The Tallis Scholars: Darkness to Light

Please note, this event will be preceded by a talk in the RBC Cinema with Suzie LeBlanc and Peter Philips

Artists: The Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips

The two halves of this Easter program are linked by the idea of the earthquake, which traditionally occurred in the story of the Crucifixion. David Lang originally wrote sun-centered to accompany Antoine Brumel’s Earthquake Mass. He decided to focus on Galileo’s battle with the church authorities over whether the earth revolves around the sun, or vice versa, carrying into this narrative the fragility of human existence. In his Easter Propers, sung at the end of the second half of our concert, Byrd homes in on this fragility, taking up the reality of an earthquake in the motet Terra tremuit where, in no more than a minute, he depicts in music the terror of it. Lang’s music is divided into five movements, as are the Byrd Propers. Around these two sets the story of Lent unfolds, partly with extracts from the Lamentations (by Robert White and Nico Muhly), and partly with Whitacre’s beautiful vision of an angel in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, hinting at the resurrection. Then Byrd presents the Easter story in all its hope, ending each movement with ringing ‘Alleluias’.