On Saturday, the Medieval Women’s Choir explored the life of German mystic St. Hildegard of Bingen with a program of songs and antiphons at St. James Cathedral. A “Renaissance woman” in both the literal and figurative sense, St. Hildegard established herself as an abbess, theologian, poet, composer, and healer. Continue reading The Medieval Women’s Choir Fills St. James Cathedral With Ethereal Song
Ten strong voices, using no vibrato and with a resonance and slightly nasal sound which comes from using the whole skull as resonating chamber, sang the entire Vespers in just under two hours without intermission, processing around the cathedral and singing from different locations. Continue reading Cappella Romana Fill St. James Cathedral with Devotion to Ancient Vespers
2012 is only a week old, but Seattle’s classical music scene is off to a fantastic start for the year … Continue reading What We’re Hearing This Month: Classical Music Picks for January 2012
The heart of the program was an incomplete Mass, Puer natus est, by Thomas Tallis, interspersed with other settings for Advent and Christmas by William Byrd, Robert White, John Taverner, and John Sheppard.
From unison plainchant which ebbed and flowed like speech, to seven intricate, complex parts for the Tallis, Stile Antico sang unaccompanied with exact pitch and no vibrato so that chords were marvels of perfection. Continue reading Stile Antico Creates a Cathedral of Sound at St. James
