Briefly Noted
Around 1510 or 1520, when John Taverner wrote his now-famous parody mass on the popular song "The Westron Wynde," the practice of using a popular melody as the cantus firmus for a Mass settting had yet to gain a real foothold in England, although it was already widespread in continental Europe. This Mass remains one of Taverner's most popular works and a widely acknowledged masterpiece of Tudor choral music, and a new recording of it, however lovely, would hardly be a noteworthy event under normal circumstances. However, Paul Hillier (in his relatively recent role as chief conductor of the excellent vocal ensemble Ars Nova [End Page 923] Copenhagen) has here put together a program centered around the Western Wind Mass that is both aurally ravishing and historically fascinating, and that should find a place in any library with a collecting interest in Renaissance music. To put the piece in historical and stylistic context, Hillier has chosen to intersperse the sections of the Mass with sacred songs of the same period composed by Taverner's contemporaries William Cornysh, John Browne, Christopher Tye, and an obscure composer known only as Sheryngham, along with one anonymous piece. The songs are mostly written in the voice of Jesus, who alternately invites sinners to remember his sacrifice on their behalf and conduct themselves accordingly, or describes that sacrifice and the nature of his suffering, or responds to prayerful supplication. Following the Agnus Dei, the program ends with Tye's softly spectacular In Pace, a Lenten response expressing the simple intention to lie down and go to sleep and also expressing, in an almost incidental manner, praise to the Trinity. In pre-Reformation England, the Kyrie section of the Mass was generally reserved for a plainchant in honor of a specific saint or feast, and therefore not set as part of the Ordinary; thus, Hillier chose Taverner's "Kyrie Leroy" to take its place at the head of the program. The singing is excellent throughout, though there are moments here and there in which the soprano voices may be just a little bit too fulsome or dramatic to some tastes. The recorded sound could hardly be any more beautifully balanced or sweetly glowing. Very highly recommended.
This fascinating collection of sacred choral works from Latin America takes in a variety of styles and periods, including works from the baroque and Renaissance periods along with material as recent as Ariel Ramírez's Misa criolla of 1963. Recorded live in Santa Fe, New Mexico in August of 2005 by a twenty-voice choir that convenes in that city only twice per year, A Celebration of Hispanic Music opens with a lively rendition of the Ramírez piece, complete with accompaniment of percussion, recorder, charango, and harpsichord. The choir as a whole sounds wonderful, but tenor soloist Matthew Tresler is especially impressive on this work. The Mass is followed by two songs from the Valdés Codex, both in honor of the Virgin and both written in the Aztec dialect of Náhuatl by the Spanish composer Hernando Franco; rhythmically lively but traditionally harmonized and structured, these two brief pieces offer a gem-like illustration of the musical confluence between the old and new worlds in the late sixteenth century. Antonio de Salazar was one of many Spaniards who relocated to Mexico in the late seventeenth century and contributed to the development of a rich repertoire of baroque sacred music in the region, and his Egregie Doctor (written in collaboration with his student Manuel de Sumaya) is a gorgeous musical tribute to Saint Paul. The choir's only tenuous moments come during its performance of Allelluia! Dic nobis Maria by the Mexican composer Francisco López Capillas, a lovely piece that is marred somewhat by a slight but noticeable flatness in the high voices. The Latin American...
