Echoes of an Old Hall

 
Echoes of an Old Hall cover
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Echoes of an Old Hall
Gothic Voices

[ Linn Records / CD ]

Release Date: Friday 11 June 2021

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Gothic Voices' eagerly awaited new album features music from The Old Hall Manuscript: a wonderful collection of classy compositions from late fourteenth- to early fifteenth-century England. It embodies the English 'flavour' of music of the time, with its smooth melodies and sweet harmonies, irresistible to Franco-Flemish composers writing a generation or so later, and known by them as the 'Contenance Angloise'. This highly expressive and quirky music, ranging in atmosphere from gently suave strains to high-octane cascades of sound, benefits from the gorgeous acoustics of Boxgrove Priory. English music by Cooke, Power, Pycard and Dunstable is answered by Burgundian composers Dufay, Lymburgia and Binchois, thus demonstrating the influence of said English Countenance, and hearing its echoes in the response. This is Gothic Voices' fourth album for Linn following its first recording of mediaeval Christmas music, Nowell synge we bothe al and som, and two thematic programmes, The Dufay Spectacle and Mary Star Of The Sea, each of which received widespread critical acclaim.

'mesmerising' - Sunday Times (Nowell synge we bothe al and som)

"Perhaps most unexpectedly of all, the account of Dunstable's four-voice Veni Sancte Spiritus (one of the best-known, oft-recorded pieces of the 15th century) is unquestionably one of the finest yet made." Gramophone Editor's Choice September 2021

"Among the earlier pieces here is probably Leonel Power's Gloria, whose acerbic clashes and angular, thrusting lines are fashioned by these singers into a compelling sonic journey. The slightly later English style of sweet concordant harmonies (called by the Burgundians the 'contenance angloise') perfectly suits their expertise in close harmony." BBC Music

"The account of Dunstable's four-voice Veni Sancte Spiritus (one of the best-known, oft-recorded pieces of the 15th century) is unquestionably one of the finest yet made." Gramophone Award Finalist 2022 - Early Music

Tracks:

Mayshuet de Joan - Arae post libamina/Nunc surgunt
Anonymous - Alma redemptoris mater
Thomas Damett - Salve porta paradisi
Anonymous - Veni creator spiritus
John Cooke - Gloria in excelsis
John Dunstaple - Ave regina caelorum
Anonymous - Regina caeli laetare
Anonymous - Sanctus
John Dunstaple - Veni sancte spiritus/Veni sancte spiritus/Veni creator spiritus/Mentes tuorum
Thomas Byttering - Nesciens mater
John Cooke - Stella caeli extirpavit
Anonymous - Agnus Dei
Anonymous - Nesciens mater
Leonel Power - Gloria in excelsis
John Forest - Qualis est dilectus
Anonymous - Beata progenies
Johannes de Lymburgia - Tota pulchra es
Anonymous - Ave regina caelorum
Guillaume Dufay - Flos florum
Leonel Power - Ave regina caelorum
Guillaume Dufay - Ave regina caelorum
Johannes Haucourt - Je demande ma bienvenue
Gilles Binchois - Adieu mon amoureuse joye
Gilles Binchois - Dueil angoisseux
Thomas Damett - Beata Dei genitrix
Anonymous - Qui diceris paraclitus
Jehan Pycard - Gloria in excelsis