I heard this extraordinary piece on Radio 3 this morning and it stopped me in my tracks, so I thought I'd share it. It's by a Venetian composer I had never heard of – Giovanni Croce, who was famous and influential in his time but whose fame did not long outlast him. He was a singer at St Mark's, rising to become maestro di cappella before his death in 1609.
As well as his duties at St Mark's, Croce had close musical connections with Santa Maria Formosa, one of my favourite smaller Venetian churches, set in a very fine campo...
Wonderful, isn't it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a regular on the roster at my local parish, Brompton Oratory.
As you sit there quietly during the Offertory, the boy's treble voices give your heart vertigo and have your eyes suggesting a dab from a hanky might be in order.
It's up there with Byrd's 'Ave Verum Corpus'.