"There is something deeply troubling and inscrutable in Gesualdo’s music, something that any listener will unfailingly experience. This most particularly holds for Tenebrae responsoria (1611), his definitive statement, his monument, his testament. It is as if this work would constantly extend over its boundaries and transgress its time and setting, immediately addressing modernity...”
Mladen Dolar, Out of Joint (2020)

More than 400 years later, the music of Carlo Gesualdo still seems strikingly avant-garde. Composed for his own private use during his final years, and likely unheard during his lifetime, Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories are of unmatched intensity. This is music at the end of an epoch; at once steeped in and a radically unsettling subversion of the traditions of the sixteenth century.

The first set of Responsories for Maundy Thursday (Feria V) evoke Christ’s abandonment, betrayal, and death. Gesualdo’s dramatic settings reflect the angst of the passion story, alongside his own bloody encounter with death – in 1590 he murdered his wife Maria d’Avalos and her lover Fabrizio Carafa, Duke of Andria, when he discovered them ‘in flagrante delicto’. Gesualdo’s punishment was as self-inflicted as the crime. His status as prince saved him from criminal persecution; instead he saw out his days living as a recluse, tormented by grief and guilt.

Translating literally to ‘darkness’, the plural form of ‘Tenebrae’ is fitting; it implies a multiplicity, all-encompassing shadows;  a plunge into darknesses of both deeply personal grief and of universal sorrow.

Programme:

Carlo Gesualdo, Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia  (1611) 

Feria quinta (Maundy Thursday)

In monte Oliveti

                  Tristis est anima mea

                  Ecce vidimus eum

                  Amicus meus osculi

                  Judas mercator pessimus

                  Unus ex discipulis meis

                  Eran quasi agnus innocens

                  Una hora non potuistis

                  Seniores populi consilium

  Miserere mei, Deus

1 hour no interval

“Identity oversimplifies humans.
It denies the hybrid, as trees can't.
[…] Eons on, their concentric years
will be eloquent on suffering and old airs.” [Les Murray, Cool History]

As the legendary poet Les Murray reminded us, trees are the silent storytellers of human history. Amidst our relentless pursuit of modernity, their rings record deep time, carving stories of fire, flood, and slow growth. Join Luminescence Chamber Singers for a tapestry of old songs and stories. From ancient melodies to troubadour songs, timeless tunes, and the lyrics that summon nostalgia, Luminescence breathes new life into old airs.

Conducted by Roland Peelman AM

1 hour no interval

Programme to include:
SEIKILOS EPITAPH Anon (2nd Century BCE) - Oldest surviving complete composition
TSINTSKARO Georgian folk song
ALS ICK U VINDE Hubert Waelrant (1584)
QUE FAREM DEL POBRE JOAN Mateu Fletxa el Vell (1481 – 1553)
KAIPAAVA trad. Finnish arr. Chydenius (1999)
EDO LULLABY trad. Japanese arr. Paul Smith (Japan) 
TROIS BEAUX OISEAUX DU PARADIS Maurice Ravel (1914)
S’POSIN P. Denniker/A. Razaf (1929)
A NIGHTINGALE SANG IN BARKLEY SQUARE E. Maschwitz/M. Sherwin (1939)
OLD AIRS Frank Nuyts (2008)

“A triumph of sheer excellence, […] a concert of rare depth”
[Canberra CityNews 2023]

“lively, intelligent, and alternately great fun and serious. And always beautifully performed.”
[Classikon, 2023]

From Andreas Vesalius’ groundbreaking De Humani Corporis Fabrica to the drawings of Da Vinci and Dürer, the 16th century heralded a new fascination with the human figure. Human dissection transformed our understanding of anatomy, and the body became the subject of scientific and artistic fixation.

In the spirit of Buxtehude’s much-loved Membra Jesu Nostri, each movement of Dan Walker’s new song cycle Of The Body is devoted to an anatomical part: the eyes, the hands, the mouth, the feet, the blood, and finally, the heart.

In a concert that traverses sex, sensuality, the senses, and more, Luminescence Chamber Singers explore our relationship to our corporeal form; our flesh and blood.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body.

PROGRAMME

LYNOTE Dominique Phinot (1548)
Text: Clément Marot

MON COEUR, MON CORPS Adriaen Willaert (1545)

SOSPIRI MIEI D'AHIMÈ Adriaen Willaert (1545)

OF THE BODY I: INTROITUS Dan Walker (2023)
Text: Francesco Petrarca

DER NASENTANZ Orlande de Lassus (1576)

OF THE BODY II: SARA SARA Dan Walker (2023)
Text: Matsuo Bashō

YOUR SHINING EYES Michael East (1618)

OF THE BODY III: CALIGAVERUNT OCULI MEI Dan Walker (2023)
Text: Sarah Teasdale

IN MANUS TUAS DOMINE Thomas Tallis (1575)
Text: Psalm 31:6

OF THE BODY IV: YOUR FEET Dan Walker (2023)
Text: Pablo Neruda

SKINNY LOVE Justin Vernon arr. Roland Peelman (2007)

OF THE BODY V: REBEL BLOOD Dan Walker (2023)
Text: Andrea Aguilar Ferro

THE BODY BREAKS Devendra Banhart arr. Roland Peelman (2004)

OF THE BODY VI: ODE TO A MOUTH Dan Walker (2023)
Text: Alexander Cook

CON LA SUA MAN Luca Marenzio (1591)

PINK EDGES IV Gerard Brophy (2002)
Text: Pietro Aretino

OF THE BODY VII: HOW TO HOLD A HEART Dan Walker (2023)
Text: Malia Wollan/Dr Kathy Magliato

A daffodil emerges from beneath the frost. A bird sings; a flower unfurls. The first signs of spring are symbols of hope and promise, rebirth, renewal, and the passage of time. From Renaissance polyphony to contemporary classics, Luminescence Chamber Singers celebrate spring, the blossoming flowers, the shifting tides, and all that the changing seasons can mean to us. Featuring music by Giaches De Wert, Robert Davidson, James Wade, as well as the premiere of a Leah Blankendaal’s “Lake”, and a new instalment of Andrew Ford’s “Red Dirt Hymns”.

ARTISTS
AJ America, mezzo soprano
Lucien Fischer, baritone
Veronica Milroy, soprano
Rachel Mink, soprano
Alasdair Stretch, bass
Dan Walker, tenor

Much has been made of Bach’s fascination for numerology and his penchant for encoding his name in his music. The BACH motif is perhaps the most famous musical cryptogram, but it was by no means the first.  From Josquin de Prez to Heinrich Schütz, composers have weaved their own name in the very fabric of their music.

In this concert of musical cyphers, Luminescence Chamber Singers join forces with guest artist Anna Freer (violin/voice) to perform Bach’s monumental Partita no.2 in D Minor, interwoven with some of Bach’s most beloved chorales. The concert culminates in a new arrangement of the Chaconne – a setting for voices and violin that reveals a tapestry of references to Bach chorales buried in bones of the Chaccone.

ARTISTS
AJ America, mezzo soprano
Lucien Fischer, baritone
Anna Freer, violin/voice
Veronica Milroy, soprano
Alasdair Stretch, bass
Dan Walker, tenor