Adventsconcert - The Art of Music

Programme

Plainchant - Rorate caeli
Spee - O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf (a3)
Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400-74) - Conditor alme siderum (a3)
William Mundy (c. 1529-91) - Sive vigilem (a5)
Plainchant - O sapientia
Antoine de Mornable (fl. 1530-53) - O clavis David (a6)
Plainchant - O Adonai
Jacques de Wert (1535-96) - Vox clamantis in deserto (a6)

Interludes for Nyckelharpa:

Alfonso el Sabio (1221-1284) - Cantiga 7 Santa Maria amar

Alfonso el Sabio (1221-1284) - Cantiga de Santa Maria 353 (c. 1275)

Alfonso el Sabio (1221-1284) - Sempr'a Virgen groriosa Cantiga 377

From the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat

Anonymous (late 14th c.) - Stella splendens in monte (Dance)

Anonymous (late 14th c.) - Cuncti Simus (Dance)

Plainchant - Veni Emmanuel
Traditional - Maria durch ein Dornwald ging (a4)
Traditional (melody: Cologne, 1608) - Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen (a3)
Boris Ord (1897-1961) - Adam lay ybounden (a4)
Peter Warlock (1894-1930) - Bethlehem down (a4)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-94) - Canite tuba (a5)

The Art of Music are:

Soprano: Jennifer Schofield and Magdalena Mateńko

Alto: Marita Thomas

Tenor: Mick Swithinbank

Baritone and Nyckelharpa: Vincent Soubeyran

Bass: Achim Holz

Musical Director: Mick Swithinbank

The Collection after the concert will be donated to the Charities selected by the Advent Bazaar team – Parkinson Luxembourg ASBL and Fondation Maison de la Porte Ouverte.

Welcome to the Art of Music’s Advent concert, kindly hosted by the Advent Bazaar team of the Oeuvre Paroissial de Strassen with the support of Strassen commune and church.

With Christmas in prospect, Advent is naturally a time of eager anticipation. It also has its own repertoire of music, distinct from that for Christmas, although the latter is of course more extensive. Particularly on the first day of Advent, when this concert is taking place, it is good to have the opportunity to focus on the appropriate music.

Ever since its formation in 1993, the Art of Music’s primary interest has been in Renaissance music, albeit not to the complete exclusion of other repertoire. Gregorian chant, which, despite its origins in the Middle Ages, was still an integral part of church music in the 15^th and 16^th centuries and which – from the artistic point of view – is an excellent source of contrast to the music for multiple voices (polyphony), has always featured in the group’s programmes too.

All of that early-music repertoire was usually Latin-texted. In today’s concert, we have decided also to include music with English and German texts, and would probably have included something in French if we had succeeded in finding anything appropriate.

The programme includes some notable Advent plainchants. The best-known is probably Veni Emmanuel (O come, o come, Emmanuel), about which more will be said later. Rorate Caeli is another chant associated with the season. In the run-up to Christmas – the traditional dates for this being the seven days from 17 to 23 December – a series of chants known as the ‘O antiphons’ used traditionally to be sung. These were antiphons in the sense that they were sung as a prelude to the Magnificat in the important daily evening service of Vespers. They were quite ancient, probably dating from the 6^th century.

Each of the O antiphons had a different text but was set to the same plainchant. Each was structured similarly, starting by addressing the Messiah (Christ) by a different name each day – for example, O Sapientia (Oh wisdom), O Oriens (O radiant dawn) – and then using the word ‘Veni’ to urge him to come, as he duly did at Christmas. Two of these plainchants are included in today’s programme.

In Paris, an extra two O antiphons were sung (the series started on 15 December, therefore), although they were only superficially alike, being addressed to the Virgin Mary and St Thomas rather than the Messiah. In 1534, the leading music publisher in Paris, Pierre Attaingnant, published polyphonic settings of all nine of the antiphons used in the Paris tradition. These were by various French composers, including Antoine de Mornable, whose O clavis David (O key of David) features in this programme.