Gravitación has the following programs available:
Elements (four voices)
This program, entitled Elements recognizes the levels on which humanity is defined, combining science (Musicalis scientia/Sciencie Laudabili), nature (Una Panthera), the quest 
for heavenly inspiration (Orienti Oriens), and sacred fulfillment (O ignis spiritus, as well as the various Mass movements, and sacred motets by Compère and Moulu). These elements help to depict the complexity that makes us who we are. The program begins with a single monophonic line, composed by Hildegard von Bingen. Elements of tonality can be heard in various stages, from the homophonic ‘medieval’ sound of the Kyrie from the Messe de Tournai to the dramatic harmonic and melodic evolution demonstrated in the Ciconia’s Una Panthera. In Pange lingua one can immediately hear clean, sonorous harmonies, while the Agnus Dei from Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices exhibits the long lines and controlled dissonances found in the late Renaissance. Elements of science, nature, as well as celestial and sacred inspiration can be found not just in music, but also in art, poetry, dance and architecture of the medieval and renaissance periods and in this way our program aims to capture the spirit in which these works were conceived and performed.
Queene and Huntresse (three voices, lute and theorbo)
The inspirational figure in this program is the Roman Goddess Diana. Revered for her athleticism, beauty and skill as a huntress, Diana (or Artemis in the Greek system) is a symbol of strong feminine virginity, and is represented in many forms of art as a playful, scornful seductress; beautiful yet unobtainable. In the tale of Actéon, for example (set often in painting, literature and opera) the young man comes across the naked Diane bathing, and she, humiliated, transforms him into a stag.
The idea of unrequited love (or indeed lust) has always been a staple subjectof Western Art. We have collected various pieces which represent the eternal struggle of the starved lover. We chose French and English repertoire due their similar courtly obsessions with hunting, and masochistic enjoyment of the pains of love. In stark contrast to the highbrow pining of a renaissance lover, it is certain that there was also a courtly interest in the baser manifestations of love and lust.
The music in this program spans almost two hundred years. From the birth of the renaissance in fifteenth century part songs, through to the final sophisticated remnants of the lute song during the reign of Louis XIV, the music in this program focuses on both the familiar and the obscure.
Le Stagioni (five voices and theorbo) Click HERE to download translations
The changing seasons can bring joy, love, and new
beginnings, yet they can also bring despair and heartache. Our program this evening, Le
Stagioni, or The Seasons, depicts human relationships in all of their
extremes, personified in the seasons which typify these emotions. The late Italian madrigals by masters
Claudio Monteverdi, Sigismondo D’India, Don Carlo Gesualdo, and Heinrich Schütz
are full of passion and torment, rich in clashing harmonies and dense textures. La Primavera, or Spring, is an optimistic view of life and love, featuring works by Schütz,
Rossi, and Gesualdo, with beautiful texts expressing the joy of things which
are new, fresh and vibrant. Heat and passion come to the foreground in L’Estate, or Summer, as depicted in Monteverdi’s duet, Ardo, or I burn! Breezes begin to blow,
leaves being to change, and life and love become tumultuous as L’Autunno or Fall
approaches. 
In the two different settings of Zeffiro, torna, Monteverdi describes a tender memory of spring,
comparing it to the loneliness and desperation which the poet is now
experiencing. D’India’s dissonant Strana
armonia d’amore or Strange
harmonies of love describes a love that has
become complicated, unstable and unpredictable, and emotions turn dark and
intense. L’Inverno, or Winter, closes our program with a somber reflection on life and loss. Monteverdi’s Tu dormi, or You sleep, is a sorrowful lament on death, while Lotti’s La Vita
Caduca, or The Transitory Life is a rather pessimistic moral book-end to both our
emotional journey and the madrigal genre itself, describing the complete
transformation from beauty and warmth, to inevitable cold, dry emptiness.
Le Stagioni features
many important and frequently quoted musical examples of late Italian madrigal
repertoire. However, much of the program is made up of rarely performed works,
which exhibit the extreme wealth of musical material within the repertoire.
Programs in Collaboration with Tudor Voices
Schütz 'Musikalische Exequien' and Scarlatti 'Stabat Mater'
Machaut 'Messe de Notre Dame' and Carissimi 'Jephte'
Gravitacion
509 West William Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820
