Spem in alium with Vox Luminis XL, artistic direction: Lionel Meunier

Happy to sing this wonderful music as a guest artist with wonderful colleagues!
Thomas Tallis: Spem in alium
Josquin Desprez: Qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi
John Sheppard: Media vita
Robert Carver: O bone Jesu
Alessandro Striggio: Ecce beatam lucem

Artistic director Lionel Meunier selected the iconic motet Media Vita of Sheppard, extremely moving music here flanked by two pieces written for 40 a capella voices. Writing for 40 voices implies a series of logistical and technical challenges. Tallis and Striggio probably met in London in 1567. Tallis’s monumental 40-voice work, Spem in alium, was probably inspired by the example of Striggio. Whereas Striggio’s composition Ecce Beatam lucem was probably designed for semicircular performance, Tallis had designed his music to be heard ‘in the round’, with the listener seated within the circle of performers. The music seems as such to ‘rotate’ around a circle. 

Coproduction: Perpodium
Supported by: De taxshelter van de Belgische Federale Overheid via Cronos Invest,
de Vlaamse Overheid