Tessitura

Tessitura, directed by Mark Nelson, is a chamber choir that ex​plores music of the Baroque and Modern eras. This concert features “Music of ​Monteverdi and Poulenc” Sunday, March 22, at the BMC.

Claudio Monteverdi and Francis Poulenc, despite their living in different eras, are linked through the evolution of choral and sacred music. Poulenc found inspiration in Monteverdi’s works to develop his own a cappella style.

The 3 p.m. concert will include Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna; Louis Andriessen’s Un beau baiser; Poulenc’s 4 Motets pour un temps de penitence; Fenno Heath’s Kyrie, from Mass; and Eric Whitacre’s Sleep.

Nelson explains Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna is the only surviving fragment of the composer’s second opera “Arianna,” which marked his launching of le nuove musiche, or “new music.”  Poulenc’s 4 Motets has daring harmonies with a profound Catholic piety. As Nelson says, “In Poulenc, there is something of the monk and something of the rascal.”