Tag Archives: choral music

Three new albums span more than a millennium of choral music, from the Byzantines to the 21st century.

The latest album from the celebrated English early music vocal ensemble Stile Antico, 'In a Strange Land: Elizabethan Composers in Exile,' is a beautiful sequence with works by John Dowland, William Byrd, and their contemporaries – and a decidedly melancholy affair.

The monks retreated behind stone walls to chant their devotions. Composer Lansing McLoskey stands in the agora with his choral music on writings by Wole Soyinka.

This exquisite vocal group puts on energetic, high-spirited concerts that free the ancient music of the Renaissance from the museum and dance it out into the town square.

The soloists shone both separately and in concert, as if distilling the work of the huge chorus behind them. I didn't want the penultimate piece, "O Sleep," sung by the chorus and then the soloists in counterpoint, to end.

While the English choir applies a constant smooth tonality to its performances, these can still feel fresh, the centuries-old music almost as much as the recent.

Listeners need bring no esoteric knowledge of classical music to enjoy this album, only an appreciation for beauty.

Few Early Music groups have become as integral a part of the performance landscape as the British group Stile Antico.

Renaissance court composers would write pieces lamenting the death of an older composer who had mentored or inspired them.