8. John Browne - Stabat Mater (copied c. 1490 - 1502)

Recording

Title: Music From The Eaton Choirbook
Performer: Tallis Scholars
Director: Peter Phillips
Year: 2005
Length: 16 minutes

Review

This is the first of what will be many iterations of the same text in this list, there are more Stabat Maters than you can shake a stick at, and they have inspired many of the best pieces of liturgical music. This is the first one on the list and it is quite a nifty one.

If there is one thing to distinguish here it is the way in which although it is still a polyphonic piece of music with some similarities to the Motets thatwe have been listening to, it is also a piece of drama, recounting the suffering of the Virgin during the passion of Christ.

This dramatic level of the piece leads to some interesting vocal play where parts of the text have clearly a greater inflection and the music follows this by making parts more dramatic than others. For example when the cry of the people 'Crucifige' comes on it is very clear, asking for Christ to be crucified.

Another interesting aspect of this track is how some of the voices clearly stand out above the other to make some point, in a very clear and beautiful way. The text works organically like some kind of beautiful kaleidoscope.

Track Highlights

1. Stabat Mater

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

John Browne stands apart from the other Eton composers in his exceptionally varied choice of vocal forces - no two surviving works employ exactly the same - and in some predilection for very sombre texts. He stands apart from Lambe and the older composers in his greater liking for imitation and his somewhat less rigid handling of it (with for example more entries at intervals other than the unison or octave, notably at the fifth). Like Davy he is less inclined to use the old 'under-third' or 'Landini sixth' progression at a cadence (with leading-note falling by step before rising to its tonic) so beloved of John Dunstaple and Guillaume Dufay.

No youtube for you today...

7. Jean de Ockeghem - Alma Redemptioris Mater (Late 15th Century)

Recording

Title: Missa Mi-Mi, Salve Regina & Alma Redemptoris Mater.
Performer: The Clerk's Group
Director: Edward Wickham
Year: 1994
Length: 5 minutes.

Review

This is an even shorter piece of music than the last one, lasting little more than 5 minutes, Alma Redemptoris Mater is one of the very few remaining Motets by Ockeghem, and it is a very beautiful one.

This is a motet at four voices, mixing male and female voices in the recording with a particularly impressive vocal interplay and a fullness of sound not present in people like Busnoys. Ockeghem still falls behind Dufay in the Motet l33t skillz, but not very far, and unfortunately there are not enough motets around to give us a fuller impression.

I am sorry this is quite a short review, but it is based on 5 minutes of music.

Track Highlights

You are joking Right? I think I'll go for Alma Redemptoris Mater.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

A strong influence on Josquin Des Prez, Ockeghem was famous throughout Europe for his expressive music and his technical mastery. His technical prowess is demonstrated most clearly in the astonishing Missa prolationum, which consists entirely of mensuration canons, and the 'Missa cuiusvis', to be performed in different modes, but even these technique-oriented masterpieces demonstrate his insightful use of vocal ranges and uniquely expressive tonal language. Being a renowned bass singer himself, his use of wide-ranging and rhythmically active bass lines sets him apart from many of the other composers in the Netherlandish Schools.

Here is a quite interesting Deo Gratias by Ockeghem:

6. Antoine Busnoys - Motets (Late 15th Century)

Recording

Title: Busnois - Missa L'homme armé / Donarto - Missa Spritus Almus
Performer: Binchois Consort
Director: Andrew Kirkman
Year: 2001
Length: 12 minutes

Review

This is a review of a very short portion of a recording, this recording has only two Busnoys (or Busnois) motets, they are pretty, but just a little morsel, it is hard to have an overarching notion of Busnoys work from these two tracks.

Still the tracks are in two quite different styles, one is much sombre than the other and this contrast gives you an idea of the range of Antoine Busnoys, but if compared to Dufay's motets reviewed here yesterday, these pale in comparison.

Firstly the motets are only vocal, there is no instrumentation, this is no problem in itself and is a perfectly legitimate performance, but the instrumentation in Dufay was so great that I miss it here. Still, on their own merits these are two lovely pieces of music.

Track Highlights

1. Gaudi Celestis Domina
2. Anima Mea Liquefacta Est


Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Of his sacred music, two cantus firmus masses and eight motets survive (most likely many others are lost). He wrote several settings of the Marian antiphon Regina coeli. Stylistically, his music can be heard as a mid-point between the simplicity and homophonic textures of Dufay and Binchois, and the pervading imitation of Josquin and Gombert. He uses imitation skillfully but occasionally, writes smooth and singable melodic lines, and has a strong feeling for triadic sonorities, anticipating 16th-century practice.

