Josquin and Bach | Dorian Chamber Orchestra

The Dorian Chamber Orchestra's 2018-2019 concert series begins with a programme of works by two composers who have come to epitomise their respective idioms.

Josquin's Missa Pange lingua is an important example of Josquin's mature style. This paraphrase mass takes the Pange Lingua hymn which Josquin quotes and reworks throughout. The interval of the minor second which is so important in the hymn permeates the work, creating its distinctive phrygian sound world.

JS Bach's early cantata 'Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis' displays the influence of the many different styles that would later be immortalised in the better known Passions and B minor Mass. The modal (dorian) inflection of the harmony shows the continuing blurred lines between diatonic and modal tonality in the Baroque style, while his use of a recitative and da capo aria structure is an early example of Bach's incorporation of Italian operatic influences into his cantatas.