Guillaume De Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Although Machaut's oft-recorded Mass is probably the best known work of medieval music, Marcel Pérès and his Ensemble Organum make you literally hear it for the first time. For starters, the movements are performed in a liturgical context, with appropriate plainsong insertions. The vocal lines, in turn, are ornamented with boisterous scoops, Bob Dylan-like slides, and decorations that will sound strange to modern ears. Yet the ornaments illuminate the work's celebratory aspects, and brings Machaut's quirky imagination into firmer focus than more conservative recordings. Pérès is to Machaut as Schnabel was to Beethoven. --Jed Distler

Amazon.com
Machaut's mass is one of the great masterpieces of the Middle Ages. Machaut was a man of many talents whose music represents a point of momentous transition from medieval practice to the emerging Renaissance. This four-voice work, the earliest of its kind by a known composer, is difficult to perform, not because of the notes, but because of questions concerning interpretation of the notation. You'll notice striking differences between Ensemble Organum's performance and every other available... read more

Guillaume De Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame

Guillaume De Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame, Music, Gregorian Chant, Guillaume de Machaut, Plainchant, Malcolm Bothwell, Jean-Etienne Langianni, Marcel Peres, Antoine Sicot, Jerome Casalonga, Ensemble Organum, Chant, Choral, Choral Music, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Mass, Western European Chant

Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame / The Hilliard Ensemble
Average customer rating:

Ethereal

A fine CD, but...

The World of Machaut

Excellent Recording

Outstanding!

Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame / The Hilliard Ensemble
Guillaume de Machaut , The Hilliard Ensemble , Paul Hillier , Michael George , Rogers Covey-Crump , David James , Cecile Kelly , Leigh Nixon , Mark Padmore , Edward Perry , and John Potter
Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by Machaut | Machaut, Guillaume de | ( M ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
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General | Early Music | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Hilliard Ensemble | ( H ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
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General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000002ZM7
Release Date: 1993-11-16

Tracks:

Messe de Notre Dame: Kyrie
Messe de Notre Dame: Gloria
Messe de Notre Dame: Credo
Messe de Notre Dame: Sanctus And Benedictus
Messe de Notre Dame: Agnus Dei
Messe de Notre Dame: Ite Missa est
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: Je ne cesse de prier...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: Et ou porroit on querir...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: C'est celle qui par ordonnance...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: Ces trois un a po de peinne....
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: Et qui de ceste eaue prendroit...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: Mais ceste trinite...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: De la duis le Pere nomme...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: Et pour ce di que cil troy...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: Pour ce te pri...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: Mais de tel confort...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: He! fonteinne de concorde...
Le Lai de la Fonteinne: Pour laver et nettoier...
Ma fin est mon commencement: Rondeau

Amazon.com

Hearing or performing music comes closest in the range of human activity to a visceral connection to the past. As long as we have notation and knowledge of how to interpret it, we can effectively experience something like our ancestors did when they sang the same music. Of course, our 20th-century sensibilities and knowledge--or lack thereof--prevent us from sharing identical responses, but as with the music on this disc, when we hear it we are in some way transported to another place. We know a completely different sound world from our own; we know that the accepted order of certain things was different. And we also know that in many ways people haven't changed. Machaut's music conveys a spirituality--both joyful and contemplative--that's as true in its impact as it must have been 600 years ago, a point made ever so clearly by these especially vibrant and vital performances. --David Vernier

Customer Reviews:

Ethereal.......2006-03-02

Whether a devotee of early music and polyphony or just someone looking for beautiful relaxing music, it would be hard to go wrong with any recording of the Hilliard Ensemble. This is one of their finest. Machaut was a defining voice of late medieval music and is here afforded a quietly joyous treatment by a world class group. The Hilliards are apparently named after Nicolas Hilliard, an Elizabethean court painter noted for his beautiful small portraits, and thus are aptly called as their performances too are exquisite miniatures.

A fine CD, but..........2002-01-06

I heard a live performance (on NPR) of the music of this CD, and then bought the CD. I was a little bit disappointed, but not much. I treasure this CD of the first great polyphonic mass in the history of music. It's just that the virtuosic angular ornamentation in the CD was even more angular and virtuosic in the live performance. So I know that this music could be done just a bit better by this ensemble than this CD shows. But it's still a fine CD, containing a convincing performance of music that has far more than simply historic interest.