Some secular music by Busnois:

5. Guillaume Dufay - Motets (1420 - c.1447)

Recording

Title: O Gemma Lux
Performer: Huelgas Ensemble
Director: Paul Van Nevel
Year: 1999
Length: 69 minutes

Review

As you know no one made isorhythmic motets like Dufay. You didn't? Now you do. Not that Dufay was particularly innovative, but he was a master at what he did and he used a pretty established form in a beautiful awe-inducing way. This is probably the most beautiful record that we have heard until now.

The interplay of human voices and instruments here are something spectacular, it just sounds otherworldly and perfect. Of course as the ancient music that it is it allows a lot of latitude to the performers so a lot of credit has to go to the performers here, and their director who manage to make something really beautiful out of Dufay's music.

Yes, this isn't as exciting as Carmina Burana, or as fun, but for sheer otherworldly effect this is the one to go for. You have several voices reading different texts and being pulled together by sheer genius, it shouldn't work as well as it does, but in the end it becomes all the more esquisite because of it. A brilliant recording which is unmissable.

Final Grade

9/10

Track Highlights

1. O sancte Sebastiane
2. Rite Majorem Jacobus
3. Salve flos Tusce gentes
4. Nuper rosarum flores

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Dufay was not an innovator, with the exception of a few late works, and wrote within a stable tradition. He was one of the last composers to make use of medieval techniques such as isorhythm, but one of the first to use the harmonies, phrasing and expressive melodies characteristic of the early Renaissance. His compositions within the larger genres, masses, motets and chansons, are mostly similar to each other; his renown is largely due to what was perceived as his perfect control of the forms in which he worked, as well as his gift for memorable and singable melody. During the 15th century he was universally regarded as the greatest composer of the time, and that belief has largely persisted to the present day.

Some guys in Bangkok do a Dufay Motet, Rock On!:

4. Francesco Landini - Ballatas and Songs (Late 14th Century)

Recording

Title: The Second Circle: Love Songs of Francesco Landini
Performer: Anonymous 4
Director: Anonymous 4
Year: 2000
Length: 61 minutes

Review

Francesco Landini was the most important composer of 1300's Italy and he is very well represented by this recording. Anonymous 4 do a great job at bringing to life Landini's quite complex polyphony, in this case it is unaccompanied and so what you get are the interplays between the four great voices of the female ensemble members.

There is a problem with this album, however and that is the lack of variety in terms of sound, as all the tracks are unaccompanied and they are all in a what are the quite similar forms of Ballata and Song, it becomes after a while quite hard to distinguish between the tracks, and if you get distracted it is easy not to have noticed that a track has passed by.

So, even though you kind of miss the trees in this forest, the forest is still a very beautiful thing, and in the end you get the sense of Landini, even if you don't get the sense of each individual piece. And the general feeling is of beauty, something quite similar to Hildegarde Von Bingen, but also quite distinct. Unlike in Hildegarde's antiphons the music here is polyphonic, making it more interesting in terms of the interplay of voices, this album however does not use instruments which really backed up Hildegarde's songs. Another major factor would be the fact that the songs here are all profane, even though as they are ballads, it is not immediately apparent that they are secular as they are anything but boisterous. But the overall feeling you get from the album is similar, even though this is a bit more homogeneous.

Track Highlights

1. Muort'oramai
2. Echo La Primavera
3. Cara Mie Donna
4. Nella Mi'vita

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Blind from childhood (an effect of contracting smallpox), Landini became devoted to music early in life, and mastered many instruments, including the lute, as well as the art of singing, writing poetry, and composition. Villani, in his chronicle, also stated that Landini was an inventor of instruments, including a stringed instrument called the 'syrena syrenarum', that combined features of the lute and psaltery, and it is believed to be the ancestor of the bandura.

According to Villani, Landini was given a crown of laurel by the King of Cyprus, who was in Venice for several periods during the 1360s. Probably Landini spent some time in northern Italy prior to 1370. Evidence in some of his music also points to this: he dedicated one motet to Andrea Contarini, who was Doge of Venice from 1368 to 1382; and in addition, his works are well-represented in northern Italian sources.

