MUSIC

If you missed this terrific program last May - and even if you didn’t! - you’ll be glad to hear we are repeating it. LeClair chooses great pieces, but we all agree these are the cream of the crop. The ancient and baroque music that Cappella Clausura performs was published
in its day. Despite the fact that it was written for women’s voices and instruments, and performed that way in the cloisters, it was published for mixed voices, presumably at the behest of the publishers. Quite reasonably, these commercial enterprises would have wanted to sell their product. The question we ask today is: to whom? So, imagine, if you will: a popular host has just procured some music from the
local convent - “Aha!” his guests exclaim, “What fun! How shall we play this?” “Who’ll be the nuns?” “And shall we have some monks?” The passionate nature of these pieces no doubt played well to baroque patricians: Think Fledermaus in a church.