Homage To Johannes Ciconia (1370-1412)

Ensemble Project Ars Nova (Artist), John Fleagle (Performer), Johannes Ciconia (Composer), Michael Collver (Performer), Crawford Young (Performer), Laurie Mohahan (Performer), Laurie Monahan (Performer), Steven Lundahl (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: John Fleagle, Michael Collver, Crawford Young, Laurie Mohahan, Laurie Monahan, et al.
• Composer: Johannes Ciconia
• Audio CD (November 18, 2009)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: New Albion Records
• ASIN: B000000R38
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,510 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #10 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Virelais

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perennial Favorite, February 22, 2004

By 

John Bromka (Marcellus, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homage To Johannes Ciconia (1370-1412) (Audio CD)

February 2004: 10 years old and still no Amazon review? Shocking!
I've been listening to this album regularly over these last 10 years, and must say this is one of my favorite recordings of any kind of music, and certainly one of the best recordings of early music ever made.
Ciconia is amazingly weird by any reading, but here with the passionate voices and luminous instruments of PAN, we are treated to the ultimate in otherworldly tranport. The intense polyphony and polyrhythms will split your brain in 3 parts and send eack one packing in a different direction, dancing all the way.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece of early music arrangement and performance, April 1, 2006

By 

Eddie Konczal - See all my reviews

This review is from: Homage To Johannes Ciconia (1370-1412) (Audio CD)

Johannes Ciconia (c. 1370-1412) was a composer with one foot in the late Middle Ages and the other taking a strong step towards the early Renaissance, and as such his music exhibits qualities of both ages. Ciconia is sometimes considered an early Renaissance composer due to the rhythmic complexity of his music and his mastery of the "formes fixes" that dominated Renaissance secular song. However, Ciconia's polyphony lacks the harmonic advances developed by his English contemporaries, and as such, his music often exhibits a medieval flavor. It was not until Guillaume Dufay (c. 1397-1474) united the developments of Ciconia with those of the English composers that the Renaissance style came to full flower.

Project Ars Nova confronts the dichotomy of Ciconia's style head-on, beginning this disc with the Medieval-sounding instrumental "Istampita 'Amor per ti sempre" and following it up with the vocally complex "Cacando un giorno." The rest of the CD weaves through a colourful variety of Ciconia's compositions: motets, balata, rondeaus, virelais and madrigals (not to be confused with the late 16th century variety) are all performed. Highlights include the lovely "O Rosa Bella," the various settings of "Le ray au soleyl," the lush polyphony of "Suse une fontayne," and the virtuosic motets that end the album, "Doctorum principem-Melodia suavissima-Vir mitis" and "O virum omnimoda-O lux et decus-O beate Nicholae."

The performers of the Project Ars Nova, undeterred by the complexity of Ciconia's music, rise to the challenge on every track. The singers deftly navigate the melismas (rapidly running melodies), hockets (melodies in which different vocalists sing alternating notes), and other melodic devices that Ciconia mastered. PAN's instrumental expertise captures the mystique of Ciconia's era; close your eyes and it's easy to imagine you're back in the year 1400. The disc sequencing cleverly balances vocal and instrumental arrangements, offering the listener just enough relief from the florid melodies that sometimes threaten to overwhelm one's ears.

"Homage to Johannes Ciconia" is a masterpiece of early music arrangement and performance, and offers an excellent overview of the career of an often-overlooked composer.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Supreme music!!!, January 25, 2006

By 

Daniel Mantey "Mr.Wabi" (Kyoto, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homage To Johannes Ciconia (1370-1412) (Audio CD)

I agree with the first review. This is perhaps my single favorite CD. I love the music of Ciconia, and PAN knows just how to do it! Some of these pieces and PAN's interpretation will send chills of musical ecstasy up and down your spine! I have been awaiting PAN's vesion of Ciconia's sacred music, as this is just his secular output. PAN, have you done it yet? D.