CD
1
Medieval Carols:
Angelus ad virginem [2:39]
Nowell sing we [3:01]
There is no rose [3:35]
The Coventry Carol: Lullay: I saw [2:19]
Lulla, lulla, thou tiny little child
[3:20]
Ave Maria:
Josquin DESPREZ
(c1440-1521) Ave Maria for
four voices [5:25]
Philippe VERDELOT
(c1470/80-before 1552) Beata
es virgo/Ave Maria [5:40]
Tomás
Luis de VICTORIA (1548-1611)
Ave Maria for four voices (attrib)
[2:15]
Ave Maria for double choir [4:51]
German Chorales:
Michael PRAETORIUS
(?1571-1621)
Es ist ein Ros’ [3:06]
Hieronymous PRAETORIUS
(1560-1629)
Joseph, lieber Joseph mein [2:30]
In dulci jubilo [3:41]
Flemish Polyphony:
Clemens Non Papa
(c.1510-c1555)
Pastores quidnam vidistis [4:43]
Missa Pastores quidnam vidistis
[31:15]
CD 2
Chant from Salisbury:
Missa in gallicantu (First Mass
of Christmas) [31:15]
Christmas Hymns: Christe Redemptor
omnium [3:49];
Veni, Redemptor gentium [4:30];
Salvator mundi, Domine [2:31];
A solis ortus cardine [4:59].
Tudor Polyphony:
Thomas TALLIS
(c.1505-1585)
Missa Puer natus est nobis (compl.
David Wulstan and Sally Dunkley) [23:54]
My colleague Colin
Clarke gave an enthusiastic welcome
to this 2-for-1 Gimell set in January,
2004 – see review
– just missing that year’s Christmas
market. I’m trying to atone by getting
this review in well before Christmas
this year in order to reinforce his
strong recommendation.
It was, in fact, my
original intention simply to include
the download version in my December
Download Roundup – scroll down the Musicweb
page for these monthly Roundups if you
haven’t yet discovered them – but it’s
too good a bargain to restrict to that
format. In fact, I have for several
weeks at the time of writing been experiencing
tremendous problems with my downloads
– a mast down in my area, which my mobile
broadband providers seem unable to fix
has caused downloads to proceed at a
snail’s pace – so Gimell very kindly
supplied me with hard copies of the
CDs, in addition to the download, in
case the latter proved impossible.
As it happens, I was
able, with great patience, to download
both CDs as 320k mp3s and was more than
happy with the quality. Lossless downloads
would have taken too long in the light
of my download problems, though I normally
recommend them – I’ve always found these
to be that little bit better and closer
to the original CD sound. In the case
of these recordings, the sound quality
in mp3 and CD formats is fully up to
Gimell’s usual high standards, as also
is the presentation and packaging.
What you get here is
an excellent cross-section of medieval
and renaissance Christmas music, ranging
in time from some of the earliest carols
to the (unrelated) Prætoriuses
(Prætorii?) Michael and Heinrich.
Much of the music will be familiar,
but much more will probably be a journey
of discovery into unfamiliar but enjoyable
territory.
Almost the whole contents
of CDGIM010 are included here. Angelus
ad virginem was a well-known piece
in both Latin and English, where it
was known as Gabriel fram evene king
– Chaucer’s Miller makes the clerk Nicholas
sing it ‘So swetely that all the chamber
rong’ (Canterbury Tales, I, 3215-6).
Most anthologies of medieval Christmas
music contain it in one form or another,
but it’s so beautifully sung here, with
appropriate restraint, that I cannot
regret the duplication with other versions.
The same is true of the other English
pieces; CC rightly praises the singing
of the verse ‘Herod the king, in his
raging ...’ in Lully, lulla as
a high point of the first CD.
Another high point
for me is the Scholars’ rendition of
Joseph, lieber Joseph mein, especially
the closing ‘Hodie apparuit ...’ section.
The ensuing singing of In dulci jubilo
is also exquisite. Less well known than
the English carols and German chorales
will be the four juxtaposed settings
of Ave Maria, each one a perfect
little gem and excellently performed.
