English Convent Music:
Uncovered
Re-Constructed
Re-Enacted
Coming up soon:
Ceremonies of Carols
Friday, 13 December 2024, 8pm
Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, composed in 1942 for upper voices and harp, creates an imagined service of seasonal hymns, songs, and carols from the late Middle Ages, weaving texts that are at times joyful, melancholic, wistful, and longing with music that is profoundly modern in outlook even as it evokes centuries long gone by.
As a primarily upper-voice ensemble as interested in the history of historical re-enactment as we are with re-enactment itself, we will be taking inspiration from Britten's blending of texts from different eras and styles with repertoire as unfamiliar now as Britten's medieval texts were then.