Garden of Delights
Smell the music, taste the sound!
Thursday 13 June 2019, 19:00 - 20:30
St Mary Aldermary [ map ]
Watling Street
London EC4M 9BW
Orlando Chamber Choir
Lucy Goddard, director
Orlando Chamber Choir presents an all-sensory summer concert with the fragrance of flowers and the sound of Franco-Flemish Renaissance gardens. Our musical plantsmen include Antoine Brumel, Jacobus Clemens non Papa, Cipriano de Rore and Orlando di Lasso, all of whom captured melodies from the biblical gardens of the Song of Songs. There will be secular flora too – polyphony about roses, lilies, vines and other greenery – with Josquin des Prez’s well-known cricket hiding amidst the leaves. Clément Janequin adds birdsong to this musical garden, with singers mimicking starlings, blackbirds and the occasional nightingale. To root this oasis in today’s Central London we have seeded two contemporary garden-inspired compositions by Janet Wheeler, ready to bloom on the concert day. Orlando’s Garden of Delights is open from 19:00 and, to cater for all senses, concludes with a communal picnic.