Kickstarter

Schola Antiqua is presenting a concert series in December 2012 entitled "Tidings True." This program, like many of our programs, features music that is all but forgotten in music history. We are planning a studio recording of the music from this program not only for the listening enjoyment of our fans but also in an effort to document this important music.

The proposed album will contain the world's first recording of Pierre de la Rue's Missa Conceptio tua, a sonorous work for five voices that was in high demand among courtly circles of the early sixteenth century. The mass is known for its dauntingly low range, a characteristic that has caused early music ensembles to avoid it. Schola Antiqua has a unique roster of singers capable of performing this amazing work at the very low written pitch.

We will supplement this extraordinary setting of the mass with the traditional “O antiphons," which are seven beautiful settings of plainchant, one chant for each of the seven days leading up to Christmas Eve. The album will conclude with a handful of medieval English carols for Advent, replete with the sweet consonances that defined early English polyphony. Two of these English carols—"Nova Nova" and "There is no rose of sywch vertue"--have received numerous modern recordings and are indeed quite appropriate for the season.

This project is in good hands. Schola Antiqua not only has access to some of the finest vocal talent in the city of Chicago, but also creates programs against a scholarly backdrop. Our work showcases our unusual access to a wide range of unearthed musical gems.

Funds raised through Kickstarter will be applied directly to venue rental fees, performance stipends, engineering and post-production costs, and printing fees.