Dunstable: Sweet Harmony - Masses and Motets

Dunstable: Sweet Harmony - Masses and Motets

Dunstable: Sweet Harmony - Masses and Motets
List Price: $8.99
Our Price: $4.65
You Save: $4.34 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.64 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Listen soundtracks from this album



(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

Music CD Cover

Composer: John Dunstable
Conductor: Antony Pitts
Performer: Tonus Peregrinus
Performer: Joanna Forbes
Performer: Rebecca Hickey
Edition: Music CD
Audio: German (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2005-10-18
Music Label: Naxos
Soundtracks:
  1. Quam Pulchra Es
  2. Kyrie
  3. Gloria A 4
  4. Credo A 4
  5. Gloria: Jesu Christe Fili Dei
  6. Credo: Jesu Christe Fili Dei
  7. Sanctus
  8. Credo: Da Gaudiorum Premia
  9. Sanctus: Da Gaudiorum Premia
  10. Agnus Dei
  11. Veni Sancte Spiritus-Veni Creator
  12. Gloria In Canon

Free Music Notes for Dunstable: Sweet Harmony - Masses and Motets

Free Music Review: THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD
Hit: 5 Stars

Goodness me, how many superlative groups of ancient music specialists can there be? Here is yet another, predictably brought to us by Naxos. There are 8 singers directed by Anthony Pitts, and the group photograph also shows us Jeremy Summerly himself in a daft-looking hat as producer, and also, most properly, the engineer Geoff Miles whose work I would call absolutely outstanding.

England was not always `the land without music'. In particular, it seems that a sudden and spectacular leap in musical development occurred precisely there in the early 15th century, and, if we are to believe the musical historian of the time Tinctoris (cited by Pitts in his liner-note), the main driving-force behind this revolution was John Dunstable, whose innovations were picked up promptly by his contemporary Dufay and thereafter by Europe in general. My own knowledge of this period is deplorably patchy, but it is quite clear that by the 12th century the ecclesiastical tradition of monodic plainsong, believed to date from the 8th century, had not changed much, even at the hands of the frumious Hildegard of Bingen. There was a parallel secular tradition, probably more than one, but if the music of the troubadours during this same period is anything to go by it had primitive instrumental accompaniment for the voices, but nothing by way of genuine `harmony' much less polyphony or counterpoint.

Enter the English, Dunstable in the lead. Not a lot seems to be known about him except that he appears to have been associated with St Albans in Hertfordshire, where his name survives in the name of a town not far away, as does that of the author of Dunstable's epitaph and Abbot of St Albans Abbey John Wheathampstead. All this information is conveyed with admirable brevity in Pitts's notes, and I take it on faith entirely. Faith of another kind shows through his phraseology here and there, as in his dedication of the recording to `a God-fearing man' (not the kind of terminology one encounters much in England these days) and in his sniffy comment in his resume that he left the BBC in protest over its screening of `a blasphemous musical'. I would only remark that the BBC never actually broadcast anything by such a description, nor did the public in general realise that they were listening to such. At the musical level by and large the liner-note is awesomely learned but slightly heavy going. It is worth absorbing slowly, but the most significant thing it says is really its naïve proclamation of how marvellous the music is. This is the dawn of the elaborate harmonisation that makes European music, so far as I know, unique, and the thrill and sense of awe that go with that are enormous for one kind of listener at least.

If I understand Pitts aright, the various sections of the mass here - including 2 glorias, 3 credos and 2 settings of the sanctus - don't incorporate one specific `mass' although they approximately follow the order of the parts normally set to music: indeed if there were a single coherent mass in it what would be the point of such duplications? The way they have sequenced it all is appropriate to isolated settings, sensibly programmed so as to avoid having the same text in successive tracks. The recital starts with one motet and ends with another, followed by a gloria that `we' have completed from the restored but deficient MS. `We' have done just brilliantly if I may say so - this is what music-making is all about, but it needs the right level of talent. The performing artists consist of 2 sopranos, 1 female and 1 male alto, 3 tenors and a single bass. I have to take the historical authenticity of this, just as I have to take the tempi adopted, on faith once again. I believe the phrase is `It works for me'. What is beyond much question is the sheer quality of the singing, and what I want to sing my own praises of is the recording, which has a perfect sense of spaciousness together with perfect clarity.

