GRCC » Musica Spei

Saint Nicholas Saves the Day

Eric Lobenstine — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:36:50 +0000

Musica Spei presents

St. Nicholas Saves the Day:

An evil pagan King, a steadfast Christian boy, and a kindly Saint

Featured will be a sung medieval mystery play, based on a miracle attributed to Saint Nicholas. The play tells the story of a boy abducted from his family to serve a pagan king and how, after a year of prayers, fasting and supplication to the Saint by his mother, the boy is returned to his family, unharmed.

Rounding out the performance will be a Magnificat and selections from a Nativity Mass by Loyset Compère, who “wrote some of the sweetest music of the 15th century”.

Friday, December 9, 7:30 pm — St. Anne Church, 1600 Mount Hope Avenue, Rochester

Saturday, December 10, 7:30 pm — St. Mary’s Church, 15 Clark Street, Auburn

Free-will offering ($10 suggested)

For more information call 585-241-9761 or visit www.MusicaSpei.org

Early Music Festival at St. Anne Church, 1600 Mt. Hope Ave. on 2011-10-28

Eric Lobenstine — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:16:51 +0000

Musica Spei (Music of Hope) presents the 11th Annual Rochester Early Music Festival on Friday, October 28th at 7:30pm at Saint Anne Church (1600 Mount Hope Avenue) in Rochester. The concert includes ensembles and soloists from a broad spectrum of Rochester’s early music community, presenting choral works ranging from medieval chant to contemporary works based upon chant themes, Brass chorales by Isaac and Speer, music for harpsichord and soprano by Purcell, and one of the earliest sonatas ever published by a woman, dating from 1693. WXXI’s Brenda Tremblay hosts this PRISM-style concert, a format in which performers surround the audience and the music flows from piece to piece with minimal interruption. General admission tickets ($13 in advance, $15 at the door, $5 for students) are available at Parkleigh, and on-line at www.MusicaSpei.org. For further information, please call 585-241-9761 or visit www.MusicaSpei.org. Following the performance, Musica Spei hosts a free reception for artists and audience. There will be door prizes awarded to the performer or audience member with the most fantastic Halloween or Renaissance masks.

The offerings include performances by Amy Cochrane, soprano and Bonnie Choi, harpsichord; Deborah Fox, lute with colleagues in Pegasus Early Music; Publick Musick’s Boel Gidholm, violin with Michael Unger, organ; Christel Thielmann, viola da gamba leading the Eastman Collegium Baroque Orchestra and Viol Consort; Baroquen Bones, an ensemble of early brass instruments; Musica Spei and Concentus, a Rochester-based women’s chorus appearing for the first time at the Early Music Festival. Highlights will include Publick Musick performing a sonata for violin and continuo by Isabella Leonarda, an Ursuline nun whose instrumental works, published in 1693, are the earliest known sonatas published by a woman, as well as music of the Spanish Renaissance by Pegasus Early Music.

Musica Spei (Music of Hope), the Festival’s producer, formed in the summer of 1995 to explore the vast but rarely performed repertoire of sacred, unaccompanied choral masterworks of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The group currently has a wide-ranging repertoire of well over 100 masses, motets and chants from both Western and East European Orthodox traditions. Musica Spei’s goal is to share the magnificence and beauty of this mostly unfamiliar music with ever wider audiences, while demonstrating the vibrancy and emotional impact of this music in today’s world. The growth and development of Musica Spei, a member of the Greater Rochester Choral Consortium, is possible due to the generous on-going support of the parish community of Saint Anne Church, which provides both rehearsal and performance space.

Musica Spei at St. Mary’s Church on 2011-05-20

Eric Lobenstine — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:11:48 +0000

MUSICA SPEI PRESENTS “TONGUES OF FLAME: CHORAL MUSIC FOR PENTECOST.” WITH MUSIC SPANNING 8 CENTURIES OF EUROPEAN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE CHORAL TRADITION, MUSICA SPEI’S CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF PENTECOST FEATURES THE “DUM COMPLERENTUR” MOTET AND MASS BY PALESTRINA, ONE OF THE MOST PROLIFIC COMPOSERS OF THE 16TH CENTURY, AS WELL AS WORKS BY TALLIS, GESUALDO, AND DUNSTAPLE, AND INTRODUCES OUR AUDIENCE TO NICOLLE DES CELLIERS DE HESDIN, A LITTLE-KNOWN FRENCH COMPOSER, PRESENTING HIS “ALLELUIA: SPIRITUS DOMINI”.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was one of the most prolific composers of his day, with more than 2000 compositions published during his lifetime, including at least 105 masses. Composers often reuse melodic themes from one composition to another; when the recycled melody appears in a mass, that composition is often called a parody, or imitation, mass. Palestrina used several of the themes from his motet for Pentecost “Dum Complerentur” as inspiration for his mass of the same name; both the motet and several movements of the mass are presented.

Like Palestrina, Nicolle des Celliers de Hesdin composed for the feast of Pentecost. Unlike Palestrina, however, Hesdin died before his skills could be recognized. His life is mostly an enigma; it is not known when he was born, and his full name is recorded only on his tombstone. As a result, several works now acknowledged to be by Hesdin were attributed to other composers of the day, such as Gombert. In this concert Musica Spei presents what is possibly the Rochester premier of any piece by Hesdin, his motet for Pentecost “Alleluia: Spiritus Domini”.

