From October 26-29, Boston College's Music Department and the Burns Library will host the celebrated Dutch vocal ensemble Cappella Pratensis for a four-day residency. For almost forty years, Cappella Pratensis has been renowned for its innovative approach to the performance of Renaissance polyphonic music. It is one of only a handful of professional ensembles in the world that perform directly from historical notation, as opposed to transcriptions in the form of a modern choral score.

On Tuesday, October 29, at 7:30 p.m. in St Mary's Chapel, Cappella Pratensis will perform the Missa Ecce Ancilla Domini by the Franco-Flemish Renaissance master Guillaume Dufay (1397? -1474). Composed for the feast of the Annunciation, Dufay's famous Mass has a special resonance for us at Boston College. The feast of the Annunciation appears at the very center of the Gothic altarpiece that adorns the private oratory of the Loyola family in Azpeitia (Spain).

The painting, of Flemish origin, was given by Isabella I, the Catholic Queen of Castile, to Magdalena de Araoz, who had been her lady-in-waiting when she married St Ignatius's elder brother, Martín. In November 1915, when Fr Charles W. Lyons S.J. commissioned Alexander Locke to produce stained-glass windows for St Mary's chapel, it must have been this direct connection with the Loyola family oratory that naturally led to the choice of the Annunciation as a theme for one of the north wall windows.

In choosing to quote the archangel Gabriel's words "Ave Maria," Locke was clearly acknowledging our chapel's patron, and it is Palestrina's magisterial setting of these words, brought to life by our visiting musicians, that will also resound in the chapel. In this case, they will sing the Ave Maria from the original notation as preserved in an exemplar of Palestrina's motets printed in Venice in 1575. This rare and exquisite publication found its way into the collection of the French conductor and pianist Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) and was acquired by the John J. Burns Library in 2019. The Cappella Pratensis residency is sponsored by the Dean of MCAS, the Music Department, and BC's Libraries.

Go to Cappella Pratensis for more informaiton.