Our new music list is now available. We start off 2018 with the charming Missa Ad præsepio by George Malcolm, a former Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral. Its simple, pastoral style is a good detox after the excesses, musical or otherwise, of Christmas. 

Although the Baptism of the Lord doesn’t fall on a Sunday this year, we’re indulging one last piece of Christmas music with Clemens O magnum mysterium on Sunday 14th January. A much sunnier piece than the Poulenc, Palestrina and Victoria settings we sang over Christmas, it perhaps emphasises the joy of the Incarnation above the sense of mystery the others highlight.

Diego Ortiz Alma Redemptoris Mater has, it seems, been waiting in the wings for many years to be included on a music list. It is a long-standing favourite of the Director of Music, though we sadly won’t be performing it quite as it is here with doubling instruments and spatially separated choirs – from this performance you probably wouldn’t guess that it is only 6-parts throughout.

Two Gesualdo motets prefigure the sombre mood of Lent but are balanced by two 8-part Masses, programmed to mark the changing of Marian Antiphons, Victoria Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater and Padilla Missa Ave Regina cælorum. 

Our next project – The Forrest-Heyther Partbooks – starts on Ash Wednesday. This project will programme the 18 Masses contained in the partbooks alongside contemporary and near-contemporary works from the Tudor period. During Lent we perform some of the larger-scale works by Byrd, William Mundy, Tallis and White, pieces that will split between the Offertory and Communion. The details of the project are still being tweaked (maybe some time off after Cardoso450 would have been sensible) but will be available in February.