The World of Machaut.......2001-08-30

The Mediaeval Frenchman Guillaume de Machaut is one of those composers who shaped the course of musical history most significantly. He wrote some of the earliest known polyphonic pieces of vocal music, as well as writing astonishing poetry for his own semi-sacred songs or 'lais.' On this disc, the Hilliard Ensemble present three of his most representative works, all well worth exploring.
The "Messe de Nostre Dame" (not specifically written for performance in the Paris Cathedral of that name) is a stunning piece with which to open the programme. The impeccably clear-toned voices of the Hilliards etch out Machaut's austere lines with blazing intensity, revelling in the strangely dissonant cadences and dexterous interplay of parts that are the hallmarks of his polyphony. The performers use a quaint form of pronunciation for the Latin, one that (supposedly) re-creates the Mediaeval French flavour with which the listeners of seven centuries ago would have been familiar. This work alone is worth the price of the disc: it makes for rewarding and memorable listening.
The "Lai de la Fonteine" is a simpler work, yet strangely harder to grasp on first hearing. Machaut sets his own text here: a complicated and extensive hymn in praise of the Virgin Mary, using endless metaphors and subtle imagery to create an advanced form of poetry around which music is woven. The music itself is quite simple, doing seemingly little more than to carry the poetry for the listener: much of it is monophonic, with verses being shared amongst three singers who come together for polyphonic sections every so often. The work is best heard complete; much is lost in sampling it although the tracks are conveniently divided to give the listener a choice in the matter. Machaut was clearly a mysterious person - religious yet close to the secular; it shows through in such works as this 'lai.'
The disc closes with a final example of rich-blooded polyphony, again using just three voices, and moreover a sample of Machaut's extraordinary genius. "Ma fin est mon commencement" sets a poem that is crafted as a sort of palindrome (indeed, the second phrase is "et mon commencement est ma fin" - "My end is my beginning and my beginning is my end"). The music is equally well crafted to counterpart the words - three voices, winding their way through repetitive and yet fluid lines as if through some sort of musical jigsaw puzzle. It is a delightful end to a wonderful programme. If you're looking for a sample of Machaut but can only afford one disc, then this has to be the one. Mediaeval music is rarely so well displayed as it is here!

Excellent Recording.......2000-06-21

The Hilliard Ensemble provide an excellent performance of these works, as is typical of their craft. The Notre Dame Mass is really one of the 'standards' of 'early music,' and should not be missed. This is a definitive recording of the work. Don't look any further.

Outstanding!.......1999-03-24

On this recording, I most enjoyed Le Lai de la Fonteinne and the rondeau Ma Fin Est Mon Commencement. The Messe, while impeccable, was a bit too esoteric for me. But the other two pieces, which sounded somewhat akin to Machaut's secular compositions in rhythmic and melodic structure, were compatible even with tastes as unsophisticated as mine. By the way, an excellent collection of Machaut's courtly music was recorded by David Munrow, that's how I know what it sounded like. The Hilliard's performance, as usual, is flawless. I love their ethereal voices - so light, so clear, and yet so exact in focus and projection! Each voice sounds somewhat standardized (of all the people that ever sang with the Hilliard, I can readily recognize only David James and Mark Padmore), but at this level of accomplishment uniformity is good. Definitely buy this, it is one of the best Hilliard recordings. But the very best Hilliard recording (in my amateur view anyway, although at least one of the Gramophone editors seems to agree) is Dunstable Motets (reissued on Virgin Veritas). David James sounds like no countertenor ever sounded before or after, including himself. Paul Elliott outdoes himself. Listening to him sing Agnus Dei practically makes one feel for the moment that he outdoes not just himself but every other male vocalist on the British Isles. That is the recording you don't want to miss! Believe me, you'll forget to breathe when you hear it. Of the secular things with some of the Hilliard members don't miss John Gay The Beggar's Opera (w/Paul Elliott) and Charpentier Medee (w/Mark Padmore).

Messe de Notre Dame (Guillaume de Machaut)/ Ensemble Organum (Marcel Peres)

Average customer rating:

No, friends, it isn't plausible.
Transcendent
The no-nonsense approach we've been waiting for
Machaut's wild ride to heaven
The Missing Link Between Paris and Tunis!

