Taverner, Mason & Byrd

Sunday, September 30, 2007, 3:00 pm
First Church in Cambridge, Congregational
Blue Heron returns to music from the Peterhouse Partbooks with a performance of John Taverner’s Missa Mater Christi, its missing tenor brilliantly reconstructed by the English musicologist Nick Sandon. Paired with the Taverner mass will be William Byrd’s “Jerusalem” motets from Cantiones sacrae of 1589 and 1591, dark and intense works whose lamenting texts, drawn from the Old Testament and thus beyond political reproach, served as powerful allegories for the anguish felt by Catholics in Protestant England.

Free pre-concert talk at 2:15 by Dr. Teresa Neff, MIT
— sponsored by the Cambridge Society for Early Music

PROGRAM
Taverner: Missa Mater Christi
Sarum chant: Kyrie Rex clemens
Mason: Quales sumus O miseri
Byrd: Vigilate, Quomodo cantabimus, Ne irascaris, Haec dicit Dominus

» View/Download Concert Program

PERFORMERS
Michael Barrett
Glenn Billingsley
Noël Bisson
Lydia Brotherton
Allen Combs
Pamela Dellal
Lydia Heather Knutson
Jason McStoots
Martin Near
Aaron Sheehan
Steven Soph
Mark Sprinkle
Sumner Thompson
Darrick Yee

Blue Heron is engaged in the exploration of Renaissance and medieval vocal music, putting the study of original sources in the service of vivid live performance. Widely regarded as the finest ensemble of its type in North America, Blue Heron presents a subscription series in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a catalog of exceptional recordings is available on the Blue Heron label. The ensemble’s accolades include the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music, making Blue Heron the first group from outside Europe to receive the award; the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society; and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Touring engagements have taken the group across the United States, Canada, England, and Europe.

Email List Sign-up