Attend Mine Humble Prayer

Top-notch vocal polyphony. That’s what you can expect from this concert with religious music composed by William Byrd. The English composer died 400 years ago and was connected to Protestant Queen Elisabeth I’s court. At the time, England was divided between Catholics and emerging Protestantism. Despite his Catholic faith, Byrd was highly appreciated by Elisabeth.

Ensemble Cacophony! intertwines polyphonic versions of English psalm texts with liturgical works from Byrds three-voice Latin mass. Cacophony! aims to highlight some of the more dramatic elements of Byrd’s musical language through this multicoloured musical tapestry, as well as the performance practices of making music at home in Elisabethan times. In doing so, they put their slogan Reimagining Historical Voices into practice!

Ensemble Cacophony! is a vocal ensemble specialising in performing polyphonic repertoires from the 15th, 16th and 17th century. Their approach stems from their wish to be creative with the various possible performances of historical repertoires. On the one hand, the name Cacophony! serves as a label for the group, because it shows the diversity of current opinions on historical performance practices. On the other hand, they also want to use it to comment on the aforementioned performance practices.

This concert is financially supported by the Fonds Dirk Snellings foundation in the series Gotiek Verklankt.

More info

www.cacophonyhistoricalsinging.com
www.gotiekverklankt.be

with  Tim Braithwaite (alto), Korneel Van Neste (tenor) and Jonty Coy (bassus)