SINGING IN VENICE This is an invitation to choral singers
a course for choral singers led by Robert Hollingworth, 20 to 25 September 2008
The week will be based in the Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli, housed in
the group of buildings surrounding the courtyard to the left of the large church (Gesuati) in the picture. We will rehearse in the smaller church, Santa Maria della Visitazione, with its attractive Lombardian façade and the
earliest painted ceiling in Venice. It is on the Giudecca waterfront in the Dorsoduro sestiere; the large white building behind is the Accademia. The musical programme will focus on the music of two Flemish composers
of the generation that followed Josquin. They worked in Venice in the mid 16th century and were very influential in creating what we now think of as the Venetian style. Through cross-fertilisation of their Netherlandish polyphony
with native Italian forms and techniques they brought the emotive power of music to new heights and opened the way for the achievements of the Gabrielis and Monteverdi. Adrian Willaert served at the Este court before becoming
maestro di cappella at St Mark's Venice. He contributed to the birth of the madrigal and the development of the cori spezzati style. We will sing some of his Salmi spezzati, written for two four-part choirs.
Willaert was also an influential teacher and his most outstanding pupil, Cipriano de Rore, succeeded him at St Mark's. We remember him now primarily as a brilliant madrigalist with a rare combination of contrapuntal skill and
expressive genius, a key influence on Palestrina and Monteverdi; his sacred music is often overlooked. The programme will include his seven-voice Mass on Josquin's motet Praeter rerum seriem, an astonishing setting, famous
as a technical tour de force even in Rore's lifetime, and recently decribed by Paul van Nevel as 'perhaps the most monumental mass of the 16th century'.
Robert Hollingworth
is one of the most interesting and imaginative directors working in early music. He was a chorister at Hereford, and studied music at Oxford and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. At Oxford he founded the vocal ensemble I Fagiolini, and has since concentrated much of his musical life with this group, who have just been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Ensemble award. With I Fagiolini he has toured worldwide and won great critical acclaim for their innovative theatrical performances, notably
The Full Monteverdi. Other recent work includes an underground production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and a staged project entitled Faust
with the Netherlands Chamber Choir and music by Messiaen, Schnittke, Heppener, Cardoso, Bach and Roderick Williams. The course is designed for the serious amateur musician. You should be a competent sight-reader,
have a straight, blending voice with full dynamic range, be used to normal choral discipline and be able to respond quickly to direction – the aim being to combine professional pace of work with amateur enthusiasm. Participants are
of all ages and nationalities and come alone, with a friend or partner, or in a group. Robert Hollingworth is experienced at working with amateur musicians and the atmosphere is relaxed and informal. The plan is to
meet for supper on Saturday 20 September. Then from Sunday to Thursday there will be rehearsal sessions each morning and another at the end of the afternoon. The course ends with a final concert followed by supper in the evening of
Thursday 25 September. Apart from these two suppers, meals are not included in this course, but group visits to restaurants will be arranged each evening for those interested. You arrange your own accommodation;
Venice is a city given to hospitality, so there is no shortage of choice. The sestieri
nearest the church are the eastern part of Dorsoduro and all of San Marco, though given that walking the traffic-free streets and alleys and riding the vaporetti
are two of the city's delights, you may be happy to stay further afield. Book travel early for the cheapest tickets. Venezia Marco Polo is the nearest airport, and is connected to the city
by water taxi, water bus and coach. Treviso (Venice Treviso in Ryanairspeak) is 20 miles inland and has a bus connexion. Those of a romantic disposition may wish to consider arriving by train. The fee for the course
is paid in two parts: a deposit of £170 on registration (this will be returned in full if you have to withdraw before 1 June; after that you may hold it over to another course) and FOR A REGISTRATION FORM FOR SINGING IN VENICE 2008,