On April 21 at 7:30 p.m., Early Music Vancouver presents the Tallis Scholars in War and Peace, a programme commemorating the centenary of the end of the First World War, at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Road, UBC). At 6:45p.m., EMV’s executive and artistic director Matthew White hosts a talk with Tallis Scholars director Peter Phillips.

The renowned British early music ensemble will perform works drawn from nearly 500 years of composition ranging from the Renaissance works of Palestrina and Mouton to contemporary compositions by Arvo Pärt and John Tavener. The pieces are combined into a Catholic mass that intended to evoke both the glory and intensity of battle and the serene melancholy of senseless loss.

“Fifteenth century Europe was a time and place ravaged by war. During this period, an anonymous French secular song, L’homme armé, or 'the armed man' became well-known and was used by many composers as a cantus firmus, a sort of melodic theme, upon which they based whole settings of the Latin Mass,” says Matthew White, executive and artistic director of Early Music Vancouver. “On the centenary of the end of the First World War, Peter Phillips has put together an exquisite programme centred around this song that demonstrates the power of text and music to transform the sadness and tragedy of war into something beautiful.”

Tickets from $18 through the Early Music Vancouver website or at the box office, 604-822-2697.