I hope I will be believed when I say that I have no link of any kind with Naxos. I collect their discs because of what these are and because of what my tastes and standards in good music are. This particular disc is from this very year 2005, and the recording was done in Chancelade Abbey in the Dordogne. Over and above the learned inputs of Mr Pitts we are given brief resumes of all the performers, and all texts are provided with English translations. These latter are a great deal better than many I have seen in the last year or two. My suspicions having relaxed, I have been less hawk-eyed than sometimes, and I don't believe that there are any serious misrenderings. In the Veni Creator if the text is right at lines 11-12 the meaning must be `Thou duly enriching our mouths with the promised utterance of the Father'; 4 lines later `perpetim' is a simple misprint for `perpeti', but as usual the translator thinks `perpeti' is some kind of adjective. It is a prolative infinitive, and lines 15-16 therefore mean `Strengthening what in our bodies is weak so as to be steadfast through virtue'.

Go forth in droves at the Christmas season and acquire this disc.

Classical Music CDs

Music Genres
Top music charts in Classical Music CDs
Winterscapes ImageWinterscapes
by London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Queen, the Bear, and the Bumblebee ImageThe Queen, the Bear, and the Bumblebee
by Dini Petty
Childrens Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.40
Price in other shops: $20.98
Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr ImageClassical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr
Release date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $25.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos)) ImageTchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))
by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] ImageJose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]
Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.87
Price in other shops: $9.99
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] ImageTchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.94
Price in other shops: $29.95
Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] ImageRambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops: $29.95
Winter Music: Composing the North ImageWinter Music: Composing the North
by John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.62
Price in other shops: $25.95
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] ImagePuccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops: $29.95
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] ImageVerdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: $29.95
Top Rated Albums
Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli, Missa Aeterna ImagePalestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli, Missa Aeterna
Release date: 1994-02-15; Music CD
Best price: $4.60
Price in other shops: $8.99
Leonin, Perotin: Sacred Music from Notre-Dame Cathedral ImageLeonin, Perotin: Sacred Music from Notre-Dame Cathedral
Release date: 2005-07-19; Music CD
Best price: $4.65
Price in other shops: $8.99
Nicolas Gombert: Magnificat I; Salve Regina; Credo; Tulerunt Dominum ImageNicolas Gombert: Magnificat I; Salve Regina; Credo; Tulerunt Dominum
Release date: 2006-01-17; Music CD
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops: $8.99
Byrd: Mass for Four Voices; Mass for Five Voices; Infelix ego ImageByrd: Mass for Four Voices; Mass for Five Voices; Infelix ego
Release date: 1994-02-15; Music CD
Best price: $5.85
Price in other shops: $8.99
Willaert: Missa Christus Resurgens, Magnificat Sexti Toni, etc / Summerly, Oxford Camerata ImageJeremy Summerly, Oxford Camerata - Willaert: Missa Christus Resurgens, Magnificat Sexti Toni, etc / Summerly, Oxford Camerata
Release date: 1999-01-19; Music CD
Best price: $4.65
Price in other shops: $8.99
Josquin Desprez: Motets & Chansons ImageJosquin Desprez: Motets & Chansons
Release date: 1997-01-21; Music CD
Best price: $6.37
Price in other shops: $10.98
Obrecht: Missa Caput; Salve Regina ImageObrecht: Missa Caput; Salve Regina
Release date: 1998-06-02; Music CD
Best price: $5.89
Price in other shops: $8.99
Dufay: Missa L'homme armé; Supremum est mortalibus bonum ImageDufay: Missa L'homme armé; Supremum est mortalibus bonum
Release date: 1995-06-27; Music CD
Best price: $4.65
Price in other shops: $8.99
Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame; Songs from Le Voir Dit ImageMachaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame; Songs from Le Voir Dit
Release date: 1996-12-17; Music CD
Best price: $5.62
Price in other shops: $8.99
Perotin ImagePerotin
HILLIARD ENSEMBLE; Release date: 2000-04-18; Music CD
Best price: $9.14
Price in other shops: $17.98
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles