Tactus SF, directed by Sven Edward Olbash, welcomes spring with "Arise, My Love," a program of late Renaissance and early Baroque vocal music on texts from the joyful and tender biblical Song of Songs. The music, sung in German and Latin, was composed north of the Alps, in what is now known as Germany. There, in the early 17th century, the long-established tradition of secular music about love merged with the needs of the church to foster interest in the Old Testament Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon), rich with images of romantic love and natural fecundity.
The program includes a lush setting of the first chapter of the Song of Songs by Leonhard Lechner, who, like many German composers, learned his craft in Italy but returned to work in his home country. Tactus SF will also sing four motets by Lechner's contemporary, Melchior Franck, who was active as chapel master at a princely court in Bavaria.
"Arise, my Love" will also feature several compositions for double choirs, the call-and- response style invented in northern Italy but immediately popular in Germany.
A reception will follow the concert.