On Tuesday September 22 I went to St. Thomas the Martyr church in Winchelsea to see and listen to Stile Antico. Stile Antico are a British choral ensemble specialising in polyphonic early music prior to the 18th century and, in Italian, their name translates as ancient style. This year they are celebrating their tenth anniversary and have recorded 10 CDs in that time. Many of their CDs have won classical music awards and they first appeared at the Rye Arts Festival in 2010.
Their concert was entitled Sacred or Profane?. There is a rich tradition of church music (sacred) drawing on secular melodies (profane). This was certainly the case with the polyphonic mass tradition of the 15th and 16th centuries. For example, besides being a great composer of church music, Claudio Monteverdi wrote secular madrigals.
The concert included works from the 14th to 16th centuries from such composers as Monteverdi, Orlande De Lassus and Tomas Luis De Victoria. The sacred church music was interspersed with profane secular works. The members of the group took it in turns to introduce each piece or group of pieces.
The sound scape produced by the voices of Stile Antico flowed round the church and was greatly appreciated by the audience, who applauded with great vigour at the end of each group of pieces. At the end of the evening I imagine the audience went home uplifted, I certainly was.
Photo Ray Prewer