BUENAS NUEVAS:
CHRISTMAS MUSIC FROM RENAISSANCE SPAIN
Spanish music during the Renaissance was a rich mixture of European, Muslim, Jewish and even New World culture. The ear of the Spanish composer embraced sounds from court and peasantry, from exotic foreign places and his own home. Tomas Luis de Victoria, whose Mass O Magnum Mysterium we will sing for you tonight, studied and worked in Italy for much of his life, yet he retained the unmistakable sound that characterizes the Spanish composer. In the rhythms, in the tunes and harmonies, and in the texts, we hear something that speaks a little of Arabia, Morocco, northern and southern Europe and South America, and is integrated into a sound that is wholly, joyfully Spanish. The villancicos, in this case songs about the conception and birth of Jesus, are perhaps the most typically Spanish music we play. Most are anonymous folk songs, and they tell the stories tenderly, rousingly, poetically, or mystically, from the point of view of the common fellow.
Please join us for Buenas Nuevas de Allegria and may it help to spread a little happiness throughout our world.
December 18, Monday, 7:00 pm
Bronson Library, 267 Grand St, Waterbury, CT
December 23, Saturday, 4:00 pm
First Congregational Church, 6 Kirby Road, Washington, CT
(Benefit for the Judea Nursery School)
January 6, Saturday, 7:30 pm
Trinity Episcopal Church, 220 Prospect St, Torrington, CT
January 7, Sunday, 4:00 pm
Church of the Nativity, 48 East Street, Bethlehem, CT
