The video below—by the Icelandic choir “Kór Langholtskirkju” with conductor Jón Stefánsson—performs Poulenc’s dramatic Tenebræ factæ sunt from 1938. This work appears in BCE’s program immediately after Paul Crabtree’s Unus ex discipulis meis/Slow Train. LatinTenebræ factæ sunt, dum crucifixissent Jesum Judæi: Et circa horam nonam exclamavit Jesus voce magna: Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti? [...]

In the video below we hear Gesualdo’s setting of “O vos omnes” from the middle of the Holy Saturday reponsories. Gesualdo’s iconoclastic style, while muted in a sacred setting, remains intact in this music. Listen as you read the text and notice how Gesulado shifts color and texture fluently as he treats each bit of [...]

Below is an audio recording of Victoria’s “Astiterunt reges”, the seventh responsory for Holy Saturday. Victoria’s setting shows the clarity of Renaissance music that makes it so attractive to many. Notice how clear each voice is as it carves out its on path in the four-voice texture. Note also how small melodic shapes are passed [...]

NB’s happy to bring you a little diversion today: a choral work by Thomas Jennefelt presented here in video. The performance is from the 10th International Chamber Choir Competition Marktoberdorf and is performed by the Collegium Vocale conducted by Thomas Caplin of Norway. The work, O Domine, is from 1983 and is for mixed voices [...]

Jennefelt’s Villarosa Sequences can be described as an example of Minimalism. What is Minimalism? NB did some digging to find a good description and a few popular examples. In his article on minimalism for Grove Online, U of London lecturer Keith Potter describes Minimalism as, “A term borrowed from the visual arts to describe a [...]