Gothic Voices under Christopher Page’s direction
made some twenty-three CDs for Hyperion over a period of about
twenty or so years. The personnel changed a great deal over that
time and there are those who think that once Margaret Philpot
left then things were never quite as exciting. In addition Page
started to move down other lines, away from the secular songs
of France and Italy. For example he set about recording complete
Mass cycles - something that he was passionate about - and not
Masses by the great and the good of the 15
th Century
but by anonymous composers. Since his direction came to an end
Gothic Voices have lived on with two discs for Avie of Solage
and Landini.
The
Missa Veterem hominem is a fine and complex
work, and the performance which is dynamic and constantly interesting
seems to go beyond the bare notes and almost into the mind of
the (sadly) anonymous composer. It’s in a rendition which he probably
wouldn’t have been able to hear; for example the top line is taken
by Catherine King, who although she has no vibrato and has a clarity
which is quite remarkable is obviously not a male!
The Mass is surrounded and broken up by carols and plainchants
one of which is
Deus creator omnium, which immediately
precedes the Kyrie and is performed by Leigh Nixon. It uses, in
the polyphonic version, the same troped text. So busy and wordy
is this text that it takes longer to perform than the Gloria.
The plainchant of the
Veterem hominem is quoted in the
booklet, is used in part as a head motif but is not strictly adhered
to. The important notes by Page and Andrew Kirkman talk about
wishing to “render the music in a festive colour”. One way this
is achieved is by the sheer vitality of the performance and by
tempo, so that the tactus is really the same for each movement
and quite fast it is too. Despite that there is no sense of unrelenting
breathlessness; there’s even a sense of searching spirituality
attained. Nevertheless there are places when surely a little more
sensitivity would have been fitting. I’ll mention two, the ‘Qui
Tollis’ in the Gloria and the ‘Et Incarnatus’ in the Credo where
the music seems to cry out for it and at a point where things
need to relax a little. However, to back up Page’s point, the
Creed does miss out the darker part of the text beginning ‘Crucifixus
etiam pro nobis’ and moves quickly into ‘Et resurrexit’.
This mass was composed about 1440 for a special occasion which
Page does not venture to elucidate nor does he speculate about
the composer. Whoever he was he may well have written the sister
mass featured on volume 4 in this series, the Missa Caput (CDH
55284). Both were hugely influential and found in many continental
sources and the mass under consideration here is also quoted by
Thomas Morley in his ‘Plaine and Easy Introduction to Music’ (1597).
English music in the early 15
th century, in fact since
the days of John Dunstaple (or Dunstable) (d.1453) had led the
world. The style here is not his nor that of Lionel Power of a
slightly earlier period; perhaps Henry Souleby or Soursby of Eton
– of the Chapel Royal in the 1460s - is the sort of man we should
be looking at, but that is just my aimless speculation.
The carols -
Jesu, fili virginis and
To many a well
- are also taken at a brisk speed to match the typically frank
English rhythms. The motets to the Virgin are befittingly much
more calm and meditative, and what a good idea on a disc in which
plainchant has been crucial to end with one of the most moving,
the ‘Pange lingua’.
It has been interesting to return to this well programmed disc
not having heard it for several years. My original impression
was not especially favourable but on re-acquaintance I have become
quite excited about the Mass and about singing and am sorry that
I have abandoned the disc on my shelf for a decade. Listen for
yourself, it’s a revelation.
Gary Higginson
Reviews of the The Spirits of England and France series
Vol.
1 CDH55281
Vol.
2 CDH55282
Vol.
3 CDH55283
Vol.
4 CDH55284
Gothic Voices/Christopher Page 
