An Italian Madrigal Journey
An exhilarating new season of choral music begins with an evening of artful songs of love and wit, tracing the evolution of the Italian madrigal as it crosses 16th century Europe, migrates into the British Isles, and continues to the present. Led by Scott Tucker, one of the most respected artists in American choral music, the Chamber Singers of the Choral Arts Society of Washington offer a spectacular range of sumptuous music from Monteverdi and Palestrina to music of our own time by Morten Lauridsen and Jacob Druckman.
The 16th century was a period of great expression and inventiveness by composers in Italy. The Madrigal form began as a literary movement in which composers explored the relationship of musical devices to “paint” and express text, particularly poems of the great literary figures of their own and previous centuries such as Petrarch, Tasso and Ariosto. Early performances of Madrigals were sung not in public concerts but at gatherings of the academic elite in societies dedicated to the study and discussion of science and the arts.
This program includes music of the earliest pioneers of the Madrigal form, such as Arcadelt and Verdelot, and shows how the form progressed in the hands of later masters such as Orlando di Lasso, Gesualdo, and Monteverdi. Finally, we see the English Madrigal grow as an outcropping of the lighter Italian Madrigals, just as, back on the continent, the Italians were turning their attention to opera.
Scott Tucker, Conductor
Choral Arts Chamber Singers
Program to Include
Monteverdi Si, Ch’lo Vorrei Morire
Willaert O Dolce Mia Vita
Gesualdo Io pur respire in cosi gran dolor
Thomas Morley Sing We and Chant It
Thomas Weelkes Weep, O Mine Eyes
Orlando Gibbons The Silver Swan
Jacob Druckman The Faery Beam Upon You
Irving Fine Have You Seen the White Lily Grow?