Coro Ciconia–Praise Band

Coro Ciconia
Asher Davison, Director

Praise Band

Musical paeans rarely damn with faint praise. Our spring program is organized around Du Fay’s joyous late Ave Regina cælorum Mass setting, a self-parody which takes his immodest motet even a step further in mingling abject piety with a plea for his own immortal soul. Along the way, Ockeghem’s rondeau D’un autre amer insists that self-subjugation to courtly love protects one’s honor; Josquin writs this stance large by quoting the chanson while extolling the divine in his Tu solus qui facis mirabilia. We next pair Machaut’s rarely sung, nearly textless Hoquetus (to King David) with his effusive Biauté parée de valour, an ode to the patroness the mere thought of whom sustains him. Obrecht’s flamboyant setting of the Magnificat aptly renders unto all the Marian trust in the divine; Landini’s isorhythmic motet, the homage-piece Sì dolce non sonò, honors the great composer de Vitry as seemingly mythological in stature. Finally, Ciconia’s O felix templum conjures a stuffy fanfare to a bishop into a playful romp, while his Una Panthera shamelessly flatters a visiting noble from Lucca by depicting him as the armored leopard who cofounded that city along with, obviously, Mars.

[Program to be repeated as part of the BFX Fringe at 2pm, Tuesday, June 5, at the Berkeley City Club.]

7pm, Sunday, April 22, 2018
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
1823 9th Street, Berkeley
Suggested donations at the door: $20 general, $15 senior, $10 student
For information: 818-331-7504

Singers: Cheryl Koehler, Dorothy Manly, Jean McAneny, Ralph Prince, Scott Robinson, Helen Wolfe-Visnick