Current Projects
As I Lay on Yoolis Night
Drawing on the wealth of early English carols, we are preparing a programme of Christmas cheer and reflection that might have been heard in Medieval England.
Lost Songs
We continue to work with the composers of our Lost Songs MA recital to polish their contributions, and are also learning several new additions to the programme, to be premiered on 1 March, 2010 as part of the Late Music Concert Series.
Forbidden Sacred
During the 16th century, England had a sacred musical tradition to rival the best in Europe and the landscape was dotted with powerful abbeys and monastaries. However, in the middle of the century, Catholic England engaged in its own brand of the reformation with drastic results for the development of music. Drawing on the haunting images of ruined abbeys, this programme seeks to pair pre-reformation music that survived the destruction of the monastaries with the post-reformation Catholic music that was necessarily performed in secret. Featuring selections from the Ritson Manuscript, the Fountains Fragments, and a Berkley Castle accounts book, along with secret music by William Byrd such as his Mass for Three Voices.
Sample Programs
Ballate from the Trecento
A program of polyphonic secular songs from fourteenth century Italy. Bright Cecilia revel in the compelling harmonies, intricate rhythms and the despairing and ecstatic expressions of love in these texts set by by Francesco Landini, Paolo da Firenze, Bartolino da Padova and many more anonymous composers. In the past we have performed this program as a formal concert, as a lecture-recital, and as atmospheric background for social and academic gatherings.
English Parlour Songs
A humourous and informal program of songs originally conceived for domestic performance in sixteenth - eighteeth century England. These popular songs by John Dowland, Thomas Morley and John Travers were often performed in the living-room during social gatherings or after dinner, which is how we most enjoy performing them ourselves!
A Cry in the Dark: dramatic medieval scenes of lamentation
To our modern ears and attention span, plainchant is beautiful and soothing but relatively uninteresting. Another way to approach the early European monophonic music is through the less known medieval music dramas, best described as chant-operas. Bright Cecilia has adapted and staged a selection of tragically dramatic scenes from Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen, Interfectio Puerorum from the Fleury Playbook, and Planctus Mariae, interspersed with celabratory thirteenth century Italian laude. We premiered this program in the stunning setting of Poole's Cavern during the Buxton Festival Fringe in July.
