Alternatively . . . Giovanni Gabrieli
VOICES & INSTRUMENTS
Tutor: Peter Syrus
Location: Didsbury Baptist Church, Manchester
Reviewer: Nick Eden
Thirty five singers and 8 instrumentalists playing sackbuts, cornet and curtal met under the leadership of Peter Syrus to sing a selection of works by Giovanni Gabrieli. The careful and thoughtful selection of pieces, drawn from sources both in Venice and further north was reflected in a four-page notebook detailing the composer’s chronology and listing a comprehensive bibliography.
Our singing started with Diligam te Domine in 7 parts, ‘sort of in G minor but without Eflat in the signature’ as Peter put it. We then tackled the more complex two-choir work O Jesu mi dulcissime drawn from a score book in the collection of one Adam Gumpelzheimer. This was followed by an altogether more intriguing piece, Sancta et immaculata virginitas, which we sang firstly in 7 parts, followed by a second sing-through with the eighth part added – possibly not written by Gabrieli but without which the piece seems incomplete. We completed the morning session with the 12-part motet Suscipe clementissime Deus, scored for six voices and ‘six trombones’.
After lunch and the NWEMF AGM we tackled perhaps the most unusual of Peter’s excellent selection, the 18-part Hic est filius Dei, sung in the round. In selecting the parts, Peter called for ‘an extrovert Bass’ for choir 3. Now those of you who enjoy exploring the nether regions of the human voice will know that singing bass in choir 3 usually does not involve having to struggle up past the middle of the clef. None of it – your reviewer found himself sitting next to the conductor in the middle of a sea of wind (instruments), with the other voices apportioned to the other two choirs. Although Peter had described the first piece of the day as ‘map reading for singers’, this piece was truly geographical with some voices ‘borrowed’ from another choir. After a canzona for 8 instruments, Fa Sol La Re, named after the curtal part, we returned to Diligam te Domine, this time in an 8-part setting published earlier but probably written later than the 7-part version.
Finally, we sang the 8-part Deus in nomine tuo and, after tea and cake, a final sing-through of a selection of the works we had tackled throughout a rewarding, informative and very enjoyable day. Many thanks to Peter Syrus for leading us.
Nick Eden
First published in June 2017 Newsletter
