Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, c.1480-c.1620
Monday 17th May 2010, 7.00pm
St Mary at Hill, Eastcheap, London, EC3R 8EE
Led by Peter Syrus
Tickets: £10 (£8 Friends and concessions)
Divine? Perhaps. But immortal? No. In reality, the composer lived from about 1525 to 1594, but so all-embracing was his genius that he could apparently look back beyond immediate predecessors for inspiration, could be entirely of his own time, or might write music whose tonal clarity ensured admiration and performances (sometimes with C17 trappings such as basso continuo) well beyond his death. This workshop will investigate these ‘alternative Palestrinas’, perhaps along the way exploding the odd myth about him. Representing each of the three perspectives above, the following will be among items sung:
movements from the Mass ‘Repleatur os meum laude’ (together with its model, the motet by Jaquet of Mantua; or perhaps putative model is nearer the mark: a recent scholar sees Palestrina in this Mass as directly challenging Ockeghem for dazzling mastery of Netherlandish artifice);
5-voice motets from his fourth book on texts from the ‘Song of Songs’. If, by 1584, Italy was generally pursuing more secular than sacred goals, then these will do nicely: they famously adopt an unusually colourful, utterly madrigalian, approach;
the 2-choir motet and Mass ‘Hodie Christus natus est’. Until comparatively recently Palestrina’s polychoral works tended to be overlooked (indeed the Mass was not published in the composer’s lifetime). But hear or perform these works and you will surely wonder why…
Peter Syrus
Peter Syrus graduated with first-class Honours from the University of York in 1971. He remained there to undertake research into fourteenth-century Italian music, and occupied various posts in the music department prior to a move to Manchester in 1975 where he teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music. Two years later, his professional ensemble was chosen to launch the national Early Music Network, and subsequently performed and recorded in most European countries, America and Canada. Peter plays a key role in activities of the regional Early Music Fora in this country, of which the first was established in the North West. These have provided a platform for numerous appearances at day schools and residential courses, engaging with singers and instrumentalists in repertoire ranging from the late Middle Ages to the mid-seventeenth century.
