Lusitano Remixed

Opening times
11am – 4.30pm – Monday – Friday (NB from 1pm on 16 June)
4pm – 8pm – Saturday & Sunday (NB 11am – 4pm on 18 June)

Classical Remix have worked with leading vocal ensemble The Marian Consort and award-winning composer Roderick Williams OBE to create Lusitano Remixed, a new surround-sound installation that reimagines the music of neglected Renaissance composer Vicente Lusitano. Experience the installation at St George’s this June as part of our Festival of Voice.

Vicente Lusitano (c.1520-c.1561) was likely the first published black composer. An African-Portuguese priest and music theorist, his extraordinary and distinctive music was widely celebrated in his lifetime. Largely neglected until recently, however, Lusitano’s music is only just beginning to be performed again.

For Lusitano Remixed, Classical Remix commissioned award-winning composer Roderick Williams to write new music based on Lusitano’s masterpiece, Inviolata.

Roderick’s new music was recorded by The Marian Consort and will be toured as a surround-sound installation with each of eight speakers playing an individual singer’s voice.

In the Renaissance, sacred vocal music was composed in a ‘polyphonic’ style with several layers of melody sung simultaneously. By the mid-16th century, composers even experimented by positioning choirs at either end of churches or cathedrals to create a kind of early surround-sound! Classical Remix’s installation uses twenty-first century technology to reimagine Renaissance vocal polyphony. By moving throughout the space, from speaker to speaker, visitors will be able to listen to individual voices or the blending of the choir’s performance.

Using technology that Lusitano could never have imagined – 500 years after his birth – Classical Remix have reimagined his extraordinary music, transformed and spatialised in this installation.

Roderick Williams says, “I wanted to re-discover the simple majesty of the plainsong that formed the bedrock of Lusitano’s work… to invite the singers to experiment with the recording medium, with whispering and speaking alongside their singing.”

Benjamin Tassie, director of Classical Remix says, “It’s a joy to bring Roderick’s glorious music, beautifully performed by The Marian Consort, to audiences throughout the UK. This installation will be an extraordinary and powerful musical experience.”

Lusitano Remixed is possible with the generous support of Arts Council England and The Marchus Trust, and with additional support from Linn Records and The Marian Consort.