Holy Rosary Catholic Church 4210 SW Genesee St, Seattle, WA 98116

the tudor choir
+ doug fullington

Tudor England (c1485–1603) was deeply unstable — yet monuments of its Latin sacred music survived, including the Sarum rite chant used before the Reformation. This chant formed the basis of devotional works by Taverner, Sheppard, Fayrfax, and Tye. It appears directly in several pieces on this program — among them Sheppard’s deeply moving Libera nos, whose chant melody is shown here. This music is inseparable too from the stone abbeys and cathedrals it was made to fill. These Stones Remain restores these masterworks to their spiritual home, performed by the Northwest’s own Tudor Choir.

• Sacred Masterworks from Tudor England

cappella Romana
+ john michael boyer

Long before gift-giving and reindeer, there was St. Nicholas of Myra—the 4th-century bishop whose deep compassion made him one of Christianity’s most beloved saints. Patron of children, sailors, the wrongly accused, and countless others, the real St. Nicholas is celebrated throughout the world, East and West. From the medieval West, we’ll sing the remarkable isometric motet O Gemma lux by Guillaume Dufay, shown here. From the Byzantine tradition an exquisite Kalophonic (“beautiful sounding”) chant for his feast day by Manuel Chrysaphes (15th c.).

We finish with Arvo Pärt’s “O Holy Saint Nicholas,” featured on Cappella Romana’s acclaimed recording Odes of Repentance, a contemporary meditation that bridges ancient tradition and modern spirituality.

• Guillame Dufay
  • O Gemma lux
• Arvo Pärt
  • O Holy Saint Nicholas (from Triodion)
• Manuel Chrysaphes
  • Kalophonic Sticheron for St. Nicholas