Early Music Vancouver: Venice in the East - Music from Renaissance Crete

Tickets

Cost: $26.00
Find tickets: here

Pre-concert talk 6:45pm

A celebration of medieval Byzantine chant and related Latin works influenced by Byzantine Tradition in Crete and the Ionian Islands, which were ruled by Venetians after the Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1205, and in Cyprus, a Venetian outpost from 1489 to 1571. Commissioned by the Utrecht Early Music Festival (Netherlands), the largest early music festival in the world, where Cappella Romana gave the debut of this program in 2016.

Programme

From the Byzantine and Venetian Commemorations of the Paschal Triduum

The Crucifixion and Deposition

Venite et ploremus Johannes de Quadris
soloists: Aaron Cain, Mark Powell Liber sacerdotalis (1523) of Alberto Castellani

Popule meus Liber sacerdotalis
soloist: Kerry McCarthy

Sticherón for the Holy Passion: Ἤδη βάπτεται (“Already the pen”)
2-voice setting (melos and “ison”) Manuel Gazēs the Lampadarios (15th c.)
soloists: Spyridon Antonopoulos, MS Duke, K. W. Clark 45
John Michael Boyer
Traditional Melody of the Sticherarion Mode Plagal 4

Cum autem venissent ad locum de Quadris
soloists: Aaron Cain, Mark Powell Liber sacerdotalis

O dulcissime de Quadris
soloists: Photini Downie Robinson, Kerry McCarthy Liber sacerdotalis

Verses of Lamentation for the Holy Passion “Corrected by” Angelos Gregoriou
MS Duke 45, Mode Plagal 2

Sepulto Domino de Quadris
soloists: Spyridon Antonopoulos, Aaron Cain, Mark Powell Liber sacerdotalis

The Resurrection

Attollite portas (“Lift up your gates”) Liber sacerdotalis
celebrant: Mark Powell

Ἄρατε πύλας (“Lift up your gates”) Anon. Cypriot (late 15th c.?), MS Sinai Gr. 1313

Attollite portas … Quem queritis … Liber sacerdotalis

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη (“Christ has risen”) Cretan Melody as transcribed by
Ioannis Plousiadenós (ca. 1429–1500), MS Dionysiou 570

Venetian Paschal Greeting: Surrexit Christus! Liber sacerdotalis
celebrant: Mark Powell

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη Cantus grecus Christus surrexit, MS Faenza 117

INTERMISSION

New Greek Chants of the Eucharist

Gloria in excelsis, sung in Greek Gazēs and Plousiadenós
Mode 1

The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, sung in Greek The “New” Cantors of Crete
MS Sinai 1552, Mode Plagal 4

Communion Verse for Easter: Σῶμα Χριστοῦ μεταλάβετε Ioannis Laskaris (15th c.)
(“Receive the Body of Christ”) Mode Plagal 2 “Nenano”

Communion Verse: Ὁ ἑωρακὼς ἐμέ An Old [Cretan] Melody Embellished by
(“One who has seen me”), John 14:9 Hieronymos Tragodistēs of Cyprus (16th c.)
MS Sinai Gr. 1313, Mode Plagal 4

Byzantine Hymns to the Mother of God

A Tropárion from the 9th Ode of the Paschal Canon Hieronymos Tragodistēs
by St. John of Damascus: Ὢ Πάσχα τὸ μέγα (“O Great Pascha”)
In polyphony

Káthisma “as sung on the Holy Mountain” Angelos Gregoriou
MS Dionysiou 570, Mode Plagal 4

Kalophonic Theotokíon for Cardinal Bessarion Plousiadenós
soloists: Spyridon Antonopoulos, John Michael Boyer
More info