We began our revival on December 13, 2024, with a concert at St. Ignatius of Antioch, on NYC's Upper West side, where we sang two gorgeous Renaissance masses, one by Heinrich Isaac, Een vrolic wesen, and the other by Josquin Desprez, Une Mousse de Biscaye.
Last June, we took part in the Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival, a competition with four other groups held at Columbia University's Miller Theater. There we performed William Byrd's beautiful Ne irascaris Domine and Hans Leo Hassler's amazing chromatic motet Ad Dominum cum tribularer.
On January 17, 2026, we participated in "Music Whatever, No. 4," held in John Hetland's Chelsea loft apartment.
We sang two exquisite settings of the biblical text "How are the mighty fallen," one by Josquin Desprez (part four of his Planxit autem David) and the other by Robert Ramsey, composer at the court of King James Iyes, "his" version of the Bible. Both of these will be performed in our upcoming concert April 28 (see below).
On March 14, 2026, we participated in "Music Whatever, No. 5," also held in John Hetland's Chelsea loft apartment.
This time we began with one of William Byrd's most exquisite motets, Ne irascaris, Domine. Next we did another preview of our April 28 War & Peace concert (see below): Verse 4, "Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg," from J.S. Bach's Easter Cantata, BWV 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden. First we did it Swingle Singers-style, with only scat syllables instead of words, except for the Altos, who come in every few staves singing the text in much slower notes. This started out as a rehearsal technique, but it sounded so good that we took it on the road. We followed that rendition by singing it fully texted as Bach wrote it.
Our current project is to revive our very successful program: "Renaissance (plus Bach and Pärt) music of War and Peace," which we performed in New York and Boston in 2007-08.
It's ready now !
Tuesday evening, April 28, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Music Divine concert:
"Renaissance (+Bach & Pärt) Music of War & Peace"
at St. Agnes Church, 143 East 43rd Street, NY, NY
(one half block East of Lexington Avenue / Grand Central Station)
Peace Liturgy:
First, 4 choral settings of the plainchant Vespers antiphon for peace, Da pacem, Domine (Give peace, Lord):
15th- and 20th-century pieces by Gilles Binchois and Arvo Pärt (with remarkable similarities);
and settings combined with other texts (Salve Regina) by Johannes Martini and (Tua est potentia) Jean Mouton.
Then Heinrich Isaac’s Introit and Giovanni da Palestrina’s Offertory for the Votive Mass for Peace.
War Music:
Clément Janequin’s La bataille, which famously imitates battle sounds,
J.S. Bach’s “Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg” from Cantata 4,
and settings of “How are the mighty fallen” by Robert Ramsey and Josquin Desprez.