7.00 p.m., Sunday 17 Dec 2023,

Honan Chapen, University College Cork

A Festival of Nine Readings & Carols

MusiCórum, with Tom Doyle (organ), conducted by Geoffrey Spratt

4.00 p.m., Saturday 16 Dec 2023,

Holy Cross Church, Kenmare, Co. Kerry

A Festival of Nine Readings & Carols

MusiCórum, with Tom Doyle (organ), conducted by Geoffrey Spratt

4.00 p.m., Saturday 20 May 2023,
St Mary's Church, Dingle, Co. Kerry
Byrd's Mass for 5 voices
MusiCórum, with Tom Doyle (organ), conducted by Geoffrey Spratt

7.00 p.m., Sunday 21 May 2023,
Honan Chapel, UCC, Cork
Byrd's Mass for 5 voices
MusiCórum, with Tom Doyle (organ), conducted by Geoffrey Spratt

Mass for five voices (1594/95) by William Byrd (c. 1540–1623)
Kyrie; Gloria; Credo; Sanctus & Benedictus; Agnus Dei
When William Byrd composed his Mass for Five Voices, he had spent just over twenty years in charge of music at the Court of Queen Elizabeth I, despite being a committed Catholic. (There is an earlier Mass for Three Voices, as well as a well-known Mass for Four Voices.) He went into semi-retirement from the Court around 1594 and moved to a rural area of Essex for the remainder of his life. Prominent in the local community was Byrd’s patron John Petre, 1st Baron Petre (the son of the former Secretary of State Sir William Petre), another dissident, and Mass was celebrated regularly, if covertly, in Petre’s properties.
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Recent research has highlighted the fact that Byrd’s Masses were performed by a choir (not solo voices) and, as often as not, accompanied by either an organ or a chest of viols. Although it could happen that the five movements would be sung without significant breaks (particularly if Mass needed to be celebrated as quickly as possible in a potentially risky venue), normally the various movements would be well separated within the liturgy. For today’s performance, the leading Cork-based chamber choir, MUSICÓRUM, will be performing the work not just with its accompanist, Tom Doyle, playing a chamber organ, but with short readings between each movement to provide social, political, religious, and musical contexts. The performance will last for approximately an hour.

Holy Cross Catholic Church, Kenmare, Co. Kerry
5.00 p.m., Saturday 17 December 2022
Festival of 9 Lessons & Carols
MusiCórum, conducted by Geoffrey Spratt
With contributions from the Choir of Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine, Kenmare
(Conductor: Veronica Whitehead) and Tammy Meyer (solo soprano)

Honan Chapel, UCC, Cork

7.00 p.m., Sunday 18 December 2022
Festival of 9 Lessons & Carols
MusiCórum, conducted by Geoffrey Spratt

Tammy Meyer (solo soprano)

The Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols tradition started in King’s College, Cambridge, just after the end of World War 1.  Now broadcast all over the world on Christmas Eve every year, the principal characteristics are not merely the performance of carols by the famous Chapel Choir, woven around nine readings from the bible, but also popular carols sung by all present.

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The leading Cork-based chamber choir, MusiCórum, decided to give even more coherence to the occasion by performing a sequence of seven carols composed by the twentieth-century Czech composer, Antonín Tučapský, entitled The time of Christemas, scored for solo soprano, mixed-voice choir, guitar, and percussion.  Tučapský spent most of his working life in London and composed music that is wonderfully idiomatic and notably accessible.  These carol settings include two a cappella movements, one for solo soprano and guitar, and four with colourful contributions from players of glockenspiels, tenor drum and tambourine.  They reflect evocatively the traditional carol texts and appeal to all.