PRE-ORDER BELLA VOCE’S LATEST RECORDING
"SELDOM HAS SCHOLARLY SLEUTHING IN DUSTY CORNERS OF EARLY CHORAL MUSIC YIELDED SO MANY MINIATURE TREASURES. MORE, PLEASE. " – CHICAGO CLASSICAL REVIEW
Our final program of the 2023–2024 season Expanding the Canon will soon be available as a CD from Centaur Records. The selection of choral works by underrepresented composers of Renaissance and Baroque, also including lesser-known works by Palestrina and others, will be released by Centaur Records on July 19. Pre-order the CD now to support Bella Voce in continuing to offer exciting new programming.
AUDIO
Early Music
New Music
RECORDINGS AS BELLA VOCE
BRAHMS’ A GERMAN REQUIEM (2019)
Our 2019 recording of this historically informed performance of the 1871 London Version of Brahms’ A German Requiem is available now on Naxos, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Spotify. Find program notes and options to purchase a CD through Naxos.
BRIGHTER THAN THE DAY IS LIGHT: SONGS AND CAROLS FOR THE CHRISTMAS SEASON (2014)
A compilation of live recordings shows off our typical mix of atypical holiday fare: fresh arrangements of Christmas classics; beloved Baroque, Renaissance, and twentieth-century compositions; and a smattering of traditional carols from around the world.
THE ARMED MAN (2014)
This concert series was so well received that we mastered and released the live recording. Recorded in 2014, this live collection explores some of the many ravishing Renaissance works based on a surprising source: the French secular song "L'homme armé" ("The Armed Man"). Music of Josquin, Morales, Ockeghem, and Busnoys.
AWAKE THE DAWN (2011)
Recorded in 2011, this inaugural release under the baton of Artistic Director Andrew Lewis features a cappella works by three of today's most popular and innovative composers: Eric Whitacre, Frank Ferko, and Gabriel Jackson.
AMERICAN A CAPPELLA (2005)
Recorded in concert during Bella Voce's 2004–05 season, conducted by Artistic Director Emerita Anne Heider, this disc includes a spectrum of a cappella music from throughout much of American history, from William Billings to African American spirituals, the Sacred Harp, and Stephen Foster.
RECORDINGS AS HIS MAJESTIE'S CLERKES
EARLY AMERICAN CHORAL MUSIC, VOLS. 1 AND 2 (2001)
Volume 1 contains music of William Billings (1746-1800), one of the first important composers born in America. A leather tanner by trade who taught himself composition, Billings left behind some lovely, unique music that contains early indications of American musical independence. It often doesn't sound like European models. Today, Billings's music survives mostly in Southern shape-note singing, with its exciting raw tone and rhythmic vitality. Volume 2 contains music of other early American composers.
Click here to purchase Volume 1 or here to purchase Volume 2
HEAR MY PRAYER (2000)
Moving music of late-Romantic spirituality by three great 20th-century English composers. Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor, Stanford Motets Op. 38, and Parry "Songs of Farewell."
FRANK FERKO: STABAT MATER (2000)
Composer Frank Ferko's majestic Stabat Mater (The Mother Stood) broadens the embrace of this profound medieval hymn depicting Mary at the Crucifixion. Ferko supplements the original Latin text on the theme of premature death with passages from classical Greek drama and modern verse. The Chicago Tribune pronounced our concert premiere of Ferko's Stabat Mater a classical highlight of 1999: "a marvelously intricate and sincerely devout tour de force that showed off the Clerkes' disciplined, sensitive, and uncommonly nuanced singing."
NEWS OF GREAT JOY (1999)
A delightful selection of choral music for the Christmas season, including English, French, and Latvian carols, African-American spirituals, and much more… Purchase on Amazon.com. Ghoostly Psalms A must for any fan of Early American music! Early American and English choral anthems, fuging tunes, and plain tunes by Dowland, Ravenscroft, Billings, Read, Morgan, and others.
GOOSTLY PSALMES (1996)
A must for any fan of Early American music! Early American and English choral anthems, fuguing tunes, and plain tunes by Dowland, Ravenscroft, Billings, Read, Morgan, and others.
JOHANNES CORNAGO (1993)
Missa de la mapa mundi. An early (ca. 1450) example of a polyphonic mass setting built over a secular song. With secular music of 15th-century Spain performed by The Newberry Consort, Mary Springfels, director.
Vigorous, engaging anthems and psalmody by colonial America's greatest tunesmith, William Billings (1746–1800). Called "the finest recording of Billings available today" by Tom Manoff, music reviewer for National Public Radio's All Things Considered. This title has been reissued as Early American Choral Music, Vol. 1.
IN A COLD WINTER'S NIGHT (1988)
Meltingly beautiful choral music for the Christmas season, including audience favorites such as Victoria's "O magnum mysterium," Araujo's "Los Negritos," and much more.