Medieval plainchant and polyphony for Eastertide
St Monica’s Chapel, Cote Lane, Bristol.
10am - 5pm
£20 (any EMF), £25 (non-members)
Organiser: Jenny Tribe / jenny_tribe@hotmail.com / 01242 520007 / 07478 198232 (texts only please)
Medieval plainchant and polyphony for Eastertide
Lead by Emma Hornby
St Monica’s Chapel, Cote Lane, Bristol.
In this workshop for all voices we will prepare to sing plainchant for first vespers for the Fourth Sunday after Easter.
We will replace the usual short plainchant responsary with a two part polyphonic one, ‘El valde’ and we will close with a two part’Benedicamus domino’. Both pieces are preserved in the Florence copy of the Magnus liber organi, the famous book of organum preserving the repertoire associated with the cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris in the 13th century.
We will be joined by student members of the Bristol University music department Schola Cantorum who will cover the “ officiant” parts of vespers. Singing medieval chant and polyphony in such a historic space promises to be an uplifting experience.
Emma Hornby has been studying and singing plainchant and medieval music since her undergraduate days in the early 1990’s. She directs the University of Bristol Music Department Schola Cantorum, an auditioned choir of female music students that specialises in medieval music and contemporary music (often by postgraduate students). For the last fifteen years, she has worked on Old Hispanic chant and liturgy, puzzling out aspects of the melodic language of this mysterious repertoire, preserved only in unpitched notation. Her most recent book, with Kati Ihnat, Rebecca Malloy and Raquel Rojo Carrillo is ‘ Understanding the old Hispanic Office: texts, melodies and devotion in early medieval Iberia’ (Cambridge, 2022).
St Monica’s spacious Chapel is within St Monica’s Home of Rest adjacent to Clifton Downs. It is a lovely grade II listed building in Perpendicular Gothic Revival style, designed by Sir Geoffrey Oakley for H.H.Wills and built in 1925 . At the end of the day we will celebrate Vespers for the residents.
The number 1 bus goes from Temple Meads Station to Cote Lane, and takes around 30 mins. Saturday times are currently 9.06 and 9.38, then 10.10 am, but do check nearer the time. Lifts from Temple Meads station or Parkway may be possible.
Please apply by Saturday 30th March.
Members (any EMF) £20; non-members £25.
Full contact and payment details are in the application form.
This workshop is for singers only.
Please indicate your sight-reading ability on your application form.
Further Details and Application Forms:
Workshop information (to print out and keep).
Paper booking form (to print out and post).
Online application form: