Madrigal Mondays
Some people claim that they don't like madrigals. I've found that in most instances, this is because they think of them as a light, fa-la-la kind of ditty. But these aren't really madrigals at all. They're fun, but not deep. The real thing started in Italy in the first quarter of the 16th-century, joining substantive poetry with serious music, a true art-form which blossomed over the course of the century to be an expressive language of incredible range and capacity to express human emotion on a variety of levels and subjects.
At the beginning of each week, we will update our website with a new madrigal and we will try to include a few notes about each piece and why we think it's great--worthy of study and listening and singing. Then (as with the Chorales and Motets) it'll be up to you to learn your part and sing along, thus absorbing and internalizing and--in a sense--becoming part of each piece.
Some people claim that they don't like madrigals. I've found that in most instances, this is because they think of them as a light, fa-la-la kind of ditty. But these aren't really madrigals at all. They're fun, but not deep. The real thing started in Italy in the first quarter of the 16th-century, joining substantive poetry with serious music, a true art-form which blossomed over the course of the century to be an expressive language of incredible range and capacity to express human emotion on a variety of levels and subjects.
At the beginning of each week, we will update our website with a new madrigal and we will try to include a few notes about each piece and why we think it's great--worthy of study and listening and singing. Then (as with the Chorales and Motets) it'll be up to you to learn your part and sing along, thus absorbing and internalizing and--in a sense--becoming part of each piece.
Introit from Duruflé Requiem
In memory of our friend, Rick Beebe
I am pausing our Monday Madrigal series this week, and in its place I offer a piece which immediately came to mind as I thought of the loss of our longtime choir member and friend Rick Beebe: The Introit from the Duruflé Requiem.
As some of you will recall, we did this movement (as well as the Sanctus and the In paradisum) as part of our 'Music of the Spheres' concert in 2013. I can't think of more healing music, music which can somehow help us remember our friend, assuage our loss and show us a way forward.
If you can, please spend a little time with this piece this week, listening and singing
and (I like to say) praying through music.
In memory of our friend, Rick Beebe
I am pausing our Monday Madrigal series this week, and in its place I offer a piece which immediately came to mind as I thought of the loss of our longtime choir member and friend Rick Beebe: The Introit from the Duruflé Requiem.
As some of you will recall, we did this movement (as well as the Sanctus and the In paradisum) as part of our 'Music of the Spheres' concert in 2013. I can't think of more healing music, music which can somehow help us remember our friend, assuage our loss and show us a way forward.
If you can, please spend a little time with this piece this week, listening and singing
and (I like to say) praying through music.
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Click below for learning materials