Guillaume de Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady) is the oldest known Mass cycle by a single, named composer, so it has a permanent place in music history courses and probably has been recorded more than any other 14th-century work. This particular version has a history of its own, having quickly become a legend among lovers of medieval music. The French label Harmonic Records made this recording in 1990, and released it the following year to widespread acclaim--then went out of business shortly thereafter. Naturally, the disc became hard to find and much sought-after: sightings were actually posted on the Internet as if the disc were a rare songbird. Happily, the Spanish label Cantus has acquired the rights to Harmonic's old catalogue and made this marvelous performance available once again. The Ensemble Gilles Binchois (which, in 1990, included a young countertenor named Andreas Scholl) has incorporated Machaut's setting of the Mass Ordinary into a complete Mass liturgy (including brief prayers and intoned Scripture readings) for the Feast of the Assumption; the spare beauty of the flowing plainchant that's specific to this service contrasts nicely with the daring harmonies and intricately interlocking rhythms of Machaut's groundbreaking music. Many performances of the Messe de Nostre Dame make much--too much--of those rhythms, and bang them out in a near frenzy; Dominique Vellard and his ensemble take a meditative approach that seems more in keeping with the work's purpose as part of an act of worship. Pretty much everything about this performance is exemplary--thank goodness (and Cantus) that a worldwide search for a copy of it is no longer necessary. --Matthew Westphal

Guillaume de Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame, Music, Emmanuel Bonnardot, Philippe Balloy, Jacques Bona, Gregorian Chant, Guillaume de Machaut, Andreas Scholl, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard, Gerd Turk, Herve Lamy, Chant, Choral, Choral Music, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Early Music / Chant, Mass, Vocal, Vocal Music, 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

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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).

Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame; Songs from Le Voir Dit

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Getting to know 14th.century music
Mind blowing Machaut!
As Machaut heard it in the Reims Cathedral

Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame; Songs from Le Voir Dit

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballads | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

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Dufay: Chansons

ASIN: B0000014AN
Release Date: 1996-12-17

Tracks:

La Messe de Nostre Dame: Kyrie
La Messe de Nostre Dame: Gloria
La Messe de Nostre Dame: Credo
La Messe de Nostre Dame: Sanctus
La Messe de Nostre Dame: Agnus Dei
La Messe de Nostre Dame: Ite missa est
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Songs From Le Voir Dit: Rondeau 18: Puis qu'en oubli
Songs From Le Voir Dit: Rondeau 17: Dis et sept cinq

Customer Reviews:

Getting to know 14th.century music.......2000-08-14

This recording of early music is wonderful in its sound quality and acoustics. It is truley a masterpiece. Just keep in mind that music of this period is not the bright or danciful folk tunes often heard in 16th or 17th.century folk songs. This recording is of the developing formal mass and represents the highest level of performing skills of the period.

Mind blowing Machaut!.......2000-03-17

Last year I did my Masters' dissertation on Mediaeval Scholasticism and discovered this CD at about the same time. I played it softly on my CD player as I walked the 'via dolorosa'. The CD helped me do very well because I feel it has a unique Mediaeval/Renaissance crossover feel that enabled me to internalise what these people were thinking. The plain lines of Gregorian Chant have been replaced with a three harmony glory which darts about the aisles and chapels of Reims Cathedral, slowing and speeding, lowering and soaring and totally gripping with its harmonic complexities. If there is a summation of the glories of the late 14th century it would be Aquinas' Realism, synthesised by Scotus and finally brought through to the nominalism of William of Ockham, the writings of Dante, Petrarch, Boccacio and Chaucer and this wonderful music. This is not simple rustic music of the home spun English at Crecy. This is the musical depiction of French civilization at its zenith, with its famous manuscripts like the Bible of Jean de Papelou it the Hours of Jeanne D'Evreux. The Romanesque style with its lapis lazuli blues and its idealising of courtly love in scenes that show this earth and the next are the nearest we have to visualisation of this absolute music. I see Decorated Gothic Stain Glass Windows and the most intricate Flying Buttresses which are a silent witness to this music which tantalisingly stands in the changing of worlds. The Black Death was only twelve years away and the old order would be challenged in ten more by uprisings in France and the Peasants' Revolt in England in 1381. The ancien regime would hold on to power but the rediscovery of the ideas of Greece and Rome would change the West's ideas about itself for ever. The New World would crystalize all this but that is in the future. This CD portrays this mediaeval world which fascinates us today with its peculiar mixture of beauty and barbarism. Great value and brilliant at any price with 77 minutes of beatifully written and performed music.

As Machaut heard it in the Reims Cathedral.......1999-11-02

"La Messe de Notre Dame" by Guillaume de Machaut is one of the earliest settings of the Mass by a single composer.The Oxford Camerata,in the Reims cathedral,so the would match the same accoustics as those that must of been heard when the work was first premiered in 1364. the rest of the songs are from "Le voir dit" The liner notes of this recording tell how it was possible to match with great fidelity the accoustics of the Reims Cathedral.This is one of my favorites recordings in my private collection. Questions and comments are greatly appreciated.

Average customer rating:

one of their best
I loved this CD!
Not as early as you might think
Pleonastic
a good one

Early Music (Lachrymae Antiquae)

Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000005J4S
Release Date: 1997-09-16

Tracks:

Kyrie I
Rachell's Weepinge
Langdans efter Byfans Mats
Lachrymae Antiqua
Psalom
Two Studies On Ancient Greek Scales: 1. Olympos' Pentatonic - 2. Archytas' Enharmonic
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Totem Ancestor
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Using The Apostate Tyrant As His Tool
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O Virtus Sapientie
Uleg-Khem
Farwell My Good I. Forever
Collected Songs Where Every Verse Is Filled With Grief
Requiem Mass: Bells: Tolling Of The Knell

Amazon.com essential recording

Don't get too comfortable with this disc's opening minutes, which sound convincingly like a well-tuned consort of viols performing two short pieces by Machaut and Tye. These two works from the 14th and 16th centuries quickly give way to a piece from 1997 by David Lamb. Then come Arvo Part, Harry Partch, John Cage, and even Moondog, a.k.a. Louis Hardin. Additional instruments come and go- -harmonium, bagpipe, zhong ruan, nyckelharpa, drum--all of which complement and enhance the string sounds. Later, we hear music by Hildegard von Bingen, Perotin, and even Purcell. Most of the selections from early composers are arrangements by the Kronos Quartet and others, but it's a tribute to the recording's producers that in spite of the music's diversity, everything works together to make a coherent, cohesive, intellectually, and musically challenging program. --David Vernier

Customer Reviews:

one of their best.......2005-04-14

If you like simple, string quartet music as much as I do, then you've got to listen to this. It is a generous 68 minutes of plaintive music--no discontinuities and surpises like on their Black Angels recording. It is all slow and mournful.

I loved this CD!.......2002-11-02

When I was listening to MSN I came across it. I love Early Music and they had a Radio station that was playing it. I decided to listen to it. So as I was lisitening to it I came across the song Collected Songs Where Every Verse Is Filled With Grief. That is the besty song I ever heard in a long time. I like the other songs but this one really spoke to me. It was quite moving if I might say.

Not as early as you might think.......2000-06-07

Yes, there is "old" music on this disc. But works in olden style by John Cage, Arvo Part, et al are also present. Quite a challenging program on the listener - but rewarding as well. I am particularly found of Kronos' setting of Alfred Shnittke's "Collected Songs Where Every Verse is Filled With Grief". Very eclectic recording performed with usual finesse of the Kronos Quartet - and some guests.

Pleonastic.......2000-03-10

Kronos Quarter has been an agile and versatile instrument in the hands of modern composers. It has (re)interpreted music from many sources in a coherent way, thus creating a very distinctive sound. This album offers a mixed program of composers, juxtaposing the modern and the antique. The thesis of the album is (I think) that early composers are surprisingly palatable to modern sensibilities, and that they are close in spirit to a vast array of contemporary musicians. Also, it seems that the bond linking all these authors is a certain state of affliction; hence the subtitle of the album "lachrymae antiquae", ancient tears. Yet, overall, I found this a pretentious album, even in its use of latin. After so many years of philologically accurate renditions of the early masters, performed on period intruments, the operation of K.Q. sounds at least inappropriate if not even a bit obnoxious. It often seems that they are sacrificing the original intentions of the authors to the altar of this "modernity" thesis. The listener should judge by him/herself.

