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Reviewer: William
J. Gatens
This is the second recording
from the vocal ensemble Contrapunctus of music from the Baldwin Partbooks, a
source now in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. John Baldwin (d 1615)
was a lay clerk at St George’s Chapel, Windsor and later a Gentleman of the
Chapel Royal. He compiled his partbooks from 1575 to 1581. His purpose
appears to have been the preservation of outstanding examples of Latin
church music that had become liturgically obsolete after the English
Reformation. The books contain nearly 170 works from a broad chronological
swath of English composition from the generation of Robert Fayrfax
(1464-1521) to living composers like William Byrd. Some of the pieces are
pieces that survive in no other sources. That is the case with the Tallis
Magnificat here.
The plan for the series is for
each disc to contain music on a specific devotional theme, the compositions
representing the chronological range of Baldwin’s collection. The first
volume, “In the Midst of Life” (Signum 408; J/A 2015) was on the subject of
death. The present recording is on Marian devotion. There was an
exceptionally rich tradition of such devotion in England before the
Reformation. Composers produced lengthy and elaborate settings of votive
antiphons like Tallis’s ‘Gaude Gloriosa’ and ‘Ave Dei Patris Filia’ by
Fayrfax. Large-scale office responsories like Tallis’s ‘Videte Miraculum’
and ‘Verbum Caro’ by John Sheppard were another important genre. Several
shorter but no less glorious pieces are included here.
I was highly impressed with
the first recording in the series, and this new one maintains the high
standard. The sound is sumptuous but clear. The vocal blend and ensemble
precision are outstanding, and director Owen Rees delivers performances that
convey a keen sense of forward movement and coherence. Owen Rees is director
of music at The Queen’s College, Oxford. The ensemble Contrapunctus was
founded in 2010 particularly for the study and performance of polyphony. 12
singers are listed, but they do not all sing in every selection. | |
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