Messe de Notre Dame (Guillaume de Machaut)/ Ensemble Organum (Marcel Peres)
Guillaume de Machaut , Plainchant , Malcolm Bothwell , Jean-Etienne Langianni , Marcel Peres , Antoine Sicot , Jerome Casalonga , and Ensemble Organum
Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Chants | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B0000007AY
Release Date: 1997-01-10

Tracks:

Guillaume de Machaut: Introit: Suscepimus Deus misericordiam tuam
Guillaume de Machaut: Kyrie
Guillaume de Machaut: Gloria
Guillaume de Machaut: Graduel: Suscepimus Deus misericordiam tuam
Guillaume de Machaut: Alleluia: Adorabo ad templum sanctum
Guillaume de Machaut: Credo
Guillaume de Machaut: Offertorium: Diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis
Guillaume de Machaut: Preface: Vere dignum et justum est
Guillaume de Machaut: Sanctus
Guillaume de Machaut: Agnus Dei
Guillaume de Machaut: Communion: Responsum accepit Symeon
Guillaume de Machaut: Ite Missa est - Deo gratias

Amazon.com

Although Machaut's oft-recorded Mass is probably the best known work of medieval music, Marcel Pérès and his Ensemble Organum make you literally hear it for the first time. For starters, the movements are performed in a liturgical context, with appropriate plainsong insertions. The vocal lines, in turn, are ornamented with boisterous scoops, Bob Dylan-like slides, and decorations that will sound strange to modern ears. Yet the ornaments illuminate the work's celebratory aspects, and brings Machaut's quirky imagination into firmer focus than more conservative recordings. Pérès is to Machaut as Schnabel was to Beethoven. --Jed Distler

Amazon.com

Machaut's mass is one of the great masterpieces of the Middle Ages. Machaut was a man of many talents whose music represents a point of momentous transition from medieval practice to the emerging Renaissance. This four-voice work, the earliest of its kind by a known composer, is difficult to perform, not because of the notes, but because of questions concerning interpretation of the notation. You'll notice striking differences between Ensemble Organum's performance and every other available version. This group, known for its meticulous scholarship and performance perfectionism, sings in a style that sacrifices modern ideas about vocal purity and beauty in favor of what they believe to be a more authentic 14th-century style. This involves lots of micro-tonal slides and numerous fluttering, nervous ornaments, often done by more than one voice at a time, and a sort of "pushed" vocal quality that some listeners may find strange. Strange, maybe, but it's unique and it's convincing. --David Vernier

Customer Reviews:

No, friends, it isn't plausible........2007-05-01

The long review by Christopher Forbes above makes a very good case for taking this performance at face value in terms of scholarship, but certain facts are asserted as proven that are in fact quite in question. The influence of North African (Islamic? Arabic? Moorish?) music on Medieval Europe, for instance. Most people who argue this case seem to me to project modern Arabic music backwards 1200 years in time and assume that it sounded much the same; really we have no idea how it sounded. The North African origin of the bowed string instruments that became the vielle, viol, and violin is also very uncertain; much has been made of peg-boxes versus peg-disks, and as good a case can be made for a Nordic ancestry of the vielle as for a Moorish.
But big problem, however, with Ensemble Organum's hyper-ornamentation is that it makes no sense in terms of the developments of ars nova notation and contemporary treatments (in words and notes) of prolation. How could you get from Machaut a la Peres to Ars Subtilior composers like Ciconia, let alone Dufay and Ockeghem? And are we to believe that France was more Islamicized than Italy, half of which had been under North African rule for centuries before the Normans? Why would the trecento Italian composers like Landini be so obviously on a different course?
Okay, forgetting my musicological doubts, I have to say I find this version of Machaut less interesting than some other reviewers, and less listenable than the Hilliard's or other performances. There are bits I like and bits I loathe, but on the whole I sense some compulsion to "get spiritual" with the music, as if it weren't deep enough on its own terms. I have thoroughly enjoyed and respected other recordings by Marcel Peres -- the Josquin Pange Lingua, for example, and the Chantilly Codex CD -- but this Nostre Dame, judged just as music, is not to my taste.

Transcendent.......2005-11-29

Forget all the talk about historical accuracy, and interpretation. The real object of a performance is to get at something beyond the music, and without a doubt, Marcel Peres and Ensemble Organum take you there. This disk was a revelation. A truly transporting experience.

The no-nonsense approach we've been waiting for.......2005-10-26

Does anyone else get it besides them? If Ensemble Organum are as correct as they are believable, Guillaume de Machaut was a composer of energetic, driving, bold and rhythmic music. Unfortunately, it is not stylish nor is it scholarly to believe this today. We live in the world where early music is treated as abstractly ornate and void of true emotion. Elizabethan music is often played with excessive frills and highly "expressive" hesitations and tempo shifts that in actuality break the rhythm that this music, written for dancing, originally was meant to have.

