Cappella Clausura performs Exultet Terra, Oct. 14 & 15

Cappella Clausura, a Newton-based professional vocal ensemble, will open its 2023-24 season with two performances of Exultet Terra (Rejoice in the Earth):

• Saturday, October 14 at 8PM at Grace Church (76 Eldredge Street, Newton Corner)
• Sunday, October 15 at 4PM at Emmanuel Church (15 Newbury Street, Boston)

Tickets ($35, or $15 for those under 30) are available online.

Exultet Terra, by Welsh composer Hilary Tann (1947-2023), is for two oboes, an English horn, two bassoons, and a chorus of 16 singers. It centers on three poems by Welsh-born poet George Herbert (1593-1633) — Paradise, Colos, and Heaven — interspersed with language from the Psalms in both the Latin Vulgate and the King James bible.

Amelia LeClair, Founder and Artistic Director of Cappella Clausura, was enthralled by Tann’s work, The Moor, which Cappella Clausura later sang at one of its first concerts. Tann and Cappella Clausura recorded Exultet Terra with Parma Navona Records, and in February 2023, Tann passed away, in the midst of the release of Cappella Clausura’s second recording with Parma Navona — Tann’s Luminaria Magna, which includes Wales, Our Land, said by Tann to be a secondary national anthem in her native Wales. The October 14 and 15 concerts will include The Moor and Wales, Our Land.

Exultet Terra (“rejoice in the earth”) reflects the amazing landscapes and natural world that Tann witnessed throughout her life. Tann was able to use her combined senses to mimic the immersive atmosphere she experienced and describe the sounds and sights of the mountainous and green hills and dales of her Welsh homeland.

Composer and friend Rhian Davies wrote: “Tann’s Welshness did not stem from traditional sources like folksong, the harp or the language, but rather from the geology of the landscape and the play of light and weather upon it. Her mind returned repeatedly to the rock formation called Craig Cerrig-gleisiad and the high moorland above her native Ferndale in the Rhondda that she had walked as a child with her parents, where cotton grass and wildflowers grew among the granite and the mountain came close to the sky.”

Cappella Clausura is excited to start its 2023-24 season by honoring the roots of the organization, as well as a dear friend.