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Ecce Beatam Lucem
Presented by: Malcolm Blythe Production| 0 | LONDON: St Dunstan-in-the-West |
|---|---|
| P | Friday 2nd September, 2011 |
| N | 7:00pm |
Ecce Beatam Lucem: behold the blessed light
Our programme of choral music from the Renaissance to the 21st century celebrates the beauty of creation and light, the historical figures of the Virgin Mary and St Cecilia and the mysteries of life and death.
Striggio's magnificent forty part motet Ecce Beatam Lucem is thought to have inspired Thomas Tallis to write Spem in Alium.
William Mundy set his votive antiphon in praise of the Virgin Mary during the Counter Reformation, whereas Cecilia McDowall's three Latin motets were commissioned much more recently by Janet and Douglas Mackay.
William Byrd's plaintive meditation on Psalm 51 evokes the anguish of a recusant Catholic during the reign of Elizabeth I, while Sir Edward Elgar's settings of poems by Maykov and Tennyson conjure the mysteries of sleep and death.
Gabriel Jackson's setting of a 16th century text in praise of St. Cecilia celebrates the patron saint of music with spectacular cascading scales, reminiscent of ringing church bells. Creator of the Stars of Night returns us to the theme of light and creation.
Eric Whitacre's Lux Aurumque is a luminous setting of a Latin translation of Edward Esch's simple poem about the beauty and tranquillity of the nativity.
The concert brings us full circle with Jonathan Dove's splendid setting of Ecce Beatam Lucem, commissioned by Ralph Allwood in 1996.
Doors 7.00 pm, Performance 7.30 pm
www.eccebeatamlucem.co.uk
