Music of Hidden Beauty in Belfast and Newry

Music of Hidden Beauty in Belfast and Newry

Forthcoming Sestina concerts feature an all-male choir performing music from the Renaissance.

Following their concerts of works by Bach and Monteverdi last year, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas earlier this year, the early music ensemble Sestina will perform a concert of Renaissance choral music by Tallis Byrd, de Rore, Sheppard and White in Belfast tomorrow and Newry on Thursday.

Titled The Gem Within, the theme of the concerts is ‘Music of Hidden Beauty’. As Director Mark Chambers explains,

In this programme we will explore the hidden beauty of Renaissance choral music – the use of the cantus firmus, or firm voice, the use of hidden praise and hidden melodies in music, the use of hidden canons and mathematical perfection to construct incredible music… you will hear beautiful music, but I will also try and bring out a little bit of the hidden secrets within in… I hope it will enhance your appreciation of the music further. 

The programme is structured around the monumental Missa Praeter Rerum Seriem by Cipriano de Rore, and Sestina will also explore music from the hidden textual messages of Byrd’s Cantiones Sacrae to the incredibly mathematically correct Tallis Miserere.

Presented by an all-male vocal ensemble of eight voices, the performers are: Mark Chambers, Joseph Zubier, Matthew Keighley, Robert Horgan, Peter Harris, Aaron O’Hare, Brian McAlea and William Gaunt.

The concerts take place on Wednesday 31 August at 8pm at Clonard Monastery, Belfast and Thursday 1 September at 7.30pm at the Church of the Assumption in Newry. 

For further information and tickets, visit http://sestinamusic.com/the-gem-within/

Published on 30 August 2016

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