O Virgo Splendens: music of the Llibre Vermell, a concert in honor of the Virgin of Montserrat, will take place at the beautiful Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 S. Aberdeen, Chicago, on Sunday, April 29 at 3:00 p.m. A replica of this 800-year-old “Black Madonna” stands on the south side of the choir of the monastic church.

The Llibre Vermell or “Red Book” is a fourteenth-century manuscript in the library of the Benedictine Monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat not far from Barcelona. This rarely-heard work is an anthology that includes songs in Latin, Catalan, and Occitan. Many are quite lively,with an obvious base in popular music: forms include chant, canons, round dances, one which consists of two entirely separate songs designed to be sung together, several virelais, and the earliest known danse macabre.

The ten surviving pieces from the Llibre Vermell will be performed in the order of the manuscript folio by the vocal group Triskelion (Marjorie Telfer, soprano; Mary Bellmar, mezzo-soprano; Kathryn Chilton, alto; Vicki Reed, contralto). The concert will conclude with audience participation in singing the nineteenth-century Catalan hymn “El Virolai” (“Rosa d’Abril”) by Josep Rodoreda, still sung daily by the Escolania de Montserrat. Admission is free!