Missa Ave Maris Stella

Josquin was the greatest composer of the early Renaissance, the most varied in invention and the most profound in expression; his peers compared his artistic abilities to those of Michelangelo. Our 2004 Season begins with a liturgical reconstruction of his delightful four-part mass on the Latin hymn Ave Maris Stella in the intimate acoustic of the National War Memorial.

The hymn Ave Maris Stella ("Hail star of the sea") is the hymn at Vespers on Feast Days of the Blessed Virgin Mary (known today as "Marian Feasts"); Josquin probably wrote his mass setting on that hymn melody for use at mass on the same feast days. There are several different Marian Feasts in the Catholic calendar at which Missa Ave Maris Stella might have been performed; the propers for this reconstruction are those for the Feast of the Presentation of the infant Christ in the Temple in Jerusalem, which according to the old orthodox Catholic calendar (based on the Julian calendar, which would have been in use in Josquin's day) falls on February 15 each year.

Programme

This concert was part of the 2004 Performance Series.

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