Brattleboro Camerata: Music of Bach & Hassler

The Brattleboro Camerata presents “I Stand Here and Sing,” featuring the music of Bach and Hassler Sunday, December 14.

The 4 p.m. program includes Hans Leo Hassler’s Dixit Maria and Missa super Dixit Maria, and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227, “music to fill the spirit, with moods ranging from anxiously furious to tranquil and loving,” says Camerata director Jonathan Harvey.

The program explores the musical connections between Hassler, one of the originators of German Baroque style, and Bach, arguably its pinnacle and last great practitioner.

“This is a cry for music to be an agent of peaceful change amid the chaos and malice of our world today,” Harvey continues. “The concert title, ‘Ich steh hier und singe,’ or ‘I stand here and sing,’ is from the Bach piece, in a particularly defiant and desperate moment, where the full text states, ‘Rage, world, and attack: I stand here and sing in secure peace.’”

The Brattleboro Camerata is a small vocal ensemble devoted to exploring the beauty and power of Renaissance-era and Renaissance-inspired music. The Camerata’s performances breathe new life into old music. With Music Director Jonathan Harvey, the Camerata endeavors to ensure that early music continues as a visceral, living tradition.