Raphaëlis: Sound of World Heritage #2

The Raphaëlis project is a collaboration between Roskilde Cathedral, the Royal Library, Kind Of Opera, and Concerto Copenhagen, mapping Roskilde's musical cultural history from the 17th to 18th centuries over the coming years. This concert is the second in the series.

The programme features 17th and 18th-century church music for choir, winds, and organ. The repertoire comes from motet collections published in Strasbourg and Leipzig - the international repertoire that was widespread in Northern Europe - with particular emphasis on works for double choir, where vocal and wind parts interweave. The large church space allows musicians to be positioned in different locations, exactly as was done in that era. The music is performed on the historic Raphaëlis organ, whose pipes date back to the 16th century.

In the 17th century, Roskilde Cathedral was filled with the sound of cornetts and sackbuts - instruments used by the city's town musicians at festivals and ceremonies, and also played and taught to students at the Latin school. The cornett is made of wood and covered with leather, producing a soft tone reminiscent of the human voice, but rarely heard today. The sackbut is still known from orchestras, but has changed considerably since the 17th century. With support from the Johan Otto Wroblewskis Foundation, Roskilde Cathedral has commissioned two cornetts and three sackbuts of various sizes for the project.

Subsequent concerts in the series will explore topics such as church musical life, the city's secular concert traditions, and music's role in royal ceremonies.

Performers:
Conor Hastings and Lene Langballe, cornetts
Daniel Stighäll, Nils Carlsson, and Cameron Drayton, sackbuts
Bine Bryndorf, organ
Roskilde Cathedral Adult Choir and Cathedral Choir conducted by Lene Rasmussen