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Reviewer: J.
F. Weber Peter Phillips is not wasting any time on his way to the first complete set of the Masses of Josquin des Prez. This is the sixth CD of the series, each disc offering a pair of Masses, and it is one of the more interesting new issues that have appeared. The Missa Di dadi has already been recorded three times, but the first version by the Davies brothers (Fanfare 8:6, later on CD) used adult male voices in contrast to the mixed voices of the Tallis Scholars. René Clemencic used boys, men, and instruments, while Maurice Bourbon’s version is on an obscure label. difficult to find, and I have not heard it. Phillips has focused attention in his notes and cover art on the original manuscript, where the tenor voice is preceded by a pair of dice, each movement showing different faces (the Kyrie I is shown with a 2 and a 1). He notes that gambling was popular in Milan of the Sforzas, where the composer was active in the 1480s. Its cantus firmus is the Robert Morton song N’aray je jamais mieulx, one entry in Morton’s three-song discography. Among four possibilities, this is the obvious choice for this Mass, for the performance brings out the best aspects of the music. The other Mass has been recorded only once, by Harold Brown with the Renaissance Chorus of New York, issued in mono in 1959. It was better than most Josquin recordings of the time, but it was never widely available. Oddly, the notes stated that only one Josquin Mass had been recorded, though I have found six earlier recordings of Josquin’s Masses, three in the Schwann catalog already, the rest mostly obscure. Brown, using a large unaccompanied chorus of high school and college students, produced a smoothly flowing and vigorous performance that was within a minute of Phillips’s timing. It sounds nothing like Phillips’s two voices to a part, which will be the first opportunity most have ever had to hear the work on record. Its cantus firmus is a Basque/French song The Maid from Biscay. Phillips states that the authorship of both Masses has been questioned. In favor of the authenticity of both are the old Werken (1921) and the New Josquin Edition, as well as Helmuth Osthoff in his two-volume biography of 1965 and Jeremy Noble in The New Grove; against is David Fallows in the most recent large-scale book on the composer, Josquin (Brepols, 2009), which takes a reductionist approach to the list of works, pushing against the authenticity of either. Phillips, however, believes in their worth, for the quality of these performances supports such a view and his singers bring out the contrapuntal lines exquisitely. It is precisely such performances as these that allow scholars to hear how well the Masses sound. Andrew Kirkman once put together a disc titled Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries to compare both authentic and questionable works with a lesser contemporary such as Nicolaes Craen (25:4). If Phillips gives us the remaining eight Masses, both authentic and not, everyone can judge fairly their merits.
For the
first time in this Josquin series, Gimell has given us 34 tracks rather than
just one for each movement. The edition of Missa Di dadi was prepared for
Gimell, while the other Mass is sung from the New Josquin Edition. This
ongoing series of recordings cannot be underestimated; the anniversary year
of 2021 is too long to wait for its completion. Adding this to your
collection along with the earlier issues is the best way to ensure the
desired result. | ||||
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