Suspicious Cheese Lords
Encyclopedia
The Suspicious Cheese Lords, also known as Suscipe Quæso Domine, is an American male a cappella
ensemble based in Washington, D.C.. SCL is a wholly autonomous, professional ensemble and a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to stimulate interest in early music
throughout the metropolitan Washington area and beyond. Secondarily, SCL has established a reputation for researching, recording, and promoting previously unrecorded works of Renaissance
composers.
's Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, promising a home-cooked dinner to those who would come and sing. From such humble origins, a common devotion to the music of Tallis and other Renaissance and medieval composers led the group to continue meeting weekly and eventually to expand and formalize their ranks as a bona fide a cappella performance group. To the present day, each weekly rehearsal begins with a home-cooked dinner.
Since incorporating as a not-for-profit educational organization in 1999, the group has comprised between 9 and 15 members, with roughly equal division among countertenor
s/alto
s, tenor
s, baritone
s, and basses. The SCL has pursued an increasingly ambitious performance schedule, including four distinct concert programs in fall 2006.
SCL recorded its first CD, Maestro di Capella: Music of Elzéar Genet (Carpentras)
, in summer 2002. This was followed by the fall 2004 release of Missa L'homme armé
: Sacred Music of Ludwig Senfl
. A third CD, Vivat Rex!: Sacred Choral Music of Jean Mouton
was released in February 2008. All three recordings consist exclusively of previously unrecorded works by important but often-forgotten Renaissance composers.
Although the Cheese Lords specialize in polyphonic music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, their repertoire ranges from Gregorian chant to original compositions. The group's membership has included at least four composers; those whose works the group has performed are founding members George Cervantes, Gary W. Winans, Jr., and Seth Stoppelmoor. Cervantes composed a setting of "The Prayer of St. Francis"
which the Lords performed for Pope Benedict XVI
on April 17, 2008, during an inter-religious meeting at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center
in Washington.
, the Franciscan
Monastery in Washington, D.C. The Cheese Lords assisted in developing "An Evening at the Tabard Inn", an event for the Smithsonian Institution
's Resident Associates program, for which the group provided music contemporary to Chaucer
's Canterbury Tales and related to the theme of pilgrimage. The group has twice performed for the National Gallery of Art
's Concert Series—a Christmas concert in 2005 and a November 2006 program of Flemish Renaissance composers to accompany NGA's exhibit Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych.
The Lords' other performance venues have included Washington National Cathedral
, the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center
, the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle
, the Cathedral of St. Thomas More (Arlington, Virginia), the Old Presbyterian Meeting House (Alexandria, Virginia), Christendom College
(Front Royal, Virginia), and XM Satellite Radio
's Live Performance Studio. SCL's concerts are regularly broadcast on the Vox channel of XM Satellite Radio.
In 2006 the Suspicious Cheese Lords won a Washington Area Music Award
for Best Choral Group. In 2005 they won Best New Artist and received two other nominations.
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
ensemble based in Washington, D.C.. SCL is a wholly autonomous, professional ensemble and a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to stimulate interest in early music
Early music
Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...
throughout the metropolitan Washington area and beyond. Secondarily, SCL has established a reputation for researching, recording, and promoting previously unrecorded works of Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
composers.
History
The group was started by Clifton "Skip" West in 1996 as a casual collection of friends interested in singing early music. West invited five friends to sing through Thomas TallisThomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of England's early composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English...
's Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, promising a home-cooked dinner to those who would come and sing. From such humble origins, a common devotion to the music of Tallis and other Renaissance and medieval composers led the group to continue meeting weekly and eventually to expand and formalize their ranks as a bona fide a cappella performance group. To the present day, each weekly rehearsal begins with a home-cooked dinner.
Since incorporating as a not-for-profit educational organization in 1999, the group has comprised between 9 and 15 members, with roughly equal division among countertenor
Countertenor
A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...
s/alto
Alto
Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" in Italian, that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence,...
s, tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
s, baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
s, and basses. The SCL has pursued an increasingly ambitious performance schedule, including four distinct concert programs in fall 2006.
SCL recorded its first CD, Maestro di Capella: Music of Elzéar Genet (Carpentras)
Carpentras (composer)
Carpentras was a French composer of the Renaissance. He was famous during his lifetime, and was especially notable for his settings of the Lamentations which remained in the repertory of the Papal Choir throughout the 16th century...
, in summer 2002. This was followed by the fall 2004 release of Missa L'homme armé
Missa L'homme armé
Over 40 settings of the Ordinary of the Mass using the tune L'homme armé survive from the period between 1450 and the end of the 17th century, making the tune the most popular single source from the period on which to base an imitation mass....
: Sacred Music of Ludwig Senfl
Ludwig Senfl
Ludwig Senfl was a Swiss composer of the Renaissance, active in Germany. He was the most famous pupil of Heinrich Isaac, was music director to the court of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and was an influential figure in the development of the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style in...
