Early Music - The Best 1,000 Years of My Life

For a while I've had the idea of starting and hosting a radio program that I'd christen "Early Music Up Late". Can't think of much music more relaxing. Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for any radio listeners) the thought of talking broadcasting anything scares me witless. Instead, I'm inflicting one of my muscical passions on SBAF members and guests.

This thread is dedicated to the music of the middle ages and renaissance, detouring now and then to some early Baroque stuff. Roughly, it starts with the beginning of (decipherable) musical notation and ends at c. 1650.

Without further ado, let us begin with a fanfare.

 

The BBC beat you to it with a new early music series on Radio 3, broadcast at 11pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06cxttq/episodes/player


Dates: 500 - 1600 Hmmm....here in England you can without any doubt extend that by another 50 to 100 years. Orlando Gibbons died in his 40s in 1625. William Byrd died in 1623. Thomas Tomkins was composing until shortly before his death in 1656. Purcell didn't write his Fantasias for Viols until 1680 and those are probably the last works by a major English composer which are firmly rooted in what is now seen as the pre-baroque era.

btw I have that Bella Domna CD and like it a lot. Originally borrowed it from the library maybe 10 or 15 years ago and ripped it he he he, finally bought a couple of CDs of it, one for me and one as a gift.

Mara Kiek certainly has a striking singing style and the opening track definitely gets your attention and sets the tone. But I struggle to imagine her singing consort songs by Gibbons, Tomkins, Byrd etc.

 

Recommendations are pretty hard to do. I like English consort music perhaps more than any other form of any era, so I'll start there.

For an introduction I'd go for a mix of secular and sacred, superb playing, and singing in styles which will definitely surprise some people:

Elizabethan Songs and Consort Music
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.554284

Tomkins - Consort Music for Viols and Voices, Keyboard Music
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.550602

Gibbons - Consort and Keyboard Music · Songs and Anthems
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.550603

And it's Naxos so it's cheap too! Cheap does definitely not mean second best when it comes to Naxos Early Music series. These are really great performances and recordings. Rose Consort of Viols are very entertaining players and I think people who have never heard the voices of Red Byrd, Catherine King or Tessa Bonner are in for a treat.

 

Great thread moatsart, and thanks for the recommendations julian! Looks like those three albums are all on spotify as well.

As it happens, I have been sitting here this morning working on a collective bargaining agreement while enjoying some superb early choral recordings by Magnificat, under the direction of Philip Cave (Linn). The singing and flawless intonation is every bit as good as the recording quality - well worth picking up the flacs if you don't already have them!

http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-parsons--white---byrd--where-late-the-sweet-birds-sang.aspx

http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-tomas-luis-de-victoria--officium-defunctorum-cd.aspx

 

We're lucky that there is so much Early Music being performed and recorded.

I think my first exposure was from a Nonesuch LP (which I purchased because I liked the cover art) with works by Antoine Busnois. Then, I started filtering through the Nonesuch stack and started listening to Ockeghem (performed by Pomerium Musices) and Josquin. Another Nonesuch LP was a collection of French and Italian works by Dufay, Dunstable, Isaac, Delahaye, etc.). By then I came across a set of Musical Heritage Society records and was listening to New York Pro Musica, Deller Consort, Boston Camerata, Musica Antiqua, Purcell Consort and so on. And on and on.

I have many favorites! Two recordings that I return to often, after being beat down by day's darts and follies, are the Ockeghem Missa Mi MI (I have the EMI / Hillard Ensemble recording) and Machaut's Ma fin est mon commencement (which I have on the Hyperion label / also Hilliard Ensemble).

 

Ensemble Gilles Binchois sings Machaut. More expressive than their studio version.

 

Hmmm. Does it work when I directly embed?
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Ah, okay... I guess it's one of those irritating -- and seemingly pointless -- "region restrictions".

I do like Perotin and I've always thought those longer sustaining notes were crafted to speak to the resonance of the church acoustics. I don't know if it actually works that way, but I imagine being one of those singers finding just the right placement and volume so that they are, in a way, "playing" the cathedral. And then the other guys sing the fundamental melody -- which I'm told is often taken from pre-existing chants or other melodies. This music, and its delivery, sort of makes me wish I had a gigantic stereo system. Nonetheless it does sound great though a pair of nice , rich headphones.... completely enveloping.

