David Hill, conductor
free; no tickets required.
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Music from the Old World and the New World: Cardoso, De Padilla, Franco, Salazar, Saldanha, and Vivanco.
This concert will feature Spanish and Portuguese church music of the 16th and 17th centuries. While all of the composers on the program were educated in Europe, three—each belonging to a different generation—embarked for the New World as young men to make their fortunes. Hernando Franco, Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, and Antonio de Salazar all rose to the rank of maestro de capilla in the cathedrals of Mexico and Guatemala, and their much-loved music is preserved in countless New World manuscripts. The composers on this program produced music in the high Renaissance style established by Palestrina, even though the latest of them outlived the popularity of ars perfecta by over half a century. A fine example of this conservative style can be found in Manuel Cardoso’s Missa Miserere mihi Domine, an old-fashioned cantus firmus Mass in which the Gregorian chant “Miserere mihi Domine” is heard in sustained tones nearly throughout.