January 23, 2001 Summary Facts:
Winner of the Gramophone award for early music artists of the year, The Clerks’ Group is an Oxford, England-based choral ensemble that performs in authentic a cappella style (without instrumental accompaniment) the rich, crisp polyphony of Renaissance Europe. The Clerks’ Group makes its Santa Barbara debut in a concert titled Music from the Burgundian Courts—late-15th and early-16th century masses and motets composed by Jacobus Barbireau, Pierre de la Rue, Josquin des Préz and Johannes Ockeghem—on Tuesday, February 27 at 8 p.m. in the First United Methodist Church on the corner of Anapamu and Garden Streets. This location is a change from that originally announced. The audience is invited to stay after the concert for a Meet-the-Artists Discussion. The Clerks’ Group’s program introduces music that was produced under the patronage of the Burgundian Court of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, by some of the finest composers in Europe. Barbireau’s Missa Virgo parens Christi is a rare and exciting example of a five-voice mass; it is performed with more familiar motets by de la Rue, des Préz and Ockeghem. The Los Angeles Times added to The Clerks’ Group’s critical accolades after the ensemble’s “stunning Los Angeles debut” in November 1999, saying that the group sings “with great character and presence, seemingly for sheer communal joy” and is “balanced in sound, supple in line, and not abashed about matters such as dynamics and timbral contrast.” In addition to its superb skill and artistry, the group is singular in that its members perform gathered around a single partbook, singing from original notation, which keeps all vocal parts together on the page. Clerks’ Group founder and director Edward Wickham explains the motivation and purpose of the chorus’ unique performance style in a Time Out, London, interview in which he discusses the recent popularity of early music. There was always the sense that the music was distant, ethereal, a beautiful object in a museum. We feel we’re in there making the music more dramatic, expressive, rhetorical…It doesn’t necessarily up our sex appeal, but we perform in an original format. Instead of standing in a line, we’re all gathered round one big music stand, the individual parts laid out without bar lines. But we’re not doing it as a museum piece; this formation creates a very different dynamic between performers and audience, rather like a theatre piece with the invisible fourth wall that excludes the audience. It paradoxically feels more involved. Founded at Oxford University, The Clerks’ Group made its professional debut in 1992 and has since received widespread critical acclaim for performances and recordings of often neglected Renaissance repertoire. The group specializes in Flemish sacred music, and recently completed a series of recordings for ASV which champions the entire sacred output of Ockeghem, inarguably the most renowned composer of the late 15th century. For this series, they earned the prestigious Gramophone award. As part of their residency at UCSB, members of the Clerks’ Group will conduct a master class with UCSB music students on Monday, February 26 at 7 p.m. in the UCSB Department of Music Building’s Geiringer Hall. Admission is free and the class is open to public observation. Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, this residency is sponsored by the UCSB Department of Music, and is supported, in part, with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the California Arts Council, a state agency. For tickets or more information, Editor: For photos, please call |