Writing at least a century earlier than the other composers represented in this concert, John Dunstaple’s motet “Veni Sancte Spiritus” provides an interesting harmonic and rhythmic contrast. Dunstaple ingeniously uses a combination of Pentecost texts, each sung by a different voice part. The top voice sings the text of the 13^th century chant Veni Sancte Spiritus; the third (tenor) voice of the motet sings the text of the 9^th century chant Veni Creator Spiritus. Both of these chants will also be presented. The text for second voice also comes from the Veni Sancte Spiritus chant, whereas the bottom voice repeatedly sings two lines of the Veni Creator Spiritus text, at first very slowly, but faster with each of three repetitions. The combined effect is fascinating, as the different parts combine to make a unified whole.

Compositions from other Renaissance masters including Byrd, Tallis, Guerrero and Gesualdo will round out the program.

Celebrating 15 years of music-making in 2010, Musica Spei (Music of Hope) explores the vast repertoire of rarely-performed, sacred choral masterworks of the medieval and renaissance periods; sharing the riches with audiences throughout central and western New York. Rehearsing and performing unaccompanied and without a conductor, the group develops its interpretations in a collaborative fashion, communicating and interacting in a manner not unlike the members of a jazz or chamber music ensemble. Musica Spei’s recent accomplishments include a live performance on WXXI’s Backstage Pass radio show, and a reinvigoration of the Rochester Early Music Festival, which the group first organized in 2001.

Tenth Annual Rochester Early Music Festival at St. Anne Church, 1600 Mt. Hope Ave. on 2010-11-05

Eric Lobenstine — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 15:45:25 +0000

Musica Spei (Music of Hope) presents the Tenth Annual Rochester Early Music Festival on Friday, November 5th at 7:30pm at Saint Anne Church (1600 Mount Hope Avenue) in Rochester. The concert includes ensembles and soloists from a broad spectrum of Rochester’s early music community, presenting works ranging from English Medieval songs, Brass chorales by Byrd and Vivaldi, 17th century Italian and Spanish baroque guitar, Macey’s new editions of pieces by Josquin and Mouton, and one of the strangest works in the entire Renaissance repertoire: Rex Christe/Rumpel Metten by the Reformation composer Sixt Dietrich (1492-1548). WXXI’s Brenda Tremblay hosts this PRISM-style concert, a format in which performers surround the audience and the music flows from piece to piece with minimal interruption. General admission tickets ($13 in advance, $15 at the door, $5 for students) are available at Borders in Henrietta and Parkleigh, and on-line at www.MusicaSpei.org. For further information, please call 585-241-9761 or visit www.MusicaSpei.org. Following the performance, Musica Spei hosts a free reception for artists and audience to celebrate the release of their second CD, “Cathedrals of Sound,” a compilation of the best tracks of live concert recordings from 2002-2007.

Hosted this year by WXXI’s Brenda Tremblay, the offerings include performances by Ingrid Bock, cello and Bonnie Choi, harpsichord; Colleen Liggett, soprano; Deborah Fox, baroque guitar; Christel Thielmann, viola da gamba; John Morabito, organ; the Eastman Collegium Musicum; Baroquen Bones, an ensemble of early brass instruments; and Musica Spei. Featured pieces include the premiere performances of works by two of the Renaissance’s greatest composers, Josquin and Mouton, in new editions by award-winning Josquin expert and Eastman musicologist Patrick Macey, as well as two other works for chorus and wind ensemble. One of these, Rex Christe/Rumpel Metten by Sixt Dietrich, is most unusual for the period, as the composer pairs a sacred motet with boisterous brass accompaniment .

Musica Spei [...]

RAS — Sun, 02 May 2010 06:46:27 +0000

Celebrating 15 years of music-making in 2010, Musica Spei (Music of Hope) explores the vast repertoire of rarely-performed, sacred choral masterworks of the Medieval and Renaissance periods, sharing these unknown and rarely performed riches with audiences throughout central and western New York. Rehearsing and performing unaccompanied and without a conductor, the group develops its interpretations in a collaborative fashion, communicating and interacting as though members of a jazz or chamber music ensemble. Musica Spei’s recent accomplishments include a live performance on WXXI’s Backstage Pass radio show, continuation of the Rochester Early Music Festival (which the group first organized in 2001), and another of many performances at Memorial Art Gallery exhibition preview parties.

Musica Spei also organizes Renaissance Summer Sings on select Wednesday nights in July and August for members of the community who wish to participate in singing this repertoire. Check our website: www.musicaspei.org, for more information about upcoming concerts, summer sings, the upcoming release of our second CD, and the Tenth Annual Rochester Early Music Festival, slated for November 5, 2010.

Contact Name	Address	Phone	e-mail
Eric Lobenstine	57 Westland Ave. Rochester, NY 14618	585-241-9761	questions@musicaspei.org

http://www.musicaspei.org.

GRCC » Musica Spei

Saint Nicholas Saves the Day

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Musica Spei presents

St. Nicholas Saves the Day:

An evil pagan King, a steadfast Christian boy, and a kindly Saint

Early Music Festival at St. Anne Church, 1600 Mt. Hope Ave. on 2011-10-28

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Tenth Annual Rochester Early Music Festival at St. Anne Church, 1600 Mt. Hope Ave. on 2010-11-05

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