Vox Does Christmas music

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Along with Kuster's new work, Wolverton's program features some strangely familiar works. You'll recognize, for instance, the first part of the thirteenth-century setting of the medieval hymn "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel" as "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," but the second part, with all its parallel fifths, is nothing like the nineteenth-century harmonization we're all used to — suddenly, the hymn sounds very medieval. "The subtext I had in mind when programming this concert was that everyone knows more early music than they realize!" says Wolverton.   

[Originally published in December, 2003.]