Yale Schola Cantorum will perform Hymnus Paradisi by Herbert Howells, Jesu meine Freude by Dieterich Buxtehude, and To the Hands by Caroline Shaw.
The title of the concert, “Holy is the True Light,” is the title for the sixth movement of Hymnus Paradisi by English composer Herbert Howells, the primary composition on the concert. Hymnus Paradisi is a choral work for mixed chorus, soprano and tenor soloists, and orchestra inspired in part by the death of the composer’s son Michael. When writing about Hymnus Paradisi, he recalled that such a loss, “essentially profound and, in its very nature, beyond argument, might naturally impel a composer, after a time, to seek release and consolation in language and terms most personal to him. Music may have the power beyond any other medium to offer that relief and comfort. It did so in my case.”
The concert also features performances of Jesu meine Freude by Danish Baroque period composer Dieterich Buxtehude, and To the Hands, a 2016 composition by GRAMMY and Pulitzer Prize winning Yale School of Music graduate Caroline Shaw.
View a PDF of the concert poster here
Yale Schola Cantorum is a chamber choir that performs sacred music from the sixteenth century to the present day in concert settings and choral services around the world. It is sponsored by Yale Institute of Sacred Music and conducted by David Hill. Masaaki Suzuki is the ensemble’s principal guest conductor.