The same thing happens, unfortunately, to the music of fourteenth-century France. Dominated by lofty British scholars who try to speak for France's history instead of their own, the music is often marred in the quest for a pure, but sterile, sound. Men sing in forced falsetto voices, trying to impersonate the soul-less eunics whom the British automatically figure must have sung this music. Thank God for a group that knows how to render a sound that makes the music come alive.

The energy, the feeling, the power, the beautiful roughness of Machaut is finally conveyed. The urgent despair of the Kyrie. The uncertain optimism of the Sanctus. The loving caress of the famous Agnus Dei. At last, all of these, in their forcefullness and subtlety, are here, carefully crafted and brilliantly executed.

Machaut's wild ride to heaven.......2004-06-29

First off, this version of Machaut's mass is the sort of daring interpretation that is likely to spark controversy. The way Peres and the Ensemble Organum add ornamentation, slide in and out of notes, and sing with an agressive, non-vibrato style, will be strong drink to those who think this music should be sung with modern style vocal technique. But I found this disc a revelation, connecting Machaut's work to Middle Eastern styles, Eastern European chant and religious music, as well as to the raucous mode of singing used by Shape-note singers in the US. In the words of Charles Ives' father, "You won't get a wild ride to heaven on pretty little sounds." This performance is just such a wild ride, and it's heavenly. There are plenty of "nice" versions of this music available, but this version really rocks.

The Missing Link Between Paris and Tunis!.......2004-04-06

The Early Music field is full of schisms. What once seemed like a monolithic movement, dedicated to challenging the hegemony of 18th and 19th century classical music in the concert hall has turned into a vigorous section of the musical market in its own right. And, as a field that is equal parts musician driven and musicological, it is inevitable that there should develop schisms around points of interpretation. This particularly CD is the product of the very well-researched theories of Marcel Peres. Peres, taking his cues from the historical record, has created a performance of Machaut's historically important and very beautiful Mass and restored the art of ornamentation, microtonal inflection, just intonation, and rhythmic flexibility that reflects at least one of the dominant vocal styles prevalent in 14th century church music. The results have been controversial ever since the release of this CD in 1996.

Machaut's Mass is perhaps the most famous product of the late Middle Ages. It is the first complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass ever produced by one composer. What is not clear is whether the work was just a collection of separate Mass movements that Machaut assembled for an occasion, or if they were originally intended to be performed together. Machaut uses a wide variety of polyphonic techniques in this work, from long melismatic textures to almost chordal writing. He ingeniously varied his given material, Gregorian chant which is placed in the lowest voice. Machaut shows a new concern for the combination of vocal textures that was not present in the works of earlier polyphonic composers. In a deeply felt performance, this work never fails to sound ancient, and surprisingly fresh, no matter what the approach taken by the ensemble.

The approach toward this work is what distinguishes the present disc from its competition. The best renditions that I own, the Taverner Consort on EMI and the Hilliard Ensemble on Harmonia Mundi take a very respectful and conservative approach to the score. There are differences between them in details, as source material in this work can vary wildly. But both sing exquisitely and with an ear for accurate just intonation. Both also take the work at a good clip, giving the piece a forward drive and rhythmic intensity that is wonderful to hear. This recording is nothing like them!

Peres approaches the work from almost as an ethnomusicologist. Vocal tone is nasal and throat and chest driven. It has the tone of an Arabic muezzin chanting the call for prayer. In addition, the score is used as a framework for extensive improvisatory ornamentation, often with scoops, vibratory ornament and microtonal inflections. The result is much closer to the sound of the choral music of the Caucasus, the singing in Orthodox Churches and most especially, the chants of Sufis in Moorish Spain. This concept can be justified I think in the historical literature and musicologically. Moorish influence on Western Europe cannot be doubted, particularly in architecture and in instrument development. Instruments that make their first appearance in the Middle Ages, like the lute and the viol almost certainly came into Europe via Spain and North Africa. The Arabic influence on education and the arts is widely acknowledged. Why should it not be the same in the field of music? I believe that Ensemble Organum makes an impressive case for the school of thought that believes in Islamic influence on the rise of polyphony in the west.

