Supersize Polyphony

Armonico Consort
Supersize Polyphony

Supersize Polyphony celebrates large-scale works from the 16th Century, including Striggio’s epic motet Ecce Beatam Lucem, and Tallis’s Spem in Alium, both in 40 parts and performed ‘in the round’. The programme also features lesser known, but equally sumptuous works, such as Ockeghem’s 36-part canon Deo Gratias and movements from Brumel’s Missa Et Ecce Terrae Motus.

Composers of the renaissance are often thought of as God fearing and immensely devout, but the opposite is almost certainly the case for many of them. They were frequently getting into trouble, and being fired from employment.  They also regularly set each other challenges, probably after a session or two in the local tavern. If it were not for these ‘challenges’, most of the works in the programme tonight would never have been written.

This programme was devised by David Buckley.
 
Tallis If ye love me
Ockeghem Deo Gratias, 36 part canon
Plainsong O Virtus Sapientiae - Hildegard of Bingen
Plainsong Et Ecce Terrae Motus
Brumel Missa Et Ecce Terrae Motus: Kyrie
Plainsong Et Ecce Terrae Motus
Brumel Missa Et Ecce Terrae Motus: Gloria
Plainsong Salve Regina (attributed to Hermann Contractus)
Striggio Ecce Beatam Lucem

INTERVAL

Byrd Ave Verum
Plainsong Et Ecce Terrae Mortus
Brumel Missa Et Ecce Terrae Motus: Sanctus, Benedictus
Plainsong Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans – Hildegard of Bingen
Tallis Spem in Alium