BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Camerata presents "Treasure Hidden Within," a program exploring how composers hide pre-existing music within the structure of a new piece, infusing the latter with the essence of the older work.
The concert is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 10, at 4 p.m. at the Brattleboro Music Center.
The "hidden treasures" in the Dec. 10 concert include a popular secular Medieval tune embedded in Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's "Missa L'homme armé a 4," sacred Gregorian chant melodies hidden in Maurice Duruflé's "Quatre Motets sur des Thèmes Grégoriens," a musical puzzle or cryptogram embedded in Josquin Desprez's Missa La sol fa re mi, and a challenge melody from a composition contest Giuseppe Verdi's "Ave Maria."
"The practice of weaving a pre-existing melody into new music has its origins in the Medieval era, and really blossomed into a widespread practice during the Renaissance," Camerata Music Director Jonathan Harvey said in a news release. "Our December program is an attempt to demonstrate the different ways composers can create hidden meanings with this technique, from the Renaissance all the way up to the 20th century."
The Brattleboro Camerata is preparing a Spring 2024 program titled "Make It a Place of Springs," which will consist of pieces focused on nature and the natural world, including Renaissance works by Clément Janequin, Maddalena Casulana, Thomas Tallis, Vicente Lusitano, Thomas Morley, and others, as well as more recent pieces by Charles Stanford, Benjamin Britten, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw.
Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door; (1)youth admission is $10, with those under 12 admitted free. Tickets are available online at bmcvt.org, by calling the BMC at 802-257-4523, or emailing [email protected].
This The Arts item was submitted to The Commons.