Lyme Regis ~ Music for a Portuguese Madonna

Music for a Portuguese Madonna

Vicente Lusitano  ~ Regina coeli
Gery de Ghersem ~  Missa Ave Virgo sanctissima
Vicente Lusitano  ~ O beata Maria
Manuel Cardoso ~ Magnificat secundi toni
Aires Fernandes ~ Alma Redemptoris Mater

Patrick Craig writes: “Contemporary accounts describe Vicente Lusitano as pardo, a Portuguese term indicating he was of mixed European and non-European heritage. It has been suggested that his mother may have been of African descent and that he was the first published black composer.  He clearly had a great affection for the music of Josquin and in this programme we will explore his Marian motets including his sumptuous eight-part reworking of Josquin’s important six-part motet Inviolata.  Alongside this we shall explore other Portuguese Marian music from the 16th and 17th centuries including Gery de Ghersem’s Mass based on Guerrero’s hugely famous motet Ave virgo sanctissima.  We will explore the particular Portuguese polyphony of this era, much of which was lost in the disastrous Lisbon earthquake of 1755, as well as traditions of black Madonnas across Europe, such as the shrine in Nazaré in Portugal which sits on a hilltop overlooking the sea, not unlike our church of St Michael the Archangel in Lyme Regis.”

Patrick Craig is a countertenor and conductor. Since 2012 his regular Lacock courses, combining exploration of 16th and 17th century sacred music with its historical and cultural contexts, have been widely praised. He is a Vicar Choral at St Paul’s Cathedral, a member of The Cardinall’s Musick and sang a thousand concerts around the world with the Tallis Scholars over a period of twenty years. He began conducting as organ scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and then spent two years studying singing at the Royal College of Music. He went on to found and direct Aurora Nova, the first all-female professional choir to lead Sunday worship at St Paul’s Cathedral. He led them on their first tour of USA, and also conducted the City of London Sinfonia in a series of orchestral Masses at St Paul’s. Other conducting opportunities followed including guest conducting The Cardinall’s Musick at the Brinkburn, Brighton, Lichfield and Aldeburgh Festivals. He is also the Director of Temenos chamber choir in Sevenoaks, with whom he has conducted Bach’s Magnificat and B minor Mass and Handel’s Dixit Dominus. In 2019 Patrick conducted his first Messiah in the Lichfield Festival, Biber’s 53-part Missa Salisburgensis in Thaxted, and made his conducting debut in Hong Kong.

The course
Music for a Portuguese Madonna is intended for experienced choral singers who are good readers, have a blending, straight voice (or one with a controllable vibrato) with full dynamic range, are used to normal choral discipline and are able to respond quickly to direction – the intention being to combine professional pace of work with amateur enthusiasm. There are places for ten singers in both the soprano and tenor sections, and eight in the altos and basses. The tenor parts in the de Ghersem mass were originally notated in the C4 clef and are in a comfortable range for baritones. The plan is to meet for a group dinner in the evening of Sunday the 14^th of April in a restaurant in the town. Then from Monday to Friday there will be rehearsals from 9.30am to 1pm and from 5pm to 7pm. All rehearsals will be held in the church of St Michael the Archangel. On Friday the 19^th of April we will give a public performance in the church, followed by a group dinner, which will mark the end of the course. On other evenings we will dine in smaller groups. Meals are not included in the fee for the course. All the music will be printed in a booklet and sent to you before the course.

Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is an attractive seaside town in Dorset, once a mediaeval port of some importance. The ‘Regis’ dates from its royal charter from Edward I in 1284. The harbour wall, known as The Cobb, features in Jane Austen’s Persuasion and John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman. The cliffs and beach are a noted Jurassic fossil site. The course will take place in the attractive parish church of St Michael the Archangel above Church Cliff, which dominates the old town. It dates back to the 12th century and was rebuilt in the early 1500s.

Travel and accommodation
The nearest railway station is Axminster, six miles away. If you are travelling from the south east, trains are operated by South Western Railway with a direct service between London Waterloo and Exeter stopping at Woking, Basingstoke, Salisbury, Axminster and other stations. From Birmingham and the Midlands, change trains at Exeter. Lyme Regis is a popular summer resort, so in April it should be easy to find hotels, b&bs and self-catering accommodation through the normal online channels or https://www.visit-dorset.com/lyme-regis/where-to-stay/hotels/.

Fees and enrolment
The fee for the course is £620, payable in two parts: a deposit of £305 or the equivalent in euros on registration and a further £315 by the 1st of March. The deposit may be credited to another course if you have to withdraw and we are able to allocate your place to another singer. The fee includes the booklet containing all the music, which will be sent to you in advance. Accommodation and travel are not included. To apply for a place on this course, just fill in the application form below and press the ‘send application’ button.