The Sixteen's Choral Pilgrimage 2024: Masters of Imitation

Celebrating the art of imitation, our 2024 Choral Pilgrimage explores music from the master of parody, Orlande de Lassus, alongside works by Josquin, Casulana and Bob Chilcott.

The richly sensual choral music of renaissance master Orlande de Lassus provides a stunning centrepiece to our 2024 pilgrimage programme. Music that speaks of love earthly and divine, his motets, masses and madrigals were written over 450 years ago. But they still have the immediacy and intricacy to resonate with us today, especially when heard in the lofty surrounds of stunning chapels, churches and cathedrals.

Daringly designed and stitched in fine detail, they are in fact tailored from scraps of other music, whether Lassus’s own, the music of his revered predecessor Josquin or the monochrome beauty of plainchant. We will revive this imitation game by commissioning a new piece clothed in material borrowed from Lassus, and wrap it around two exquisite madrigals from Maddalena Casulana. An Italian lutenist and singer, she was the first female composer in the history of western music to have a whole book of her works printed. Something old, something new, something borrowed…