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Ars Nova Singers
Music of the Renaissance:
The Earthquake Mass
with special guest instrumentalist is Ann Marie Morgan, viola da gamba
February 23, 2019 - St. John’s Episcopal Church, Boulder
February 24, 2019 - St. Paul Community of Faith, Denver (matinee, 4:00pm)
Music featuring the Viola da Gamba:
Recercada Primera sobre canto llano (cantus firmus sung by the men of ANS) Diego Ortiz
Ab aeterno ordinata sum adapted for solo bass viol Claudio Monteverdi
The Third Tune for Archbishop Parker's Psalter Thomas Tallis
O darkest woe, Hymn Tune, 1626 Anon
Settings for solo viol by Daniel Rippe, b.1957
In Nomine (cantus firmus sung by the women of ANS) Ann Marie Morgan
This program features one of the most breathtaking outbursts of the Renaissance imagination, the colossal “Earthquake” Mass by the French composer Antoine Brumel (c. 1460–1520). The mass has been called “one of the true marvels of Renaissance choral writing,” with its unusual scoring for 12 voices. The “Earthquake” Mass gets its name from a snippet of melody from Gregorian chant; in this case, the Easter antiphon “Et ecce terrae motus est” or “And behold, the earth moved”. The melodic fragment is found throughout the work, frequently presented in long note-values, while the other voices were woven around it in an intricate polyphonic tapestry.
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St Martin's Chamber Choir
