Singing for mental health
Cantilena joined with other musicians at St John’s Church, Glastonbury on 15 February 2025 for the Mayor’s charity concert. We were pleased to support this event, raising awareness and funds for Glastonbury Mental Health Network. Cantilena sang unaccompanied motets and madrigals, representing the Christian tradition, from composers such as Tallis, Gibbons and Parsons. The […]
Medieval music
i’ve sung in choirs for over 40 years. Maybe I’ve led a sheltered choral life, but Tuesday’s rehearsal was the first time I had faced sight-reading medieval plainchant. At first glance, it was almost incomprehensible. No traditional stave, bar-lines, key-signature or timing. The notes strange squares, some directly above each other. (We quickly learned that […]
Brilliant concert!
Was it our best concert ever? Reaching the end of Handel’s wondrous Dixit Dominus, audience and singers immersed in glorious sound, it certainly seemed very special. Some started the term wondering if we had bitten off more than we could chew. Or at least sing. Dixit Dominus is a virtuosic work which challenges the best […]
Dixit Dominus
The centrepiece of our next concert will be Handel’s glorious Dixit Dominus. It’s a work of astonishing originality and virtuosity, and quite hard to believe that Handel was only 22 when he wrote it. And also hard to believe that it was written over 300 years ago. It’s a wonderful, if testing piece […]
Robert Parsons
Even after many years of choral singing, there’s a surprise at discovering a new piece, and sometimes a new composer. This term we have been introduced to Robert Parsons, an exceptional early English composer who died in his 30s, drowning in the swollen River Trent in Nottinghamshire in 1571/2. He was a contemporary of […]
Improving our singing
As those of us who have been in choirs for a while know, there’s a lot more to singing than, err, just singing. And the more that’s understood about it all, the more pleasurable it becomes. With that aim in mind, Cantilena hosted a “polish up your singing” workshop, led by one of the […]