The Cal Poly Choirs’ “Cantus Novus” Concert at 8 p.m. Friday March 6, in Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, will feature Renaissance works as well as more modern compositons that draw on Renaissance-style elements.
“The mission is a perfect setting for this music,” said Cal Poly Director of Choral Activities Scott Glysson. “It is music that was written and intended for performance in a live, resonant sacred space.”
University Singers will open the concert with one of the most iconic choral works of all time, “Sicut cervus” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina who was born in 1525. Last year marked the 500th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The choir will also perform works by 15th-century composer Claudin de Sermisy, as well as modern works in Latin by Joseph Martin and Kyle Pederson.
The Chamber Choir will present a very special requiem mass by Spanish Renaissance composer Cristóbal de Morales. “Missa pro defunctis” was composed around 1554, likely while the composer was working in Rome. This beautiful mass is a wonderful representation of Renaissance polyphony in the Vatican just before the time of Palestrina.
PolyPhonics and the Chamber Choir will join to perform the featured piece of the program, “Mass in G Minor” by Ralph Vaughan Williams. He composed this work in 1921 in the style of the great Renaissance composers; and scored it for double choir and soloists. This hauntingly beautiful piece has stood the test of time as one of the great works of 20th-century choral music.
Glysson will conduct the choirs, and Paul Woodring will accompany the choirs on piano.