. A third CD, Vivat Rex!: Sacred Choral Music of Jean Mouton
Jean Mouton
Jean Mouton was a French composer of the Renaissance. He was famous both for his motets, which are among the most refined of the time, and for being the teacher of Adrian Willaert, one of the founders of the Venetian School....
was released in February 2008. All three recordings consist exclusively of previously unrecorded works by important but often-forgotten Renaissance composers.
Although the Cheese Lords specialize in polyphonic music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, their repertoire ranges from Gregorian chant to original compositions. The group's membership has included at least four composers; those whose works the group has performed are founding members George Cervantes, Gary W. Winans, Jr., and Seth Stoppelmoor. Cervantes composed a setting of "The Prayer of St. Francis"
Prayer of Saint Francis
The Prayer of Saint Francis is a Christian prayer. It is attributed to the 13th-century saint Francis of Assisi, although the prayer in its present form cannot be traced back further than 1912, when it was printed in France in French, in a small spiritual magazine called La Clochette as an...
which the Lords performed for Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
on April 17, 2008, during an inter-religious meeting at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center
Pope John Paul II Cultural Center
The Pope John Paul II Cultural Center was established to house a Roman Catholic museum and think tank in Washington, D.C. The concept for the center began at a meeting between Pope John Paul II and then-Bishop Adam Maida in 1988. The building is set on 12 acres adjacent to The Catholic University...
in Washington.
Credits
From 1998 to 2005, the Cheese Lords served as artists in residence at Mount St. Sepulchre Franciscan MonasteryMount St. Sepulchre Franciscan Monastery
The Mount St. Sepulchre Franciscan Monastery is located at 14th and Quincy Streets in the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast Washington, D.C. It includes gardens, replicas of various shrines throughout Israel, a replica of the catacombs in Rome, an archive, a library, as well as bones of Saint...
, the Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
Monastery in Washington, D.C. The Cheese Lords assisted in developing "An Evening at the Tabard Inn", an event for the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
's Resident Associates program, for which the group provided music contemporary to Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
's Canterbury Tales and related to the theme of pilgrimage. The group has twice performed for the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
's Concert Series—a Christmas concert in 2005 and a November 2006 program of Flemish Renaissance composers to accompany NGA's exhibit Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych.
The Lords' other performance venues have included Washington National Cathedral
Washington National Cathedral
The Washington National Cathedral, officially named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Of neogothic design, it is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world, the second-largest in...
, the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center
Pope John Paul II Cultural Center
The Pope John Paul II Cultural Center was established to house a Roman Catholic museum and think tank in Washington, D.C. The concept for the center began at a meeting between Pope John Paul II and then-Bishop Adam Maida in 1988. The building is set on 12 acres adjacent to The Catholic University...
, the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle
Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle
The Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington D.C., most commonly known as St. Matthew's Cathedral, is the seat of the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. As St...
, the Cathedral of St. Thomas More (Arlington, Virginia), the Old Presbyterian Meeting House (Alexandria, Virginia), Christendom College
Christendom College
Christendom College is a small Catholic liberal arts college in Front Royal, Virginia, United States, which is located in the Shenandoah Valley.-Educational Mission:...
(Front Royal, Virginia), and XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
's Live Performance Studio. SCL's concerts are regularly broadcast on the Vox channel of XM Satellite Radio.
In 2006 the Suspicious Cheese Lords won a Washington Area Music Award
Washington Area Music Awards
The Washington Area Music Awards are a music award for Washington, D.C. area performers, issued by the Washington Area Music Association . The awards are issued at an annual awards program....
for Best Choral Group. In 2005 they won Best New Artist and received two other nominations.
Etymology
The Suspicious Cheese Lords' name is derived from the title of the Tallis motet Suscipe quæso Domine. In the process of "translating" the title, an early Lord observed that "suscipe" looked rather like "suspicious", "quæso" was close to the queso, the Spanish word for "cheese", and "Domine" is legitimately Latin for "Lord." Hence, "Suspicious Cheese Lord"—which in time became adopted as the group's name. While the whimsical name has served to draw attention to the group, it belies the group's decidedly serious musical sensibilities.Current singers
- Joseph Bates (tenor)
- George Cervantes (bass)
- Daniel Ebeling (countertenor)
- Matt Emery (baritone)
- Chrisopher Fominaya (bass)
- Sargon de Jesus (bass)
- Peter Larsen (baritone)
- Zachary Mack (tenor)
- Christopher Riggs (countertenor)
- Anthony Smitha (baritone)
- Brent Stephens (tenor)
- Clifton (Skip) West (countertenor)
- Gary Winans (tenor)
External links
- http://www.cheeselords.org - official site
- http://www.myspace.com/suspiciouscheeselords