Summing up, I would just say that this is first of all a K.Q. album "inspired by" early music. I would just point out that it doesn't add much to the understanding neither of Machaut & co., nor of K.Q., which is still a great ensemble.

a good one.......1999-12-02

Who can say, as of now, how much of the music the KQ plays will fall, deservedly or not, by the wayside and how much of it will continue for the ages? At any rate, this CD is rewarding. I like the mix of quirky pieces with the staid, even if the title "Early Music" is misleading (since few original instruments are utilized in this record). Fine work; highly recommended.

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

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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:

Allegro Ma Non Troppo - Presto - Jeno Jando
Allegro Molto Vivace - Takako Nishizaki
Poco Adagio, Cantabile - Kodaly Quartet
Si, Mi Chiamano Mimi - Luba Orgonasova
Finale: Allegro Moderato - Andante - Allegro Vivo - Maria Kliegel
Waltz No.12 In E Major, Op.39, No.12 - Idil Biret
Scherzo: Allegro Vivace - Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Rondella Aragonesa - Norbert Kraft
Allegro Molto - Bela Drahos
Gloria - Oxford Camerata
Drottningholmsmusiken: Allegro - Anthony Halstead

Average customer rating:

Machaut: Messe Nostre Dame [Germany]
Deller , Deller Consort , and Collegium Aureum
Manufacturer: RCA Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00002587H
Release Date: 1995-08-09

Tracks:

Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Ite Missa Est
Graduale: Sederunt Principes
Pater Noster Commiserans
Die Christi Veritas
Viderunt Omnes
Alleluia Christus Resurgens & Clausula: Mors
Alleluia Nativitas

Average customer rating:

Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame

Manufacturer: Capitol
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000DNIY
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Average customer rating:

An Excellent Compilation

Cathedral Dreams: Music to Inspire

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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

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

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

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

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

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

Renaissance (c.1450-1600) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Compilations | New Age | Styles | Music

A Cappella | Folk | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Classical Dreams: Music to Inspire
Images of Christ

ASIN: B00006I0D1
Release Date: 2002-09-17

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.

The Essential Gift Pack (Box Set) (includes book: The A to Z of Classical Music)

Average customer rating:

The Essential Gift Pack (Box Set) (includes book: The A to Z of Classical Music)

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballets | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Baroque (c.1600-1750) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Italian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Russian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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

Classical | Box Sets | Stores | Music

Tracks:

Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67: Allegro con brio - Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia (Budapest)
Bagatelle in A minor, WoO23, 'Fur Elise' - Balazs Szokolay
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55, 'Eroica': Scherzo: Allegro vivace - Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia (Budapest)
Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, 'Pathetique': Adagio cantabile - Jeno Jando
Violin Concerto In D Major, Op. 61: Rondo: Allegro - Takako Nishizaki
Piano Sonato No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, 'Moonlight': Adagio sostenuto - Jeno Jando
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, 'Pastoral': Allegro ma non troppo - Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia (Budapest)
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73, 'Emperor': Rondo: Allegro - Stefan Vladar
Overture to Egmont - Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphony No. 9 In D Minor, Op. 125, 'Choral': Finale: Presto - Robert Holzer, bass

Tracks:

Piano Concerto No. 1 In B Flat Minor, Op. 23: Allegro con fuoco - Bernd Glemser
Symphony No. 5 In E Minor, Op. 64: Andante cantabile con alcuna licenza - Moderato con anima - Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Eugene Onegin: Polonaise - Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)
Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 19, No. 4 - Maria Kliegel
Sleeping Beauty: Waltz - Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra (Kosice)
Violin Concerto in D Major: Canzonetta: Andante - Takako Nishizaki
The Nutcracker: Russian Dance (Trepak) - Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
1812 Festival Overture, Op. 49 - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Swan Lake: Scene (Swan Theme) - Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)
The Seasons, Op. 37b: Barcarole (June) - Ilona Prunyi
Serenade For Strings In C Major, Op. 48: Waltz - Vienna Chamber Orchestra
Symphony No. 6 In B Minor, Op. 74, 'Pathetique': Allegro molto vivace - Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Katowice)