 

I also have Fretwork's Heart's Ease and now that you've mentioned Fretwork I'm prompted to recommend a couple more CDs by them:

William Byrd - Consort Songs - Emma Kirkby & Fretwork (Harmonia Mundi USA HMU 907383)



William Byrd - The Second Service & Consort Anthems - The Choir Of Magdalen College, Oxford & Fretwork
(Harmonia Mundi USA HMU 907440)



As this is Harmonia Mundi you are almost guaranteed three things:

brilliant performances and production

beautiful, even extravagant, booklet

limited availability, and horrendously high prices for used CDs.

These are great recordings and performances. The Emma Kirkby CD of consort songs is conventional in style but brilliantly performed; if Emma Kirkby ever sung more beautifully I'd like to hear it. It's probably impossible to find this CD new at sane price now. I got a copy via a highly disreputable Spanish pirate site several years ago and also put the CD on my Amazon wishlist. After a few years of intermittently checking my wishlist the day arrived when I found an Amazon market place seller offering a pristine used CD at a normal used CD price. Result! Naturally my priate self esteem took a knock but I am really pleased I finally got the genuine article.

The Second Service CD is definitely not like other versions of Byrd's Second Service you might have heard, though the combination of a viol consort, choir and soloist in a church may well be closer to what was experienced 400 years ago than many people would expect. It is a really unforgettable recording. Best of all you can still get this new for a normal price.

For people wanting to try before you buy I think you'll find both of these on YouTube and Spotify but, as a Spotify non-premium cheap b'stard myself, I'd suggest that Spotify's Ogg Vorbis 160 kbps is good but not ideal and you might be better off with YouTube if you can find it in "HD" i.e. high bitrate m4a.

btw Fretwork have their own website fretwork.co.uk and if you can't find their stuff for sale it is probably worth emailing them and asking. Their website until recently was very simple (almost all plain text) and included a quaint olde worlde system where you could send a cheque and they would post you the CD you wanted, if available. The website has become modern and now has links to itunes and so on, but who knows?

 

In my mind "Guillaume de Machaut" always gets translated into "Bill the Masher". I probably should have paid more attention in French class when I was a kid.

 

Continuing the theme of a choir and ensemble performing in an English church:

Christopher Gibbons - Motets, anthems, fantasias & voluntaries - Academy of Ancient Music & Choir, Richard Egarr



http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Harmonia+Mundi/HMU807551

It's another Harmonia Mundi.... I promise I'm not a shill and that this is just some kind of odd coincidence

Christopher Gibbons was indeed the son of Orlando Gibbons. If you've ever noticed in Samuel Pepys' diaries a reference to the wonderful musician Mr Gibbons, it's this Mr Gibbons, not his much more famous father. Every work on this CD is its premier recording. Richard Egarr, in the CD's notes, describes Christopher Gibbons as "..the missing link between the pre-Commonwealth world of Williams Lawes and the Restoration baroquerie of Henry Purcell".

As can be seen in the image this is a Super Audio CD (it's multi channel). I don't have an SACD player or multi channel kit but I can confirm that the plain old 2 channel CD layer of this disc is first class.

 

Don't ignore the vocal pieces, for example "O bone Jesu". I think that's Latin for "I got a boner for Jesus" but my last Latin school class was over 30 years ago so maybe I misunderstood something.....

he he he

 

Beautiful Gibbons. Buy this one for the ladies in your life--or to attract the right one.



I'm in the tiny minority who think that Byrd's a great composer.



If you don't mind modern instruments.

