Customer Reviews

Josquin des Prés: Missa Pange Lingua; Missa La Sol Fa Re Mi

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Usually only a connosieur would buy an album such as this. The fact is that in today's world of singing renaissance music, it just doesn't get any better than the Tallis Scholars. An album to the greatest composer of the 15th century, Josquin Des Pres by them has to be definitive singing of this rich polyphonic music. This is not the usual mood-based rehash of medieval music as is sung by solo women's voices. However beautiful this is, despite the claim that it was sung in 'nunneries' which no one but other nuns would have heard, sacred medeival and renaissance music was mostly intended to be sung by men as boys, countertenors, tenors and basses. Hildegarde and Anonymous Four set the stage for many copycat women's ensembles to do similar music. However, the Tallis Scholars have women who sing with pure sound with a minimum of vibrato - anathema to this kind of music. Intonation is impeccable as one would expect. But the added thing is that Peter Phillips knows this music so well, he is able to add personal interpretative touches that gives their performance unique character and distinction. With Josquin, one is bathed in polyphony with gorgeious melifluous lines come at one from all sides. Yet, for those who are discerning and after repeated hearing, his music has a rhythmic and harmonic 'earthiness'. Josquin set the standard for over 150 years of music making after him.
Peter Philips and the Tallis Scholars set the contemporary standard for how this music should be performed and sung.

I would love to hear them do an album of Josquin's rowdy, and sometimes near-bawdy secular music.

--Josquin des Prez--
Josquin des Prez was one of the greatest Dutch composers. Born about 1450, he worked through much of his career in church positions. A student of Johan Ockeghem, a Flemish contrapuntist, he developed this considerably during his career. A singer in papal choirs under two popes, Josquin also spent time in Florence and Burgundy. One of his star pupils wrote a book of music methodology in which Josquin is described as 'princeps musicorum'. Josquin's contrapuntal style differs from straight polyphony in points of emphasis, but were universally admired in his time, and continue to be used in churches to this day. Josquin died in 1521

--Plainchant--
Plainchant is basically another word for chant of Gregorian or other styles, being monophonic and in free rhythm. The particular piece here, Pange lingua, was originally a hymn for the feast of Corpus Christi. The first track on this CD presents the plainchant version without embellishment; perhaps as one would have originally heard it in a medieval monastery.

--Missa Pange lingua--
This mass, set for four voices, was possibly Josquin's last mass setting of his long career. Likely dating as late as 1520 (it wasn't published until 1539), it is a mature piece, no longer chasing after musical puzzles to be solved, but rather free and flowing in form. Gustave Reese (quoted in the liner notes) describes it as a 'fantasy on a plainsong.' Soprano is highly used in this mass.

--Missa La sol fa re mi--
This mass is an earlier one, published in 1502, and sets the task of setting a mass based on medieval scales (think here 'Sound of Music' and the do-re-mi) - the pattern of five notes, A-G-F-D-E is evident throughout the parts of the mass, particularly in the tenor. This is a technical and sophisticated masterpiece.

All of these pieces are wonderfully performed, and taken together, they make a wonderful snapshot of Roman Catholic/high Anglican sensibility from the time of triumphant church, just before the Reformation (but still influencing high-church worship and music to this day). They also serve to show a wonderful history of development from the simple to the complex, and the virtues of the music at both stages.

--Liner Notes--
Being internationally acclaimed, the Tallis Scholars' CDs typically present their commentary and texts in English, French, German and Italian; that is true of this disc, which unfortunately does not contain the text of the mass or the plainchant Pange lingua. The cover art also typically represents visual arts contemporary with the compositions - here it is The Deposition, painted circa 1510 - 1515, a piece by Gerard David, who was an historical contemporary of Josquin des Prez. One drawback is that there is little information on the Tallis Scholars or Peter Phillips in the booklet.

--The Tallis Scholars--
The Tallis Scholars, a favourite group of mine since the first time I heard them decades ago, are a group dedicated to the performance and preservation of the best of this type of music. A choral group of exceptional ability, I have been privileged to see them many times in public, and at almost every performance, their singing seems almost like a spiritual epiphany for me, one that defies explanation in words. Directed by Peter Phillips, the group consists of a small number of male and female singers who have trained themselves well to their task.

Their recordings are of a consistent quality that deserve more than five stars; this particular disc of pieces of plainchant and Josquin des Prez deserves a place of honour in the collection of anyone who loves choral music, liturgical music or Gregorian chant, classical music generally, or religious music. This particular recording was made at Merton College, Oxford, in 1986.

Josquin lived nearly a century before Palestrina and Lassus. He is thought to have spent some time in Italy and thus to have contributed to the Flemish influence on Italian polyphony, in which matter he was followed by Lassus himself. These two masses are widely separated by date, and is easy to discern a development in his style from the sectional structure of the Missa La sol fa re mi to the more continuous manner of the Missa Pange Lingua. The stylistic feature of antiphonal responses between the parts is one in which he was conspicuously followed by Lassus and much less by Palestrina, and may be a distinctively Flemish characteristic.

There are three works on this disc, and there is a separate style of recording for each. We are evidently dealing with a very clever recording consultant here. The plainsong Pange Lingua, one of the most marvellous of the plainchants, is given an echoing acoustic suggestive of the standard image of hooded monks as one might encounter that in, say, a Vincent Price film. I buy the effect wholeheartedly, except to say that it certainly does not recall to me the acoustic of the impressive but hardly monastic chapel of Merton College Oxford. Meretricious or not, the effect has at least one out-and-out admirer, and my pleasure was further enhanced on hearing the last two stanzas, the dreaded Tantum Ergo of so many excruciating Victorian settings, sung to its great original melody.

The Missa La sol fa re mi, (the notes A,G,F,D,E in modern parlance and cantance) seems to be regarded as a triumph here by commentators in general. Whether this short canto fermo originated in a parody of the phrase `Lascia faremi' or `Be missing', supposedly associated with some unknown but clearly important personage, is not established. The singing and mastery of style that we have come to associate with so many Oxford and Cambridge groups in recent years are here blessed with a recorded sound that is a masterpiece of clarity and natural resonance. Something changes for the Missa Pange Lingua. I cannot myself perceive here any unsuitable affinity with the style of Palestrina. The vocal line itself is most un-Palestrina-like, and the rendition has a slightly nervy alertness that would not suit Palestrina to my ears. What is conspicuously different is the recorded sound, this time more constricted and slightly more distant. If this was a misjudgment, it was at least a misjudgment in the right direction, as the style of this Mass is less `winning' than that of the other, and more austere. I am reluctant to be judgmental about this, given the obvious virtuosity of the recording engineer. Whether I like the different effect or not, I can't suspect it was unintentional.

A notable issue one way or the other, and heartily recommended.

Josquin's musical legacy is one of extremes. Most lay people have never heard of him -- many musicologists consider him the greatest composer of all time. To be honest, I have not studied his music enough to agree wholeheartedly with the latter viewpoint, however, this beautifully performed and recorded CD shows how there may be a strong case for his claim to genius. The two works featured cover the span of his writing. Pange lingua was published in 1539 and Missa La sol fa re mi in 1502. Pange lingua shows his penchant for expressive variety, and La sol fa re mi his inventiveness at writing an entire mass retaining the statement of five notes throughout.

This recording is truly outstanding in every sense of the word. Without any doubt, Josquin Desprez is the greatest composer of the Renaissance. He is also one of the greatest composers - and artists - of all time. The Tallis Scholars treat his masses with uncompromising clarity and simplicity (see also their equally excellent rendition of Josquin's two L'homme arme masses at the Gimell label). Every voice is harmoniously integrated. Every word is infused with passion. Emphasis, tempo and polyphonic contrast is perfect. As far as I am able to judge, the engineering is appropriate and flawless for both the Pange lingua and the La Sol Fa Re Mi masses.

Missa La Sol Fa Re Mi is a work distinguished by its self-reflective mysticism and almost unbelievable economy of expression. The logical progression of its cyclical form is simply one of the greatest achievements of polyphony and "symphonic" integration (long before the symphonic form was even invented!). Everyone who praises Bach as the "greatest polyphonist" ought to listen to Josquin, as sung by the Tallis Scholars, the King's Singers, or Voices of Ascension. Where Bach sometimes becomes "heavy" and "roundabout", Josquin's polyphony always remains fresh and alive. Internal tensions in Josquin's music are always balaced by visions of heavenly harmony. I find his works constantly energizing, healing and inspiring. They are also a stimulant of the higher order for the analytical mind; this is the very consummation of polyphony itself.

If you are new to Renaissance music, or to Josquin, this is the place to start. Music is unlikely to reach greater heights.

If you already love Josquin, or Renaissance music, this is a recording you just can't be without.

I would finally like to recommend a less known recording of the same composer: "Renaissance: Josquin Desprez" by the King's Singers (RCA Victor Red Seal). The motet "O virgo virginum" and the famous "Pater noster/Ave Maria" are here rendered with exceptional beauty and fire.

I own an extensive library of Sacred chant and choral music, this Cd is at the top of my collection. The performance and recording quality are superior to any of the other 5 Josquin cds I own. This is the Josquin cd to own pure and simple. Having studied classical music I can honestly say this is an amazing piece of work and truely Divine in it's nature....

Four beautiful flowers in a vase are often more impressive than a single beautiful flower. But one beautiful voice is always more beautiful than any multiple number of beautiful voices bundled together on a single line of music. What room does that leave for choirs? Almost none, to my ears, when it comes to professional performance and recording of Renaissance polyphony. Choirs exist for situations where grand effects of volume are needed and/or truly beautiful professional voices are not available.

So the first problem with the Tallis Scholars is that there are too many of them. On this CD, in fact, there are only two voices on a part most of the time, but the effect is still more 'committee' than ensemble. The problem is compounded and multiplied by Peter Phillips's awful decision to transpose the Missa Pange Lingua several steps higher to accomodate his female sopranos, and that problem in turn is compounded and amplified by the disparity of vocal timbre between men's and women's voices which frequently mars the music of the Tallis Scholars. There's a second problem which is that the conducting of Peter Phillips is often sluggish in rhythm and tempo, and his 'prolations' are never, never crisp and exciting. It was an aesthetic mistake, to my ears, to transpose this mass up, as Phillips has done. The result sound thin, despite the size of the ensemble, and there are times when the male altos are taxed by the higher passages.

If you want to hear Josquin sung really well, listen to any of the three CDs of his masses sung by the Clerks' Group. If you want specifically to hear the Missa Pange Lingua sung well, the only choice is the recording by the Ensemble Clement Janequin, with the voices of Dominique Visse, Michel Laplenie, Philippe canto, and Antoine Sicot. On that CD, the appropriate liturgical plainchant is also sung, by different voices, those of Ensemble Organum directed by Marcel Peres.

My three-star rating applies ONLY to the performance by the Tallis Scholars. The masses of Josquin Desprez are treasures comparable to the frescos of the Sistine Chapel or the tragedies of Shakespeare.

This is one of the most renowned recordings of renaissance sacred music ever made. It is famous for a reason. Josquin was a genius, and the Tallis Scholars impeccable intonation and crystalline lines do this, one of his greatest masses, full justice. Highly recommended.

There are 11 not 10 tracks on this recording, the listings are as follows:

Track 1: Pange lingua
Track 2: Missa Pange lingua: Kyrie
Track 3: Missa Pange lingua: Gloria
Track 4: Missa Pange lingua: Credo
Track 5: Missa Pange lingua: Sanctus & Benedictus
Track 6: Missa Pange lingua: Agnus Dei I, II & III
Track 7: Missa la Sol fa re me: Kyrie
Track 8: Missa la Sol fa re me: Gloria
Track 9: Missa la Sol fa re me: Credo
Track 10: Missa la Sol fa re me: Sanctus & Benedictus
Track 11: Missa la Sol fa re me: Agnus Dei I, II & III