrigalean techniques, with daring chromaticism and bold, expressive harmonic gestures melded with a more characteristic English sweetness. You will hear expressive dissonance, sudden shifts of harmony, a free alternation between homophony and polyphony and speech-like text settings. There is delicious word-painting too: note rising intervals on the two syllables of ‘above’, soaring ‘heavenly harmony’, homophonic ‘tuneful concords’ and the chromaticism of ‘unjust slander’. I also love how the meandering lines on ‘sweetly do agree’ finally come together on reaching the cadence.
It is dedicated ‘To Mr Dr Heather’, William Heather being a London singing man known for his musical connoisseurship. The text is also typically Italian, highlighting mutually exclusive emotions – in this case, love and lust.
Vautor Sweet Suffolk Owl or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
Back by special request, Sweet Suffolk Owl, from the composer’s one published book of madrigals, Songs of Divers Airs and Natures (1619), is Vautor's best-known piece. It’s a fun sing, with imitative ‘te whit te whoo’, some great word-painting on rolling quavers, and sudden changes of texture. Towards the end the duple meter is interrupted by a section in 3 time - ‘and sings a dirge for dying souls’ - a possible quote from William Byrd's keyboard piece The Bells. ‘Dight’ means 'dressed'.
Morley Fyer, fyer or YouTube link Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
We’ve done this piece before, but it isn’t straightforward and is well worth another visit. It is a clever re-working of Marenzio’s A la strada. Its text is simple: ‘Fire, fire, my heart; o help! I sit and cry me, but none comes nigh me’ and echoes the desperate cries of the lovelorn, but Morley invests it a great amount of energy and musical interest. It is full of rhythmic intensity and mock-tragic suspensions, juxtaposing groups of voices at high speed and following their cries with robust fa-las. ‘O help!’ is set in a similarly frenzied style, limited to the upper voices for stridency and contrasting with the weight of the ‘ay me’ section, which uses long notes, a chain of mock-tragic suspensions and a pathetic rest in all voices. The final fa-la section offers a lengthy imitative playing-out of a syncopated motive, as if to deny the poor burning-hearted poet any rest until the very end.