 

Those are all great CDs. Glenn Gould actually described Orlando Gibbons as his favourite composer and absolutely loved Byrd. If you ever get the chance to view this then don't miss it



In it Gould describes, in reference to Byrd, his fascination with artists who are on the cusp of great changes of era.

btw I sincerely doubt that considering Byrd to be a great composer puts you in any kind of minority amongst people familiar with the course of European music. In modern times there has somehow arisen, both in Britain and on the continent, the notion that Continental European music influenced English composers but not vice versa. It doesn't take much scrutiny to see that this is mistaken. From classical.net:

"Byrd is considered by many the greatest English composer of any age, and indeed his substantial volume of high quality compositions in every genre of the time makes it easy to consider him the greatest composer of the Renaissance – his versatility and genius outshining those of Palestrina and Lassus in a self-evident way. English music of the period was amazingly rich, dominating the music of the continent in depth and variety, in a way that was not seen before or since. Also, Byrd's pre-eminent position at the beginning of music publication in England allowed him to leave a substantial printed legacy at the inception of many important musical forms. It would be impossible to over-estimate his subsequent influence on the music of England, the Low Countries, and Germany."

tl;dr version: without Byrd there would be no Bach.

I would hesitate to use a term such as "the greatest" (how to compare the era of polyphony with the era of the modern orchestra i.e. Tallis vs Vaughan Williams?) but anyway Byrd's genius is not in doubt.

 

addendum: Glenn Gould's recording of Byrd and Gibbons is one of the few he made where I don't hit the stop button just to escape his squeaking, humming and buzzing. It's not that he isn't bursting with audible lunacy, it's that they managed to make the piano louder than his brain.

p.s. if you have the same trouble then try this: The Glenn Gould De-Vocalizer 2000

http://www.davegrossman.net/gould/

OK, enough with the levity. The Glenn gould CD of Byrd and Gibbons is a special recording of unique performances. I guess I listen to it, and wonder, several times a year. The last time it came to my mind was a litle odd. I was listening to Erik Satie (I think his Gymnopédies and/or Gnossiennes ... not sure) and there seemed something strangely familiar about the incredible space or patience between the notes...it finally dawned on me that it reminded me of Byrd played by Glenn Gould.

 

I wasn't aware that Gould recorded anything like this. I listened to some excerpts on a download site and -- It's not what I expected, but it seems to magnetically pull me in. I like what you say about the space and un-rushed patience exhibited in between the notes.

 

You are a bad person.

 

Perfect Polyphony

This one by Gesualdo is quite nice. I've heard some of the madrigals at various concerts, but I don't think I have any recordings. It is surprising that this is 16th century music isn't it?

Well I can see this will be a thread with many lovely recommendations -- and threatens to a create line item in my monthly budget.

In that spirit, here are a couple of survey discs from the Tallis Scholars that are of interest. Renaissance Radio over at Gimmell Records is described as, "40 radio-friendly recordings specially selected to celebrate The Tallis Scholars 40th Anniversary, presented in a deluxe 2CD set with picture discs, a 24-page booklet and full colour slip case. The Digital album includes a 26-page PDF booklet." The Flac dowload is $10 USD for 47 tracks, 152 minutes. Many nice small gems which will fit right into your "Early Music up Late" program, MoatsArt.

Similar is their Perfect Polyphony disc which visits Josquin, Palestrina, Tallis, Brumel (!), etc. Another Festschrift which covers 59 tracks (156 minutes) for $10 USD. On that one it seems like the Palestrina comes from the early era of CD... and is recorded pretty "hot". Regardless, most of these numbers from their back catalog are direct from Heaven.

 

Oh, right you are. His is one of the many unique minds behind the music of this early era.

Another phenom is certainly Tallis. Before Bach, and specifically before the B Minor Mass, we had Tallis' Spem in Alium. With its forty parts (!), it is the most exquisite clockwork mechanism but Tallis managed to avoid any sense of the mechanical. It is a complicated mechanism, but if anything, it is the mechanism of unlocking which grants access to the door of the heart. Astounding, and in its way, emotionally overwhelming.

Well exactly. Regardless of whether the artist comes to a performance steeped in the refinement of historical research -- or whether they come as did Stokowski to Bach -- it all comes down to how they give forth when the sound emerges.

 

Recently stumbled on the below recording of Matthew Curtis singing Dowland's "Come Again" in four part harmony, with himself! Worth a listen:



On an unrelated topic, any other Pergolesi fans in the thread? I love the Stabat Mater and Salve Regina and have the Decca box set (Rousset) version and BiS disc with the Bach and Vivaldi variations, feat. Emma Kirkby and Daniel Taylor. Any other recordings of these works that you guys highly recommend? I've read good things about Hogwood's and am thinking of picking that up.