2022-2023: Music in Mantua/Joy & Sorrow/Duo Seraphim Clamabant

Duo Seraphim Clamabant: Works by Italian Women

Starting at the end of the sixteenth century, numerous Italian women composers started to publish their music. Many, but not all, were nuns. Raffaella Aleotti, Caterina Assandra, Maddalena Casulana, Sulpitia Cesis, Lucretia Vizzana, and Isabella Leonarda are just a few of the composers active during this time; and modern musicologists have been working to make this music available.

Last year a lost alto partbook was discovered for one of Casulana’s five-voice madrigal books, making these works available for the first time; we will be performing two of these madrigals, as well as others of her works. Come with us on a journey of discovery as we explore the voices of Italian women at the turn of the seventeenth century!

Click here to view the concert program for Duo Seraphim Clamabant.

Saturday, May 20
8:00pm
First Unitarian Church, Worcester

Sunday, May 21
7:30pm
United Parish in Brookline

Saturday, June 10- as part of the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) Fringe
12 noon
Old West Church, Boston

Joy and Sorrow: The Music of William Byrd

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Byrd’s death, and we take this opportunity to celebrate his mighty body of work with a program that includes madrigals, English and Latin motets, and one of his three great mass settings. Byrd was a Catholic at a time when that religious choice was considered “treasonous” by the British government, and the anxiety and isolation that pressure created can be heard in some of his mass movements and his beautifully longing motets. At the same time, he has many glorious and joyful musical moments as well, and, was not above some lighthearted madrigal fun. Come hear all the sides of Byrd in this musical tribute.

Saturday, February 25
7:00pm
Harvard-Epworth Church, Cambridge, MA
Sunday, February 26
3:00pm
Christ Church, Andover, MA

Music in Mantua: Rossi and His Colleagues
In the late fifteenth century, the city of Mantua became a center for the performing arts, particularly during the reign of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. Famed Jewish composer Salamone Rossi, employed at court, was surrounded by a thriving musical community that included Gastoldi, Wert, Viadana, and Monteverdi. This program will explore Rossi’s choral music as well as the works of his colleagues at the Mantuan court, and explore the influences this talented group of composers may have had on each other.
 
Saturday, November 19
8:00pm
Friends Meeting, Cambridge, MA
Sunday, November 20
4:00pm
Vilna Shul, Boston, MA