The Sixteen come to Christ Church Cathedral early in their 16 th annual 'Choral Pilgrimage' tour which sees them perform in many of the UK's most beautiful venues – churches, abbeys and cathedrals. This setting is the perfect way to appreciate this programme of music that pairs two Tudor composers of sacred choral works with a 20th Century counterpart, Arvo Pärt. While seating is not ideal (the group perform facing the North Transept, so many of the audience will be unable to see them) it doesn't matter; the music is best enjoyed absorbed in a meditative kind of way. The spectacular vaulting and pillars of the building – or closed eyes – serve as the best visual backdrop.
Byrd's motets are like fragments or miniatures – unshowy and slowly modulating –shifting sands, or intertwining layers. A musicologist will appreciate how, for instance, one piece, 'Diliges Dominum', is a perfect palindrome of a score which, words aside, will sound the same played backwards as forwards. Of course, this kind of thing won't be apparent to the casual listener, but it just shows how perfectly jewel-like these choral pieces are.
The Sixteen are actually comprised of 18 performers conducted by Harry Christophers. Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass combine together to create an immaculate whole, seemingly the closest to perfection humans can achieve. Tallis and Byrd both use polyphonic structures – augmentation, inversion and melodies that repeat in succession, known as counterpoint. This is so subtle it is difficult to identify – the singing moves and surges like a wall of sound; a single, varying aural texture that ebbs out as delicately as it emerges.
Some 400 years later, Arvo Pärt's work complements this and like Tavener's sacred music, is less difficult or obviously modern than much 20
th century composition. His work is a kind of 'holy minimalism' that is equally beautiful to secular ears. The first work performed provides the title of the programme – 'The Deer's Cry'. Both solemn and transcendent, the impression is more sonorous, allowing single notes like the resonant bass or sparkling soprano to levitate above the others, and making as much use of silence as sound.
Peaceful and gently moving, this programme provides a respite from worldly woes, as rewarding to those seeking calm as it is to musical scholars. The tour continues until November, ending in the only non-religious venue – King's Place, London. Try and see it in Durham, York Minster, Wells or Coventry!