171203 Rejoice! Rejoice! Program
About Today’s Performance…
We are so glad you have joined us as we journey back to 18th century Venice, a city that was experiencing a remarkable flowering of sacred music composed specifically for women’s voices, by some of the world’s great masters of vocal music.
The energy behind this flowering of creativity was provided by Venice’s several Ospedali—charitable institutions established by the Catholic church to house young female wards that were considered undesirable in Venetian society. These included orphans, homeless children, lepers and reformed prostitutes. Quite unpredictably, by the mid 1700s, these institutions occupied the core of Venetian society.
The Ospedali provided girls and young women with an education in many subjects, including rigorous musical training. One of the service obligations for residents was to sing in liturgical services and in concerts, which were attended by members of Venice’s wealthy merchant class. The Ospedali, which started merely as charitable institutions, increasingly drew international attention because of the high caliber of the cori’s performances.
This concert will also feature music which was written in earlier times and places other than Venice, including a chant composed by 12th century philosopher, mystic, visionary and Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard von Bingen. Three renaissance motets also appear on the program, written by an Italian, an Englishman and a Spaniard. You will also hear two contrasting works by J.S. Bach.
We present this music to you today as it would have been performed in the middle of the 18th century. The members of our orchestra are experts in baroque music performance and will be playing on period instruments. In addition, we are using baroque tuning, which is about a half-step lower than modern tuning. The performance of ornaments and phrasing is also based on baroque practices. We believe that this exceptional music comes alive when performed in the way it was intended to be heard.
Thank you for joining us!
--Mitchell Covington, Artistic Director
Read MoreWe are so glad you have joined us as we journey back to 18th century Venice, a city that was experiencing a remarkable flowering of sacred music composed specifically for women’s voices, by some of the world’s great masters of vocal music.
The energy behind this flowering of creativity was provided by Venice’s several Ospedali—charitable institutions established by the Catholic church to house young female wards that were considered undesirable in Venetian society. These included orphans, homeless children, lepers and reformed prostitutes. Quite unpredictably, by the mid 1700s, these institutions occupied the core of Venetian society.
The Ospedali provided girls and young women with an education in many subjects, including rigorous musical training. One of the service obligations for residents was to sing in liturgical services and in concerts, which were attended by members of Venice’s wealthy merchant class. The Ospedali, which started merely as charitable institutions, increasingly drew international attention because of the high caliber of the cori’s performances.
This concert will also feature music which was written in earlier times and places other than Venice, including a chant composed by 12th century philosopher, mystic, visionary and Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard von Bingen. Three renaissance motets also appear on the program, written by an Italian, an Englishman and a Spaniard. You will also hear two contrasting works by J.S. Bach.
We present this music to you today as it would have been performed in the middle of the 18th century. The members of our orchestra are experts in baroque music performance and will be playing on period instruments. In addition, we are using baroque tuning, which is about a half-step lower than modern tuning. The performance of ornaments and phrasing is also based on baroque practices. We believe that this exceptional music comes alive when performed in the way it was intended to be heard.
Thank you for joining us!
--Mitchell Covington, Artistic Director
