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Duke Arts Presents

Stile Antico

Friday, April 29, 2022 | 8:00 pm

Vocal Ensemble Series

Duke Chapel


The London-based Stile Antico are more than a vocal ensemble. They are a GRAMMY Award-nominated, twelve-member collective committed to exploring cherished Renaissance repertoire as well as developing and furthering the polyphonic tradition with colorful new compositions and premieres. In their celebrated program Toward the Dawn, the ensemble chant and incant their way through early choral repertoire by composers ranging from Ward, Wilbye, and White to Morley, Monteverdi, and contemporary American composer Nico Muhly. The music transports listeners from evening onward to nightfall, the small hours, then dawn with a musical exploration of the seduction of the dark and unknown. The term “stile antico” denotes the standard polyphonic style of the seventeenth century, but this ensemble is anything but average in its artistic quality, which has carried the group to four continents and some of the best concert halls on the planet.

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Program

Toward the Dawn

Evening
“Twilight gray had in her sober livery all things clad” (Milton)

Wilbye: Draw on, sweet night
Tallis: Te lucis ante terminum
Ward: Come, sable night

Byrd: Vigilate

Nightfall
“Through the spaces of the dark, midnight shakes the memory” (T.S. Eliot)

Lassus: Toutes les nuitz
Allegri:
Miserere mei
Sheppard:
In manu tuas
Muhly: Gentle Sleep

Dawn
“The morning steals upon the night, melting the darkness” (Shakespeare)

Tallis: O nata lux
Monteverdi: Ecco mormorar l’onde
Taverner: Ave Dei matris filia



William Byrd - Agnus Dei (de la Messe à 5 voix)


"A magnificent display of the very best kind of polyphonic music."

BBC Music Magazine