Sparks: A journey from Renaissance fire to contemporary brilliance

Name: Sparks: A journey from Renaissance fire to contemporary brilliance
Start: 2025-11-23T15:00:00-06:00
Location: Voxman Music Building

Schedule

Sun, 23 Nov, 2025 at 03:00 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

Voxman Music Building | Iowa City, IA

CSIC's 54th season opens bridging Renaissance drama and contemporary expression across four centuries of choral artistry. The centerpiece, Monteverdi's Il Lamento d'Arianna, is a fragment from his only surviving opera and one of the earliest examples of opera's emotional power. Its grieving lines offer a vivid glimpse into early seventeenth‑century expressive style, where text and music intertwine to heighten pathos. Morley's spirited Fire, Fire provides another Renaissance counterpoint, while works by Jake Runestad and Elaine Hagenberg carry that same intensity into modern choral language. The program's backbone features three majestic works for choir and organ: Charles Wood's radiant O Thou the Central Orb, Edward Bairstow's triumphant Blessed City, Heavenly Salem, and Benjamin Britten's imaginative Rejoice in the Lamb, which sets Christopher Smart's mystical poetry with brilliant choral writing and kaleidoscopic musical imagery. Shawn Kirchner's expressive arrangement of the Appalachian folk song Bright Morning Stars rounds out the evening, letting audiences hear how choral expression has evolved and flourished across four centuries of musical innovation.