Of course, all of this would be moot if the CD were poorly executed. The good news is that this CD is a spectacular rendition of the Machaut work. Peres and company choose to present the piece in its greater liturgical context, alternating the polyphonic Ordinary with plainchant sections from a set of Marian Propers. The approach to the chant is similarly ornamented and microtonal. Setting the Mass in its context is not new, Andrew Parrott pioneered this in the 1980s. But in the present CD, the polyphony comes naturally out of the plainchant texture rather than sounding like the intrusion of a later age, as it can with a more traditional performance. Also, given the high emphasis on ornament, the work could sound like a fantasy on Machaut rather than an interpretation on the work. Comparative listens to a more conservative rendering indicate that Peres and Ensemble are fairly faithful to the original scaffolding. This is clearly Machaut's work, not the performers. But the rendering is a fascinating glimpse into what the composer may have actually intended with his groundbreaking work.

Tracks:

Messe De Nostre Dame- Introitus - Machaut
Song For Athene - Tavener
Ave Maria - Rachmaninov
Agnus Dei - Barber
Summa - Part
Ubi Caritas - Durufle
Introitus - Dufay
Requiem- Agnus Dei - Catoire
Salve Regina - Poulenc
Alleluia - Organum
Antienne - Mass Of The Epiphany
O Salutaris Hostia - Villette
Being Risen From The Tomb - Rachmoninov
7 Magnificat Antiphons- O Weisheit - Part
Diliges Dominum - Byrd
Communio - Dufay
Requiem- Requiem Aeternam - Catoire
Tota Pulchra Es - Durufle
This Day Is Salvation Come - Rachmaninov
O Sacrum Convivium - Messiaen

Tracks:

Totus Tuus - Gorecki
7 Magnificat Antiphons- O Morgenstern - Part
Tantum Ergo - Darufle
Ave Maria - Palestrina
Blessed Is The Man - Rachmaninov
Adoramus Te, Christe - Stephen Cleobury
Requiem- Libera Me - Catoire
Solfeggio - Part
Beati Mundo Corde - Byrd
O Nata Lux De Lumine - Tallis
Our Father (Notre Pere) - Durufle
Agnus Dei (Missa Papae Marcelli) - David Willcocks
As One Who Has Slept - Tavener
O Magnum Mysterium - Villette
Lux Aeterna - Catoire
Alleluia - Dufay
7 Magnificat Antiphons- O Immanuel - Part
The Six Psalms - Rachmaninov
Veni Sancta Spiritus - Dudley
Alma Redemptoris Mater - Stephen Cleobury

Customer Reviews:

An Excellent Compilation.......2004-06-16

This is probably one of the best compilations of early choral music I have heard, let alone own. A fantastic selection of works, including some modal pieces by composers such as Samuel Barber with his famous "Agnus Dei", creates a very nice variety of complexity. The overall tone of both CDs is very peaceful yet uplifting, and the performers are highly talented and spirited. This is a wonderful and unsurpassed addition to my collection. A must for any lover of early choral works.

Average customer rating:

Distorted
Interesting but flawed older recording

Machaut: Notre Dame Mass/Perotin

Manufacturer: Vanguard Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000023G7
Release Date: 1997-06-24

Tracks:

Sacred Music of Medieval France: Kyrie
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Gloria
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Credo
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Sanctus, Benedictus
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Agnus Dei
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Ite Missa Est
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Sederunt principles
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Pater noster commiserans
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Die Christi veritas
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Viderunt omnes
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Alleluja Christus resurgens- Mors
Sacred Music of Medieval France: Alleluja Nativitas

Customer Reviews:

Distorted.......2004-07-23

I was very disapointed with this recording. There is very evident distortion on all the loud passages. It is like listening to an old LP with lint stuck to the phonograph stylus.

Interesting but flawed older recording.......2000-12-17

This is an interesting but flawed older recording of these mediæval classics.

Performance practices of this repertoire have changed dramatically since this record was made in 1960-61. Most voices in the Machaut Mass are doubled by what appear to be modern wind and brass instruments; this is not annoying in itself, but it occasionally seems as if additional parts have been added by the instrumentalists, so what you are getting is rather a modern impression of Machaut, rather than what Machaut himself wrote. No doubt -any- performance of Machaut probably sounded strange in 1960, but it seems as if the Deller Consort was initially unwilling to stand on its own.

The situation with the organum performances on the record is much the same. The rhythmic nature of the music is strongly emphasized. Some are performed by instrumentalists before the voices come in. Occasionally --- esp. on "Dic, Christi veritas" --- the effect is striking. At other times you will feel as if you have gone to church with the Wicked Witch of the West's beefeaters.

The performance itself is quite good; but further study has changed the standard performance practice of this music since then, and the early music revival has made more authentic instruments available when their use is desired.