Platinum Consort Choral Workshop: Venetian Voices

Led by luminaries like Giovanni Gabrieli, the Polychoral style epitomised the grandeur of Venetian sacred music, with its separated choirs (cori spezzati) and radiant harmonies. Gabrieli's Jubilate Deo is a joyful rendering of the text featuring cascading melodies, syncopation and call and response figures. Hassler, who was the first composer to bring the Venetian style across the Alps, brings a sense of reflection with his setting of the Lord's Prayer. Similarly, Claudio Merulo – most notable for his keyboard music – moves away from cori spezzati in favour of a more densely polyphonic setting of "In my trouble I will call upon the Lord". Croce's Regina Caeli presents us with perhaps the most exuberant use of split choirs, notably in the joyful compound 'Alleluias'.