P a s t W o r k s h o p s
Season 2015-16
Out of the Shadow of Josquin
with Stephen Rice
Monday 18th April 2016
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, EC1A 2DQ
The Netherlandish composers born in the years around 1500 are often thought of as constituting a 'post-Josquin generation', or even according to some writers a 'no-name generation'. In reality their music was wildly popular, with Clemens non Papa alone outselling any composer before Lassus. His contemporaries such as Nicolas Gombert, Jacquet of Mantua, and Pierre de Manchicourt also created works of great beauty, which despite their lack of appreciation by music historians are quite diverse in style. This workshop explored sacred pieces by these four leading figures, giving an insight into the breadth of musical creativity in mid-16th century Europe.
Stephen Rice is a Lecturer in Music at the University of Bristol, where he oversees the performance activities of the department. He is the founder and director of the Brabant Ensemble, whose fifteenth CD on the Hyperion label, of music by Pierre de la Rue, will be released in 2016. As an academic he previously held positions at several Oxford colleges and at the University of Southampton, and he has published on the music of Nicolas Gombert, Clemens non Papa, Thomas Tallis, and Josquin Desprez, and on Renaissance music theory.
Influencing Monteverdi: Dramatising the Sacred
with Will Dawes
Monday 15th February 2016
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, EC1A 2DQ
Focussing on the works of Lassus, de Wert and Monteverdi at around the end of the 16th / early 17th century, this workshop explored the transitional era when the vivid secular madrigalian style permeated the sacred works of the same composers, giving us hugely illustrative sacred works that border on the theatrical in musical style.
Will Dawes is a member of Early Music vocal ensemble Stile Antico and conducts choral groups across the South of England. He is a former Lay Clerk of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied choral conducting and singing.
John Sheppard - Media Vita
with Sally Dunkley
Monday 7th September 2015
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, EC1A 2DQ
John Sheppard is regarded by many singers as an unsung genius among Tudor composers. In the year of his 500th birthday, we marked his anniversary with a workshop based around his epic masterpiece, Media Vita, alongside a selection of other works.
Sally Dunkley (The Sixteen), singer and practical scholar, featured in many of the earliest performances of Sheppard's rediscovered works with groups such as the Clerkes of Oxenford (director: David Wulstun), and the Renaissance Singers were delighted to benefit from her remarkable insight as we welcomed her back to lead this open workshop.
