{"id":8679,"date":"2018-03-27T14:01:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T13:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=8679"},"modified":"2018-03-29T11:38:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T10:38:54","slug":"back-through-time-the-lost-consort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2018\/03\/27\/back-through-time-the-lost-consort\/","title":{"rendered":"Back through time: the Lost Consort"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the smallest ensembles this year, the eight-voice Lost Consort has been quietly working away on ancient repertoire over the past couple of terms in preparation for two unique performances.<\/p>\n

\"\"The group has been focusing on plainsong, including the luminous\u00a0Kyrie<\/em> by Hildegard von Bingen, in a sequence of music combined with Renaissance polyphony by William Byrd, exploring the remarkable contrast that occurs when a piece of plainchant suddenly blossoms into a four-part motet.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the group (or most of them, anyway…) met to rehearse in the sonorous acoustics of Studio 3 Gallery, the University’s art gallery in the Jarman Building, where unfurling\u00a0Ave maris stella<\/em> and\u00a0Victimae paschali laudes<\/em> into the richly resonant space was a breathtaking experience; the pacing of these whorling lines needs different considerations when compared to the way we’ve been pacing them in rehearsals in the concert-hall. And Byrd’s\u00a0Ave Verum Corpus<\/em> bloomed into a hugely expressive, lachrymaic ode in Studio 3, taking on both an emotional grandeur and contrastingly a greater sense of intimacy (six voices raised in such an echoing space) at the same time.<\/p>\n

\"\"We’re preparing the sequence to perform amidst a sonic backdrop of a forest soundscape – and no, not\u00a0just<\/em> to play on Byrd\/bird song… – which we were experimenting with yesterday, which created a wonderful sense of space, and which we are performing on Tuesday 3 April at 1.10pm<\/strong><\/a>; the change from musical colours to the natural sounds of birdsong leads the listener to a completely different place. And later, in June, the group will present the programme in the historic Undercroft of the 12-century Eastbridge Pilgrim’s Hospital<\/a> in the heart of Canterbury as part of Summer Music Week.<\/p>\n

\"\"If yesterday’s rehearsal was anything to go by, the two events promise to be revelatory; come and experience time-out-of-time for yourself on Tuesday 3 April…<\/p>\n