Somerset Chamber Choir - http://www.somersetchamberchoir.org/
Andrea Brown - Conductor - https://andreabrown.com
Dame Emma Kirkby – Guest Soprano - https://www.emmakirkby.com
Sam Brown – lute - http://www.sambrownmusic.org
Programme Details
If ye love me – Thomas Tallis
Mass for 4 voices – William Byrd
Super flumina Bablylonis – Philippe de Monte
Flow my tears- John Dowland
Factum est silentium – Richard Dering
Ineiunio – Thomas Tallis
Ascendit Deus – Peter Philips
Lamentations of Jeremiah 1 – Thomas Tallis
In darkness let me dwell – John Dowland
Music of utter calm and tranquillity
We are thrilled that our Patron, Dame Emma Kirkby, will join us for this concert, to perform a small selection of works from the golden age of English lute song.
The Private Music... by composers writing in circumstances of exile - some forced to leave protestant England for their Catholicism, some obliged through fear to write music for secret ceremony, others removed from meaningful positions and effectively exiled in their own homes.
This will be the choir’s first concert in the Minster since 1992 and we are very excited to return to such a beautiful building right in the centre of Taunton.
For her first concert directing the choir, Andrea has chosen renaissance music of singular beauty which is sure to transport the audience to a place of utter calm and tranquillity.
The year 1535 was one of the bloodiest of Henry VIll's reign and, for anybody close to the king, this was a dangerous time. As Protestant thinking took hold, composers were in the line of fire. The rules were changing: Catholic forms of music, Latin and traditional texts were no longer acceptable. Composers had to adapt quickly or the executioner's axe might await them. Our programme focuses on composers who somehow continued to write the most glorious music despite being forced to bend, often against their will, to each new monarch in quick succession.
