We mark Holy Week with a traditional service of Tenebrae (shadows). During this dramatic liturgy, where candles are extinguished one by one to mark the stages of Christ’s passion, The Unicorn Singers will provide a sequence of complementary motets to highlight the emotional charge of events.
Central to these musical reflections will be a performance of William Byrd’s motet Infelix Ego (Unhappy am I), considered to be one of his greatest compositions. This is a large-scale setting of an introspective and penitential text by the charismatic Italian friar Savonarola, the intensity of Byrd’s music taking on even greater significance when we remember the composer’s longing for a restoration of the Catholic faith during the turbulent reign of Elizabeth I.
Everyone is most welcome to join us.