The motet Pastores
quidnam vidistis and the Mass based
on it also receive excellent performances,
reminding us that the music of Clemens
is uplifting – after all, he must have
had a cheeky sense of humour to have
called himself Clemens non Papa:
Clement, but not the Pope of that name.
A wonderful conclusion to a very enjoyable
first CD.
The second disc offers
the whole contents of CDGIM017 plus
the Tallis Missa Puer natus est.
This CD may be of more specialist interest
than the first, though plainsong clearly
does have a general appeal, as witness
the best-selling EMI Silos recording
of some years ago and the recent well-plugged
Universal CD Chant: Music for Paradise
– see my recent review
of the latter. There are other recordings
of one or other of the (three) Masses
for Christmas Day, but they are mostly
of the post-16th-century
Tridentine Mass. The Sarum Rite, employed
widely but not universally throughout
England, was a much richer affair, containing,
for example, a Sequence (CD2, track
7) Nato canunt omnia, one of
many such sequences swept away by the
Tridentine reformers – sung here to
the accompaniment of a bell.
What we are offered
amounts to an almost complete celebration,
apart from the actual Canon or Prayer
of Consecration. The Collect or Prayer
for the Day is also omitted, as are
the Epistle and Gospel, but the reading
from Isaiah is included, presumably
because it offers an excellent example
of the way in which plainsong was troped
in late medieval times. Missals dating
from the late 1520s or early 1530s,
when this music was almost on its last
legs, are employed.
Those with an interest
in medieval settings of a Christmas
Day Mass, this time of the third and
principal Mass of the day, should try
Harmonia Mundi HMX297 1148, a mid-price
CD on which Ensemble Organum, directed
by Marcel Pérès sing a
12th-century setting from
the School of Notre Dame.
One small reservation:
the addition of the Tallis Mass means
that the second CD is especially generously
filled, but serious collectors may well
already have this or another version
of the Tallis. The Mass forms the major
part of the contents of CDGIM034; if
you want the rest of this rather short
CD, you’ll end up duplicating the Mass.
The only other small reservation concerns
the fact that not all of the Clemens
CD, CDGIM013, is included here – if
you want the rest, you’ll again, inevitably,
duplicate the Mass.
The Tallis Mass has
come down to us in incomplete form,
though recent manuscript discoveries
have enabled scholars to restore more
of it than was formerly the case. There
is no Kyrie, since it was the
common practice of English composers
not to set this section, and the Credo
has survived in very fragmentary state.
What can be reconstructed is, however,
of major significance – glorious music,
emphatically well worth rescuing – and
this Tallis Scholars version matches,
if it does not surpass, those of The
Sixteen (Music for Philip & Mary,
COR16037) and Chapelle du Roi on Volume
3 of their complete works of Tallis
(SIGCD003).
Any other reservations?
Just one or two very minor points, hardly
worth mentioning, such as the fact that
I wondered why the hard g is
employed in Angelus ad virginem.
I’m sure there are good reasons. Conversely,
I’m glad that the Scholars don’t try
to emulate 15th- and 16th-century
English pronunciation in the English
texts when attempts to reproduce Tudor
pronunciation by the likes of Red Byrd
can come across as sounding rather comical.
With illustrations
by Filippino Lippi throughout, this
is a most attractive set but don’t let
its virtues make you overlook the other
superb-value 2-CD Tallis Scholars sets
from Gimell:
Tallis: Spem in
alium, Lamentations I & II,
etc. (CDGIM203)
Byrd: the three Masses
and the Great Service (CDGIM208)
Tudor Church Music
1 (CDGIM209)
Tudor Church Music
2 (CDGIM210) – see my recent enthusiastic
review
of these last two sets.
I’m currently thinking
about my choices for Recordings of the
Year; I’m almost certain to include
the two Tudor albums. Those who have
not yet committed to the music of this
period, however, might well find this
Christmas album their ideal point of
entry.
Brian Wilson
The Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips. 
