Gallicantus

Literally meaning ‘rooster song’ or ‘cock crow’, Gallicantus takes its name from monastic antiquity for the office held just before dawn: a ceremony which evokes the renewal of life offered by the coming day. Dedicated to renaissance music and directed by Gabriel Crouch, the membership of this early music group boasts a wealth of experience in consort singing, drawn from groups such as Tenebrae, The Tallis Scholars, and The King’s Singers.

The group is bound by a shared love of communicating text, and creates performances which draw out unifying themes within apparently diverse repertoire: To this end they are as meticulous about providing context and insight for audiences as they are about crafting interpretations of the music they love.

Gallicantus released their first disc on Signum Classics in 2009, dedicated to the music of Robert White. Critics acclaimed an “impressive debut” (Observer) of “impassioned, exciting music” (The Times), whilst Gramophone Magazine declared: “What an outstanding disc… The opening of the Lamentations could stand as a kind of illuminated initial at the beginning of a gorgeous manuscript, so transparent and luminous is it”. 2010 sees the release of Dialogues of Sorrow – Passions on the Death of Prince Henry (1612), and a BBC radio programme featuring Gallicantus will also be broadcast in 2010 with historians Tristram Hunt and Roy Strong, and musicologist Sally Dunkley on the story of the music inspired by this most significant event.