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St Mary's Cathedral Concert Series hosts: Allegri Ensemble: From the Chapel

Sun, 16 June

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St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart

It has been said that the “godfather” of renaissance polyphony, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, wrote a mass setting so beautiful that it changed the Pope’s mind on “complicated music”. Meet the man, the myth and the legend that surrounds 'Missa Papae Marcelli'.

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St Mary's Cathedral Concert Series hosts: Allegri Ensemble: From the Chapel
St Mary's Cathedral Concert Series hosts: Allegri Ensemble: From the Chapel

Time & Location

16 June 2024, 3:00 pm – 3:05 pm

St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart, 180 Harrington St, Hobart TAS 7000, Australia

About the event

This program explores music where utter clarity of the text is (or has become) a priority, as well as the double meaning of the concert title ‘From The Chapel’. The frame of the concert comes in a complete performance of Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, which was sung in *the* chapel – the Sistine Chapel. The Mass is famous for the way Palestina combines complex polyphonic lines with clear communication of the liturgical text (something of a theological issue at the time). The same can be said of Josquin’s sublime "Ave Maria" – very complex writing that sounds so very clear and simple. The remaining music in the program reflects the other sense of ‘from the chapel’ – literally, ‘a cappella’. Here too clear communication is a feature, albeit by different means. Rather than polyphony complexity, these pieces present their texts as always sung at the same time by all parts. Chant is a linking feature here: "Ubi Caritas" by Duruflé and Ave Maris Stella by or own Jonathan Wallis both rework Gregorian melodies, while Tavener’s mesmerising "Funeral Ikos" is built of cumulative simple chant-like fragments.

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