Classical music: Voces Aestatis will perform its second annual concert of 16th-century choral music this coming Friday night.

By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear’s friends at the choral group Voces Aestatis (below) – which performs early and pre-Baroque music – send word:

Voces Aestatis (pronounced VO-ches Eh-STA-tees) – or Summer Voices — is a professional choir of 16 voices that specializes in choral literature from the Renaissance and earlier.

The choir will present its second annual concert in Madison on this coming Friday night, Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Andrew‘s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street. Tickets are $15 at the door.

Director Ben Luedcke (above, far left in front row, and below) has prepared a concert that will feature both sacred and secular works from the 16th century.

Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church (below) is an intimate and acoustically ideal performance space for this ensemble — which is a highly select group of Madison singers, hand-picked for their vibrant voices, blended tone and experience with early music, particularly the a cappella repertoire of the 16th century.

One of the few professional choirs in Madison, this group of paid singers only rehearses a handful of times, performing once per year.

The first half of the concert will begin and end with double-choir pieces by Jean Mouton, and the master of the polychoral sub-genre, Giovanni Gabrieli. Music by William Byrd (below) and Jean l’Heritier celebrate the glory of God.

Also included are works by Giuseppe Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso (below), with texts taken from the Song of Songs. Though sanctioned in the Old Testament as an allegory of the love between Christ and the Church, these biblical passages are infamous for their explicit erotic qualities and have been favorites of choral composers for centuries.

Music of Carlo Gesualdo and Antonio Lotti, with dramatic texts taken from the Tenebrae service of Good Friday round out the first half of the concert.

The second half features both English and Italian madrigals by Orlando Gibbons, John Bennet, Jacques Arcadelt, and Claudio Monteverdi (below). These highly sensual texts deal with lust as well as death, even questioning the meaning of our short lives.

Video and audio recordings from last year’s concert are available on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogmeA8EYrW0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQ-cDhyFao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzm2TmSEFjw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuRZ5b3NR6c

 

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: a cappella, Antonio Loti, Arts, Arts and Culture, Audio, Baroque, Bible, Carlo Gesualdo, Choir, choral music, Christ, church, Classical music, Claudio Monteverdi, death, Early music, England, Episcopal, erotic, Gabrieli, God, Good Friday, Great Britain, Italian music, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Jacques Arcadelt, Jean ;, Jean l'Heritier, Jean Mouton, Jesus, John Bennet, lust, Madison, madrigals, Old Testament, Orlando di Lasso, Orlando di Lassus, Orlando Gibbons, Palestrina, Renaissance, sacred, secular, Song of Songs, St. Andrew, UK, United Kingdom, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, vocal music, William Byrd, Wisconsin, YouTube