Tracks:

Serenade No. 13 in G major, K.525, 'Eine kleine Nachtmusik': Allegro - Capella Istropolitana
German Dance, K.605, No. 3, 'Sleigh Ride' - Capella Istropolitana
Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K.183: Allegro - Capella Istropolitana
String Quartet No. 17 in B flat major, K.458, 'Hunt': Minuetto - Eder Quartet
Horn Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, K.447: Allegro - Milos Stevove
Symphony No. 40 In G minor, K.550: Molto allegro - Capella Istropolitana
Clarinet Concerto In A Major: Adagio - Ernst Ottensamer
Divertimento In D major, K. 136: Allegro - Capella Istropolitana
Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major: Rondo - Herbert Weissberg
Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K.331: Alla turca - Jeno Jando
Oboe Quartet in F major, K.370: Adagio - Jozsef Kiss
Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K.216: Rondeau: Allegro - Takako Nishizaki
Piano Concerto No. 21 In C Major, K.467: Andante - Jeno Jando
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K.551, 'Jupiter': Menuetto: Allegro - Capella Istropolitana

Tracks:

The Four Seasons: 'Spring', RV269: Allegro - Takako Nishizaki
Concerto in G major for Two Guitars: Andante - Budapest Strings
Flute Concerto in D major, RV 428, 'Il Cardellino': Allegro - Jiri Valek
Flute Concerto in D major, RV 428, 'Il Cardellino': Cantabile - Jiri Valek
Flute Concerto in D major, RV 428, 'Il Cardellino': Allegro - Jiri Valek
The Four Seasons: 'Spring', RV269: Largo e pianissimo sempre - Takako Nishizaki
Oboe Concerto in A minor, RV461: Allegro non molto - Stefan Schilli
Oboe Concerto in A minor, RV461: Larghetto - Stefan Schilli
Oboe Concerto in A minor, RV461: (Allegro) - Stefan Schilli
The Four Seasons: 'Summer', RV315: Largo e pianissimo sempre - Takako Nishizaki
Concerto in C major for Two Trumpets, RV537: Allegro - M. Meekes
Concerto in C major for Two Trumpets, RV537: Largo - M. Meekes
Concerto in C major for Two Trumpets, RV537: Allegro - M. Meekes
The Four Seasons: 'Autumn', RV293: Adagio molto - Takako Nishizaki
Cello Concerto in C minor, RV401: Allegro non molto - Raphael Wallfisch
Cello Concerto in C minor, RV401: Adagio - Raphael Wallfisch
Cello Concerto in C minor, RV401: Allegro ma non molto - Raphael Wallfisch
The Four Seasons: 'Winter', RV297: Largo - Takako Nishizaki
Flautino Concerto in C major, RV443: Allegro - Jiri Stivin
Flautino Concerto in C major, RV443: Largo - Jiri Stivin
Flautino Concerto in C major, RV443: Allegro molto - Jiri Stivin
Violin Concertor in A minor, RV522: Largo - Jindrich Pazdera
Bassoon Concerto in E minor, RV484: Allegro poco - Frantisek Hermann
Bassoon Concerto in E minor, RV484: Andante - Frantisek Hermann
Bassoon Concerto in E minor, RV484: Allegro - Frantisek Hermann

Tracks:

Piano Sonato No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 'Appassionata': Allegro ma non troppo - Presto - Jeno Jando
Violin Concerto In E Minor, Op. 64: Allegro molto vivace - Takako Nishizaki
String Quartet in C Major, Op. 76, No. 3 'Emperor': Poco adagio, cantabile - Kodaly Quartet
La Boheme: Si, mi chiamano Mimi - Luba Organasova, soprano
Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in B Minor, Op. 104: Finale: Allegro moderato - Andante - Allegro vivo - Maria Kliegel
Waltz No. 12 in E major, Op. 39, No. 12 - Idil Biret
Symphony No. 2 In C Major, Op. 61: Scherzo: Allegro vivace - Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Spanish Dances: Rondella aragonesa - Norbert Kraft
Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 36: Allegro molto - Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia
La Messe de Nostre Dame: Gloria - Oxford Camerata
Drottningholmsmusiken: Allegro - Uppsala Chamber Orchestra