Here is something by Landini, even if it is accompanied and not present in the album... blame Youtube, still it is a Ballata and it is Landini, so it kinda counts:

3. Guillaume de Machaut - Ballades (Mid 14th Century)

Recording

Title: The Art Of Courtly Love
Performer: Early Music Consort Of London
Director: David Munrow
Year: 1973
Length Of Reviewed Portion: 22 minutes

Review

Machaut is one of the great inventors of polyphony, meaning when there is more than one voice in a piece of music. If you think about Gregorian Chants for example you always think of it as a mono-vocal thing, everything is pulling the same way, eve in Hildegard's Antiphons, even if instruments were being used they were a part of the same voice, complementing the vocal performance.

Machaut brings us something different, the voices are playing against each other, while the vocal sings one song, the instrument is doing something else that plays off the voice and vice-versa, more akin to Jazz than Gregorian Chants. This is in itself extremely significant and interesting, particularly because Machaut straddled the field making monophonic music in the tradition of the troubadours and polyphonic music like these Ballades.

Other than how interesting it is, however I wasn't particularly blown away by it, the performance is perfect, but the music itself is hard to warm up to. It is fascinating in its interplay of voices, but not awe inducing. Listen to it anyway because of its significance.

Track Highlights

1. De Toutes Flours
2. Damme Ce Vous M'estes Lointeinne
3. Python Le Mervilleus Serpent
4. Amour Ma Fait Desirer

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Machaut was by far the most famous and influential composer of the 14th century. His secular song output includes monophonic lais and virelais, which continue, in updated forms, some of the tradition of the troubadours. However, his work in the polyphonic forms of the ballade and rondeau was more significant historically, and he wrote the first complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass which can be attributed to a single composer. He was the last important representative of the trouvère tradition.

This is not from the recording here, but will give you an example of Machauts polyphony, at three voices in this case:

2. Hildegard of Bingen - Antiphons (12th Century)

Recording

Title: Canticles Of Ecstasy
Performer: Sequentia
Director: Benjamin Bagby
Year: 1993
Length of Reviewed Portion: 22 minutes

Review

Well this was a much shorter piece to listen to, of course not all the Antiphons that have come down from Hildegard are present here, but there is a nice sample which gives you an idea of what they sound like. And they sound quite lovely.

The music has a very ethereal feel to it, some would say mystic... but I'm an atheist. There is however something special about them, a certain peaceful feeling, and not only in the voices but in the sparse use of instruments as well.

This is very emotive music, clearly inspired by Hildegard's visions, and again like in the last album it is as important because of the music itself as because of who wrote it, Hildegard herself is a very impressive character, look her up on Wikipedia and she is the kind of woman that you wouldn't presume was around in the "Dark Ages"... maybe they weren't so dark, and this music isn't dark as well. It is definitely nowhere as fascinating as the Carmina Burana, and it is not something I will go out of my way to listen to actively again, but it is a lovely piece of music. And the performance is flawless, with just the required echo to remind you of the music's setting.

Track Highlights

1. Antiphon: Cum Pocessit factura Digit Dei
2. Aleluia - Antiphon: O Virga Mediatrix
3. Antiphon: O Choruscans Stellarum
4. Marian Antiphon (10th Century): Alma Redemptoris Mater

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In addition to music, Hildegard also wrote medical, botanical, and geological treatises. She also invented an alternative alphabet. The text of her writing and compositions reveals Hildegard's use of this form of modified medieval Latin, encompassing many invented, conflated, and abridged words. Due to her inventions of words for her lyrics and a constructed script, many conlangers look upon her as a medieval precursor.

Accounts of Hildegard's visions were compiled into three books. The first, Scivias ("Know the Way") was completed in 1151. Liber vitae meritorum ("Book of Life's Merits"), and De operatione Dei ("Of God's Activities") also known as Liber divinorum operum ("Book of Divine Works") followed. In these volumes, works in progress until her death in 1179, she first describes each vision, then interprets them. The narrative of her visions was richly decorated under her direction, with transcription assistance was provided by the monk Volmar and nun Richardis. The book was celebrated in the Middle Ages and was later copied in Paris in 1513.

Hildegard's visionary writings maintain that virginity is the highest level of the spiritual life, however, she also wrote about the secular life, including motherhood. She is the first woman to record a treatise of feminine sexuality, providing scientific accounts of the female orgasm.

When a woman is making love with a man, a sense of heat in her brain, which brings with it sensual delight, communicates the taste of that delight during the act and summons forth the emission of the man's seed. And when the seed has fallen into its place, that vehement heat descending from her brain draws the seed to itself and holds it, and soon the woman's sexual organs contract, and all the parts that are ready to open up during the time of menstruation now close, in the same way as a strong man can hold something enclosed in his fist.


A video from a documentary on Hildegard with some of her music: