Josquin des Préz: Missa Pange Lingua [Import]

Josquin des Préz (Artist), James O'Donnell (Artist), Westminster Cathedral Choir (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 12, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Hyperion UK
• ASIN: B000002ZRS
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,547 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Missa Pange Lingua: Kyrie

2. Missa Pange Lingua: Gloria

3. Missa Pange Lingua: Credo

4. Missa Pange Lingua: Sanctus

5. Missa Pange Lingua: Benedictus

6. Missa Pange Lingua: Agnus Dei

7. Planxit Autem David

8. Planxit Autem David: ... Montes Gelboe

9. Planxit Autem David: ... sagitta Jonathae

10. Planxit Autem David: ... Doleo Super te

11. Vultum Tuum: Vulturn tuum (Introit Substitute)

12. Vultum Tuum: Sancta Dei Genetrix (Gloria Substitute)

13. Vultum Tuum: Intemerata Virgo (Credo Substitute)

14. Vultum Tuum: Ave Maria (Offertory Substitute)

15. Vultum Tuum: O Maria (Sanctus Substitute)

16. Vultum Tuum: Tu lumen (Elevation Motet)

17. Vultum Tuum: Mente tota (After Elevation)

18. Vultum Tuum: Christe, Fili Dei (Agnus Dei Substitute)

19. Vultum Tuum: Ora Pro Nobis (Deo Gracias Substitute)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glorious, February 3, 2002

By 

Gracejoy "gracejoy7" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Josquin des Préz: Missa Pange Lingua (Audio CD)

I bought this recording because I am desperately in love with the composer -- Josquin Desprez. For reasons I can't quite explain, his music moves me and inspires me as few other Renaissance composers can. I first became acquainted with him while singing his "Missa de Beata Virgine" with my own university choir a few years back. Since then I have acquired several recordings of his music, all by mixed choirs, and all of which I greatly enjoy. But I thought it would also be nice to hear his music performed by a choir of men and boys, as Josquin originally intended.

I was right; this is an excellent recording, and the Choir of Westminster Cathedral is superb. They are right at home with this music -- the intricate rythms and counterpoints that characterize Josquin's music are executed virtually flawlessly on every occasion. The balance of voices is also very good -- the trebles strong, but not too loud; the gentlemen powerful but not overbearing, including the very fine tenor and bass soloists in the "Benedictus." In addition to the Missa Pange Lingua, Josquin's best-known mass, the recording features over a dozen other Josquin pieces, including the very lovely "Ave Maria," and "Ora Pro Nobis," whose ending is so beautiful I had to close my eyes to soak it in.

There is not much else to say except that if you like Josquin Desprez in particular, Renaissance music in general, and/or Westminster Cathedral Choir, then there is no way this CD could disappoint you. Buy it, sit back, and enjoy.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely first rate, June 25, 2001

By 

jhorro (VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Josquin des Préz: Missa Pange Lingua (Audio CD)

There has been quite a few mixed-choir versions of this music recorded in the intimatacy of smaller churches, but this music really comes to life with trebles and in a cathedral setting. James O'Donnell gives a direct, unembellished view of Missa Pange Lingua. It is easy to take the refinement of the choir for granted, and the recording is up to the standard of other Westminster recordings on Hyperion. For those who want an up-to-date version with trebles, this is the CD to buy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Josquin himself would be stunned, October 28, 2011

By 

Adriano Hundhausen (Brno) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Josquin des Préz: Missa Pange Lingua (Audio CD)

to hear how the Westminster Cathedral Choir, with a gaggle of pre-pubescent boys among its members, has a better feel for this music than any number of "specialist" ensembles. But first a word about the pieces selected for this recording.

All the works on this disk are safely attributed to Josquin, are written for his favorite ATTB disposition of voices, and must be ranked among his very best music. The Missa Pange Lingua, written towards the end of Josquin's life, takes virtually all of its Phrygian-mode melodic material directly from its namesake hymn. And although the mass is organized around imitation between voices, it has none of the recondite canons which characterize some of Josquin's earlier work (e.g. the two "Homme Arme" masses). Instead, here Josquin concentrates on repeating and manipulating his motivic cells, expanding and contracting his phrases, and changing the number of beats between a phrase's appearance in one voice and its imitation in another, all in order to increase the tension leading up to the key points in the work. In one characteristic two-voice example in the Sanctus, Josquin has a thrice-repeated 5-minim motif imitated at a two-minim delay in the lower voice; this "ostinato" then suddenly mutates into a 7-minim motif, which while being imitated in "stretto" after 1 minim in the lower voice, gradually contracts to 6 and then finally back to 5 minims before a cadence puts things back on a normal footing. The incredible thing is how natural this music sounds, even with (or perhaps because of) its complete freedom from the barline. This is the music which made Luther say of Josquin that he was "Master of the notes, which must do as he wills. As for other composers, they must do as the notes will." These techniques make Josquin's music infinitely more exciting than the music of most of his contemporaries; the closest thing to this in more recent tonal music is in some of Brahms' late work, e.g. the 1st movement of the F Minor Clarinet Sonata.

The motet Planxit Autem David is thought to be a work from the middle of Josquin's career (around 1500) and sets David's lament for Saul and Jonathan from II Samuel. Here Josquin mixes imitative and homophonic textures in the service of the tragic text. The result is strange to our modern ears because Josquin has written this lament in F, theoretically in the Lydian mode but with so many B flats that to our ears it sounds for all the world like F major. This was apparently not an atypical "key" for laments in Josquin's time. The cycle Vultum Tuum is thought to be from the early part of Josquin's career, and is comprised of 9 short motets that could be sung to accompany key moments in the celebration of the mass.

Now for the performance. There is ample evidence that in Josquin's lifetime, his music was performed by both small ensembles - probably with one voice taking each part - and by larger choirs on more important occasions. And yet, I have seen at least one reviewer dismiss this recording out of hand simply because it was made by a CHOIR. Let's briefly look at the reasons why it has become so fashionable of late to sing the works of Ockeghem, Josquin, and De La Rue with one voice on each part.

First of all, late medieval sacred polyphony, even when written for 4 parts and not 3,5, or 6 parts (also common arrangements), was normally "scored" for ATTB just like the music on this disk. The only high part was taken by falsettists or boys, the other three parts sitting comfortably within the typical ranges of adult male singers. This creates obvious problems for modern mixed choirs, designed to sing works written for SATB with a more or less equal distance between parts. And second, the works of Josquin and his contemporaries are devilishly difficult to sing in tune without accompaniment. A select group of good professional singers, with one singer on each part, can get this music to sound reasonably well in tune in a reasonably short time, after which they can start to work on their phrasing etc. Multiplying the number of performers on each part, however, exponentially increases the difficulty of achieving good intonation in this repertoire. Even if a choir can get to the point where they are singing this music in tune, they will still have to spend valuable time coordinating their entries and diction before they can start to work on turning the score into music. (One best-selling English mixed choir manages to achieve both good tuning AND precise entries with multiple singers on each part, but are so exhausted by the effort that they then neglect to add phrasing or any other kind of expressive nuance to their readings of these works.) So I can understand why many people will prefer an in-tune, clearly phrased OVPP performance in this repertoire - even if the resulting sound is thin and lacking in contrasts - to an out-of-tune, mushy performance by a choir.

But when a larger choir is really good enough to overcome these handicaps, the results can be ravishing, as they are on this disk by the Westminster Cathedral Choir. For the Missa Pange Lingua, James O'Donnell uses soloists for the intimate duos and trios, and full forces for the grander bits. The half dozen (?) boys who take the superius part here were obviously singing 16th century polyphony before they could walk. Nothing else could possibly explain their perfect intonation, purity of tone, or sensitivity in phrasing. The men are just as good, and I think the result is one of the best disks of late Medieval music ever made. O'Donnell's crack choir and the lush acoustic of Westminster Cathedral allow him to direct the contemplative bits of these pieces at a suitably relaxed pace, and the more exuberant bits - like the Hosanna of the mass - at a suitably energetic pace. There is none of the bumpy, disjointed phrasing typical of some English OVPP groups, and the tone is surprisingly well balanced and clear, with every part audible within the whole. O'Donnell uses all the gradations of force at his disposal, from a pair of soloists to the sound of the full choir, to give the mass distinct contours and to reinforce the characteristic high points of Josquin's polyphony.

This 74-minute-long disk also just happens to be a ridiculous bargain, now that it has been reissued as part of Hyperion's budget "Helios" series of recordings.