I spent the weekend working with the Golden Bridge Choir in Los Angeles; a new choir formed by Suzi Digby (Lady Eatwell, and a choral goddess in the UK) to explore the musical links between the Golden Age of the Tudor/Elizabethan composers and the current choral Renaissance that Southern California is experiencing. Â The choir performance is timed with her visiting professorship at USC. Â I met her three years ago, randomly, via twitter, when we were both tweeting about being at the Hollywood Bowl. Â We met, recognized a kindred spirit in each other, and have stayed in contact since. Â I helped her this past weekend as an usher, and general errand-runner, and in return I was treated to the best choral concert I have ever heard in the US. Â The program was exquisite, the singing was amazing, and all of it was just perfection. Â The Eric Whitacre setting of When David Heard literally had me in tears on Saturday – how he could write such anguish at such a young age is unbelievable – it was such a profound experience, especially having had the experience of losing a son.
The program notes were written by both Dr. David Skinner, a musicologist at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, and Dr. Nick Strimple, a composer, conductor, professor, all-around-genius, based at USC. Â Skinner wrote the notes on the Tudor pieces while Strimple wrote about the contemporary ones.
To my own ignorance, sadly I had never heard of David Skinner, but I received a crash course on him the past few days. Â He was born in California, and then studied at Edinburgh and Christ Church, Oxford. Â He has founded several music groups, one of which, Alamire, is on current rotation on Spotify now. Â Alamire was formed, in part, to illustrate musical and historical themes, and in 2011 they began a ten-year 30 CD program to explore English choral music between c.1400-mid 17th century. Â I’m currently listening to Henry’s Music, which records some of the better known music that was composed both by, and for, Henry VIII. Â Though most people remember Henry VIII now as a tyrant (he might have had a blood disease, McLeod syndrome), young Henry was a great scholar and patron of the arts, having been originally destined for a life in the church before his older brother, Arthur, died. Â In fact, some of the music attributed to Henry VIII is stunning in its simplicity and poetry. Â “O my hart and O my hart,” is a wonderful example of what this wonderfully creative King was capable of, when he wasn’t distracted by the need for a male heir, or his bad luck with marriages.
I highly recommend that you check this group out.  They are a bit tough to find on Spotify (not surprising as Spotify is notoriously awful for classical music searches), but they’re worth the effort. I’ve also made a playlist of the albums I could find easily on Spotify.
Unlike a lot of the musicians I love, David Skinner is all over the interwebs.
He’s on youtube and posts lots of lovely videos there.
He’s also a guest blogger for Eric Whitacre, taking Q&A.
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