EO Outreach: Musiche Sacre
25 FEB 2023, 7:30PM
EO Outreach: Musiche Sacre
CAVALLI
25 FEB 2023, 7:00PM
Christ Church, St-Leonards-on-Sea
Ensemble OrQuesta Baroque
HPO SINGERS
HPO SONGBIRDS
Marcio da Silva - conductor
We are delighted to be running this project in partnership with Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra, using their semi-professional chamber choir, HPO Singers, and their children's choir, HPO Songbirds.
Written in the mid-17th century, Cavalli's 'Musiche Sacre' is full of variety, imagination, and experimentation. Cavalli's writing is expressive, engaging, and full of contrasts, with simple hymn-like sections, expressive solo items and intimate moments, contrasted with spectacular motets displaying the influence of opera on his writing, exciting instrumental interludes, dance-like melodies, rhythmic vitality, and frequent metric changes. Cavalli is the master of weaving a web of musico-dramatic characterisations.
All in all, 'Music from a time of plague' aptly represents the many dimensions of a community experiencing trauma - something that perhaps still resonates strongly with us today.
Movements
1. Agnus Dei (8 voices, SATB, SATB). 2. Dixit Dominus (8 voices, SATB, SATB). 3. Confitebor tibi (8 voices, SATB, SATB).
4. Beatus Vir (3 voices, ATB). 5. Laudate Pueri (5 voices, SSATB). 6. Laudate Dominum (8 voices, SATB, SATB).
7. Laetatus sum (3 voices, ATB). 8. Nisi Dominus (4 voices, SATB). 9. Lauda Jerusalem (8 voices, SATB, SATB).
10. Credidi (5 voices, SSATB). 11. In convertendo (5 voices, SSTTB). 12. Domine probasti (3 voices, SAB).
13. Iste confessor (2 voices, SS). 14. Ave Maria stella (3 voices, ATB). 15. Jesu corona Virinum (3 voices, ATB).
16. Exsultet orbis (4 voices, SATB). 17. Deus tuorum militum (3 voices, ATB). 18. Magnificat (8 voices, SATB, SATB).
19. Ave Maria caelorum (2 voices, TB). 20. Regina Caeli (3 voices, ATB). 21. Salve Regina (4 voices, ATTB).
22. Alma Redemptoris Mater (5 voices, SSATB).
23. Canzon a 3. 24. Sonata a 4. 25. Sonata a 6. 26. Sonata a 8. 27. Sonata a 10. 28. Sonata a 12.
Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
Cavalli was a Venetian composer, organist, and singer of the early baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverdi as the dominant and leading opera composer of the mid 17th-century. A central figure of Venetian musical life, Cavalli wrote more than forty operas, almost all of which premiered in the city's theatres.
Cavalli was born in Crema, then an inland province of the Venetian Republic. He became a singer (boy soprano) at St Mark’s Basilica in Venice in 1616, where he had the opportunity to work under the tutorship of Claudio Monteverdi. He became second organist in 1639, first organist in 1665, and in 1668 ‘maestro di capella’. He took the name "Cavalli" from his patron, Venetian nobleman Federico Cavalli. Though he wrote prolifically for the church, he is chiefly remembered for his operas. He began to write for the stage in 1639 soon after the opening of the first public opera house in Venice – the Teatro San Cassiano. Cavalli was the most renowned composer of opera in seventeenth-century Venice. He established so great a reputation that he was summoned to Paris from 1660 until 1662. He died in Venice at the age of 73.
Though Cavalli's operas have enjoyed a surge in popularity and interest in recent years, his sacred works remain largely unknown. Cavalli published only a small portion of his compositional output, and his Musiche Sacre Concernenti of 1656 contains the largest source of his sacred music in concertato style, representing a fusion of his sacred and secular compositional worlds.
Music from a time of plague.
In the Musiche Sacre we clearly see the ideals of imagination and experimentation that are evident in Venetian opera of the period. Cavalli utilizes the three compositional styles of the early baroque period, including monodies for solo voice or voices and continuo, small-scale works in concertato style for few voices with or without accompanying instruments, and large-scale concertato works based on the cori spezzati (polychoral or split choirs) style of Giovanni Gabrieli. The larger psalms create textural contrast by juxtaposing tutti sections in the Venetian antiphonal polychoral tradition (responsive or alternate singing by two choirs) with soli sections written in the seconda prattica (expressive setting of texts) often incorporating instrumental ritornelli (a recurring passage with a contrasting episode) and sinfonie. The hymns are simple and use instrumental ritornelli to separate the strophes (verses). Melodies are short and dance-like and are set over a flowing bass line. Metric changes are frequent, and hemiolas (rhythmic variation - 6 notes heard as 3 groups of 2, or 2 groups of 3) are used to foster rhythmic vitality. The Marian antiphons (hymns sung in honour of the Virgin Mary) are more intimate. The twenty-one motets (multi-voice movements) range in style from the intimate to the spectacular and display the influence of opera on his writing - they are full of contrasts and characterisations.
Cavalli was a professional singer who understood the capacity of the human voice. From a vocal standpoint he is a gifted melodist, and his writing is expressive and engaging. In Credidi for example, the serene and steady character of the canto 1 and canto 2 parts as they sing about the humility of being a servant of the Lord is contrasted by the quick rhythms and frequent melodic leaps of the alto, tenor, and bass parts as they sing of the chains that the Lord has broken on their behalf. It is not difficult to imagine this music as a secular operatic scene where the serene canto parts are a pair of lovers singing to each other, while the alto, tenor, and bass are a trio of conspirators plotting against them. Cavalli shows himself to be unparalleled at composing text-inspired themes of high musical quality and weaving a web of musico-dramatic tension by gradually increasing numbers of voices and instruments, culminating in a series of closely overlapping entrances that lead to a grand tutti cadence.
This project, which is a partnership between Ensemble OrQuesta and Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra, aims to offer an inclusive all-age community project (January - February 2023). The project will include interactive singing workshops and performance opportunities for both children and adult participants, alongside 8 young professional singers and a small ensemble of 7 specialist early musicians.
Marcio’s aim is to champion early music and make it accessible. He is keen to work within this local community in the south-east and give exciting, challenging, and high-quality musical opportunities to both early career professionals and enthusiastic amateurs. He has chosen the Musiche Sacre because it is an excellent introduction to baroque music for children and for adult amateurs, and a wonderful experience for young professional singers and early career specialist musicians to share. He aims to champion this music since it is so rarely performed.
The fact that Cavalli’s Musiche Sacre is sometimes named ‘Music from a time of plague’ gives it a certain poignancy.
Marcio is also preparing a new edition of the Musiche Sacre. This will be a multi-purpose and functional edition which also offers a sample realization of the continuo. This makes it easily accessible to the public. The edition will be made available for free download.
The variety within this collection makes it ideal to explore with the combination of groups chosen – young early career professional singers, specialist early music instrumentalists, talented amateur adult singers and enthusiastic children.
We are immensely grateful for the support.
New Opera Editions.
We regularly undertake our own editions of baroque operas, making these available to the public by publishing them online on IMSLP, the International Music Score Project. We also intend to make these editions freely available on our website.