Winnipeg Baroque Festival audiences will be able to partake in a contemplative evening\u00a0concert\u00a0in Wolseley on Tuesday night as members of Proximus 5 share\u00a0music by an English Renaissance master.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ensemble members Scott Reimer, Dan\u00a0Rochegood\u00a0and Paul Bruch-Wiens will\u00a0perform William Byrd\u2019s Mass for Three Voices alongside other works in a brief later-evening concert\u00a0entitled Ves-Byrd\u00a0that aims to add\u00a0reflective\u00a0air to the festival\u2019s proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Replicating a service\u00a0<\/p>\n
Originally published in approximately 1593, the Mass for Three Voices is just as much a treat to perform for the members of Proximus 5 as it is for audiences to hear. \u201cI talk about this all the time as a musician scratching your own itch,\u201d says Bruch-Wiens, who had the\u00a0initial\u00a0idea\u00a0of performing\u00a0the music\u00a0in\u00a0the festival. \u201cThis is my own itch and I\u2019m very happy that the other two find it their itch as well and wanted to do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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While the music is\u00a0beautiful in its own right, the\u00a0ensemble is also gratified by the challenge that it presents them.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of heavy lifting for three voices to carry… especially when you get\u00a0to the Gloria and the Credo when there\u2019s so much text,\u201d explains Reimer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Along with the Mass, the members of Proximus 5 have also programmed other motets and original Psalm settings by\u00a0Reimer to bolster the concert\u2019s repertoire. \u201cI think it just broadens and deepens the themes that we\u2019re singing about,\u201d says\u00a0Rochegood. \u201cIf you were at a service, you might experience a minister speaking about these themes, and then you might sing some hymns about these things. So, we try to incorporate that idea of the service itself\u00a0and then sing these pieces, sing those things that you would\u00a0maybe\u00a0hear\u00a0a\u00a0minister preach about within the service.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nighttime adds to atmosphere\u00a0<\/p>\n
The concert\u2019s 9 p.m. start time was chosen intentionally by the ensemble to heighten the contemplative experience of the concert \u2013 a consideration\u00a0that has quickly become a trademark for the ensemble. \u201cThe point is not to be performed to,\u201d explains Bruch-Wiens. \u201cThe point is to sit in the music. The point is to\u00a0have\u00a0your\u00a0head down if you need to and\u00a0just listen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Rochegood\u2019s\u00a0hope for the audience is that the experience the ensemble has curated has fostered connection\u00a0– \u201cwith each other through this thing that we do as humans… through these ideas, and that\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0made a connection to something greater than themselves, hopefully.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n