PANAJI: Music lovers in Goa will get an opportunity to experience unique and rarely-performed Lenten motets at a series of concerts this month-end. Conducted by Fr Romeo Monteiro, the choir and ensemble will present a programme, ‘Bhokti Gayonantlean Niyal’ (meditation through sacred music) at three concerts in the state.The presentations, which will feature 35 singers and an 18-member orchestra, will perform classic Konkani motets like ‘Ekuch hor’ and ‘Roddon Sodtali’, whose composers are unknown. Motets were originally written for male voices only at a time when women didn’t sing in Church. However, this presentation will feature women singers too. The singers will be accompanied by violins, clarinets and double-bass.“Lenten motets are sung in a particular form in Goa that is not found anywhere else in the world,” said Monteiro. “They have a distinct flavour of their own. The instrumentation too is unique — two violins, two clarinets and one rabecao. Monteiro, one of Goa’s foremost experts on sacred music, holds degrees in liturgical music and composition from Pontifical universities in Rome.Apart from the motets, the choir will also perform ancient and contemporary Goan and universal Christian sacred music composed by renowned musicians, and some pieces written by Monteiro. Ten pieces will be based on the Archdiocese’s theme for the pastoral year — ‘Tum goribancho asro’ (You are a refuge for the poor).The sacred concerts will be held on March 31 at 6:30pm at the Our Lady of Penha de Franca Church, on April 6 at 7pm at the Our Lady of Livra Febres Church, Consua, and on April 7 at 6:30pm at St Anthony’s Chapel, Old Goa “They are not concerts for pleasure but for reflection on the word of God through the idiom of music,” says Monteiro, whose choir fully comprises volunteers. Other pieces on the programme include Handel’s ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ and ‘But thanks be to God’, ‘Hoi poi’ (Veronica’s song), ‘Goribancho asro’, ‘Tu pauperum refugium’, ‘Khuxe monan’ and ‘The Lord is my shepherd’.

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