Lucie Skeaping, Joseph McHardy and the BBC Singers reveal Lusitano's life and work. Born in Portugal in the early 1500s, he worked as a singer in Rome before becoming a Protestant.Lusitano was of African descent, and his 1551 book of Motets appears to be the first music by a black composer ever to be published. Lucie explores his remarkable story in conversation with Lusitano expert Joseph McHardy, and with exclusive new recordings of his music by the BBC Singers and conductor Nicholas Chalmers, who replaced Sofi Jeannin at short notice owing to Covid restrictions.
-
-
All very interesting, especially Joseph McHardy's account of the extempore singing which Lusitano taught. Difficult to imagine such things as canons, retrogrades, twin canti fermi (if that's the plural) etc being done without much sweating over pen and paper. The quality of some of the singing was a bit rough. I dare say the BBCS had to record stuff with very little time to rehearse. All a bit of a shout. Extracts from other groups' CDs were rather better. I liked the Brabant Ensemble for example.
Good to hear of a possible project to record some of Vicento's works.
Can anyone explain why his name was pronounced Vissento? My linguistic skills are not great, but I would have expected a 'ch'. -
It would certainly be a "ch" pronunciation in today's Portuguese. Incidentally I have had conversations recently with new Brazilian neighbours about this aspect of spoken Portuguese, and they thought the "ch" pronunciation was of relatively recent vintage - Brazilians do not use it, apparently.Originally posted by ardcarp View PostComment
Comment