At St Joseph's Parish

The concert features Eric Whitacre’s powerful 12-movement work The Sacred Veil (2018), the famous 40-part motet “Spem in Alium” (c. 1570) by Thomas Tallis, and the Canadian premiere of Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’s Tentatio (2006).

Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil is a 12-movement work dedicated to poet/lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri (Tony)’s late wife Julia Lawrence Silvestri (Julie) which includes text written by Silvestri, Whitacre, and Julie herself, capturing the human experience through a story of love and loss. Whitacre and Silvestri crafted a structure for The Sacred Veil that follows the journey of a soul across the threshold between finitude and eternity into and, ultimately, out of this life. It follows the trajectory of Tony and Julie’s story from beginning to end. The two halves of the piece bridge the gap between “before” and “after” learning that Julie was diagnosed with cancer.

The 40-part motet Spem in Alium (latin for "Hope in any other") by Thomas Tallis is considered to be one of the greatest pieces of English early music. The motet is laid out for eight choirs of five voices while surrounding the concert hall, evoking an ethereal soundscape. Another version of this motet is featured in Janet Cardiff's Forty-Part Motet (2001), a sound installation which is part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada. The Ottawa exhibit is set in the Rideau Street Chapel, which is the salvaged interior of a demolished convent chapel that is now in permanent display at the National Gallery. Forty speakers are set around the Chapel, each one featuring a single voice of the 40-part choir.

We are equally excited to perform the Canadian premiere of Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’s Tentatio, a companion piece to Tallis’s Spem in Alium.