The Brabant Ensemble: Nicolas Gombert (c1495-c1560) - Four- & Five-part Motets

Posted By : GuessNot4Me | Date : 23 Apr 2009 20:12:39 | Comments : 4 |

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Gombert is perhaps the most representative composer of the generation between Josquin and Palestrina, especially in the area of sacred music. He brought the polyphonic style to its highest state of perfection; if imitation is a common device in Josquin, it is pervasive in Gombert.
Extended homophonic passages are rare in his sacred works, and he is particularly fond of imitation at very close time intervals, a technically very difficult feat (although he only rarely wrote strict canon).He preferred the lower voice ranges, and instead of the four voices which was
usual at the time, he preferred larger groupings, such as five and six voice parts.Gombert, unlike his predecessor and mentor, Josquin Desprez, used irregular numbers of voice entries and avoided precise divisions of phrases. Syncopations and cross-accents are characteristic of his rhythmic
idiom, and harmonically, Gombert's compositions stressed the traditional modal framework. Musica ficta, a term that refers to chromatically altering pitches, was very prominent in his musical stylings. His music is notable for its use of suspended dissonance, as well as featuring many
false relations.Dissonance he uses for expressive effect, for example as an expression of grief in his six-voice motet on the death of Josquin, Musae Jovis, with its clashing semitones, and occasional root-position triads a tritone apart.
Wikipedia

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This is The Brabant Ensemble’s third disc for Hyperion. Under their director, eminent musicologist Dr Stephen Rice, they continue to excavate jewels of the sixteenth-century choral repertoire which have until now remained under-performed and under-represented in music history.
Their natural and instinctive performing style, which foregrounds the essential vocal qualities of this music, unlike the instrumental tone of other early music choirs, brings these beautiful and complex works abundantly to life. Gombert’s motets are the heart of his writing and
this selection of them allows the range of his musical accomplishments to fully emerge. Often seen as written in penance for heinous crimes committed by the composer, many of them are settings of various texts of penitence, sorrow and yearning for deliverance from punishment.
Images such as the ‘hellish lake’ in Tribulatio et angustia are dramatically explored. Also on this disc are motets for the adulation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which surprisingly demonstrate an especially intensified and dissonant musical style, showing the almost erotic level
of devotion suggested in some of the greatest art of this period.
hYperion

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The Brabant Ensemble
The Brabant Ensemble takes its name from the Duchy of Brabant, an area now forming parts of northern Belgium and the southern Netherlands,
from which the majority of its repertory is drawn. It was founded in 1998 by Stephen Rice in order to perform the so far under-exposed sacred music
of the mid-sixteenth century, and in the past ten years has taken a leading role in the rehabilitation of composers such as Nicolas Gombert, Thomas Crecquillon,
and Pierre de Manchicourt, all of whom it has recorded on Hyperion. Its recording of Crecquillon was awarded a ‘Choc du Monde de la Musique’ and shortlisted for
the Classic FM Gramophone Awards; that of Gombert featured on the Bestenliste of the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. The Brabant Ensemble is in
international demand on the concert stage, and during 2007–9 is an Ensemble in Residence at the University of Southampton.

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The Brabant Ensemble:

Soprano:
Helen Ashby
Kate Ashby
Alison Cold

Alto:
Claire Eadington
Gulliver Ralston
Fiona Shand

Tenor:
Andrew McAnerney
Alastair Putt
Ben Rayfield
Oliver Winstone

Bass:
David Stuart
Simon Whiteley
Tim Scott Whiteley

Tracks:

1. Tribulatio et angustia [8:58]
2. Hortus conclusus est [4:34]
3. Aspice Domine [10:40]
4. Virgo sancta Katherina [3:02]
5. monophony - Inviolata [1:44]
6. Inviolata, et casta es, Maria [7:43]
7. Ne reminiscaris, Domine [5:57]
8. Pater noster [5:07]
9. Ave Maria [4:32]
10. Ergone vitae [7:11]
11. Ave sanctissima Maria [6:37]

Ape:
http://rapidshare.com/files/224886317/G_M.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/224886323/G_M.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/224901745/G_M.part3.rar

MP3:
http://rapidshare.com/files/224924894/G_F_pm.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/224924897/G_F_pm.part2.rar