Happy holidays from the Santa Cruz Chorale! It’s a busy time, with families gathering and lots of preparations to be done. Along with all that, we are busy preparing Christmas with the Chorale, a musical journey that crosses boundaries of time and territory. Today, I invite you to take a break for a moment and join me for an imaginary visit to the Cathedral in Seville, Spain. The time, somewhere in the 16th century. The music, a beautiful devotion to the Virgin Mary.
In this polyphonic, or many-voiced, music, the choir is divided into independent parts, or voices. In the Seville Cathedral, perhaps the two soprano voices stood on opposite sides of balconies, the altos in the center below them, the tenors on one side, the basses on the other in rear balconies. We can’t replicate that in Holy Cross church (cathedral versus church), but we re-create the voices that weave in and out, each intent on its own path of praise yet attuned to the harmonies that the five voices create as they flow.
The composer, Spanish priest Francisco Guerrero, set only seven Latin lines in this jewel, Ave Virgo Sanctissima (Hail, Holy Virgin). The Blessed Mother of God is sung as a bright star of the sea (Maris stella clarissima), a precious pearl (Margarita pretiosa), as lovely as the lily ((Sicut lilium formosa), and as beautiful and fragrant as the rose (Nitens olens velut rosa).
Ave Virgo Sanctissima is the third piece on this year’s Christmas with the Chorale program. This small gem of polyphony is here and gone in just about four minutes, its sublime voices vanished once more into the atmosphere, just as they did in 16th century Seville.
I invite you to join us for Christmas with the Chorale. When you listen closely to the Ave Virgo Sanctissima that inspired Francisco Guerrero so long ago, and follow the five voices as they traverse their complex ways to a harmonious end, you may find that, in the busy 21st-century, this reverent, contemplative music is balm for the heart and soul.
With warm best wishes,
Mary Crawford (alto in the Santa Cruz Chorale)
Saturday December 14, 2024 8:00 pm
Sunday December 15, 2024 4:00 pm
Holy Cross Church
126 High St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Tickets: General $30, Seniors $25, Students $5
For Saturday concert only, 4 or more tickets: $20 each
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