MP3 Musica Spei (Music of Hope) - From the British Isles to the Black Sea

Meditative, uplifting, deeply moving and rarely performed or recorded choral music of another time (half a millenium ago) and from many places (England, Germany, Russia, Slovenia, the Netherlands and the Republic of Georgia)

21 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Traditional



Details:
MUSICA SPEI: FROM THE BRITISH ISLES TO THE BLACK SEA:
Renaissance Choral Music Performed Live by Musica Spei

"A wondrous mystery is revealed today, nature itself is transformed..." Conveying a world of mystery and wonder in three minutes of daring harmonies and unexpected chromaticism, Jacob Handl-Gallus' Mirabile Mysterium exemplifies the spirit of this recording. Transformation, wonder and daring to perform the unexpected underlie Musica Spei's mission: breathing vibrant life into mostly forgotten musicological curiosities and demonstrating that the passionate emotions, beliefs and yearnings which composers poured into their works half a millennium ago still have the power to stir and move audiences in today's complex world. Formed in Rochester, New York in the summer of 1995, Musica Spei explores early sacred choral music literature, sharing it with audiences unfamiliar with this repertoire. The group rehearses weekly, performs without a conductor and, in the spirit of a jazz ensemble, develops its interpretations in a collaborative fashion based on communication and interaction among the performers. Resources available to the group include the Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music as well as the musical collections and experiences of various group members.

A stunning range of rarely heard choral music from around the world by some of the greatest composers of the 15th and 16th centuries. Selected for their stylistic variety, intrinsic beauty and emotional depth, the works on this recording represent samplings of the group's repertoire of more than one hundred chants, motets and masses by medieval and Renaissance composers from around the world. Two important and rarely-heard extended works by great Western and Eastern European composers anchor the program: Josquin des Prez' Vultum tuum (Flemish) and Handl-Gallus' The Passion According to Saint John (Slovenian). Also represented on the program are Marian works by two of Josquin's greatest Flemish contemporaries (Loyset Compere and Jacob Obrecht); his renowned English contemporary (Robert Fayrfax); and a stunning Miserere by Jacobus Vaet, a Flemish composer from the generation that followed Josquin. John Taverner (England) and Caspar Othmayr (Germany) composed in two differing traditions and were greatly influenced by the Protestant and Lutheran religious upheavals of their day. Othmayr's work is an almost Romantic setting of the Last Words of Martin Luther, integrating a Latin cantus firmus of the verse from Psalm 31 quoted by Jesus as he died on the cross. In the spirit of adventure and discovery, the group crosses the Elbe River to sample the decidedly non-Western harmonies from the Russian Orthodox chapel of Peter the Great and more ancient sounds from the Republic of Georgia.