Saturday 17th December 2016 - 7:30pm

St George's, Bloomsbury, London WC1A 2SA

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Director: David Allinson

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An evening of seasonal 16th century music centered on the nativity scene, and upon the humble shepherds who were among the first to see the baby Jesus. Our programme featured works by Jacob Clemens and his Franco-Flemish contemporaries. Clemens’s music is polyphonic perfection: unlike most northern European composers of the time he never travelled to Italy; he  revels in relatively conservative close-worked counterpoint and sonorous chording. His Missa Pastores quidnam vidistis moves seamlessly between moods of contemplative reverence and joyful dancing. All is crowned by a rapturous Agnus Dei in which the texture is enriched by an extra voice.

 

The setting of the Mass was interspersed with seasonal motets by Gombert, Verdelot, Josquin, Willaert and Clemens himself.