Ockeghem, Dufay, Obrecht etc

Event 15
Sunday October 18th 3.00pm
Little Missenden Church

Robert Morton  Il sera pour vous/L’homme armé
Jean Ockeghem  Ma bouche rit
Anon (Italian C15th)  Fortuna desperata
Guillaume Dufay  En triumphant de Cruel Dueil; Dona gentile, bella come l’oro
Gilles Binchois  Comme femme desconfortée
Walter Frye  So ys emprentid
Johannes Wreede  Nunca fué pena mayor
Jacobus Barbireau  Een vroylic wesen
Jacob Obrecht  Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen
Christopher Fox  Twenty ways to improve your life

The Clerks: Edward Wickham director, Ruth Clegg, Lucy Ballard altos, Roy Rashbrook, Tom Raskin tenors, Edward Grint, Edward Wickham basses

The Clerks Songbook takes us on a vibrant journey through some of the most popular songs of the early Renaissance by great masters like Dufay, Binchois, Obrecht and Ockeghem, through to a quirky new setting of personal ads and spam email by Christopher Fox, a contemporary reworking of the 17th century Cries of London genre popularised by Orlando Gibbons and others.

In keeping with the medieval and renaissance practice of contrafacta (writing secular words for sacred tunes, and vice versa) The Clerks have commissioned poets Ian McMillan and Ian Duhig to write new texts for a couple of 14th and 15th century scores.

The Clerks’ recordings and performances of Renaissance vocal music have earned them a place among the foremost interpreters of the repertoire. The group's discography of over 20 CDs represents a uniquely valuable and pioneering contribution to early music and has won them many accolades, including the coveted Gramophone Award for Early Music.

“The singing of the The Clerks Group is exemplary, full-bodied but superbly disciplined. Their voices are strongly characterized, which allows us easily to follow the composer's often florid and intricate writing” (International Record Review)

“All delivered with an unaffected beauty and balance that makes you close your eyes and wish the CD would never end” (The Times)

Ian Duhig and Ian McMillan are two of the most original poets writing today – learned, ironic, rude, elegant and funny. They mix images from politics, social history, folk art, children’s games etc with compassion and wit. Ian McMillan is well known for his radio programme, The Verb. Ian Duhig has won the National Poetry Competition twice and the Forward Prize for best Poem in 2004.

Please click here to see The Clerks' website

Tickets £18, £13, £8, including tea
The lowest priced seats have a restricted view