Voices Across the Mountains - Jacob Handl and his inspirations

For The Ripieno Choir’s first outing under the baton of Huw Morgan, we return to two key tenets of the choir’s heart and soul – renaissance music at its very best, and discovering rarely performed music. Join us as we explore the music of Jacob Handl, alongside the influencing styles of Lassus, Croce, Willaert and Andrea Gabrieli.

Jacob Handl (also known as Jacobus Gallus) remains to this day one of the undiscovered treasures of the Renaissance. A prolific composer of such skill and quality that he was able to compose masterpiece after masterpiece in a dazzling array of styles. Born in 1550 in what is now southern Slovenia, he spent much of his short life traveling throughout central Europe, absorbing musical influences from many countries. Handl’s two pillars of inspiration were the intense works of the Franco-Flemish school of polyphony and the open, spacious and generous music of the Venetian composers. Of the former, his settings of both Jesu dulcis memoria and Vidi speciosam are particularly sensuous and expressive; while the Venetian-inspired, thrilling works Cantate Domino and Gloria from his Missa sopra Sancta Maria, and the calmly affecting Adoramus Te, Christe and Ecce quomodo, are amongst Handl’s finest.