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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This music, or the opening track `L' homme arme' at least, may sound familiar to some people for it is the melody used on Karl Jenkins' album `The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace'.
Don't blame Karl for plagiarism however, for the original Missa L' homme arme (Mass for the Armed Man) was written during the Renaissance some 5 centuries ago around the mid 1450's and has since been used by more than 20 composers as a cantus firmus for the Roman Catholic Ordinary Mass.
While Dufay's version may not be the original (that honour is variably attributed to French composer Antoine Busnois) its melody line can certainly be traced to it, and considering Guillaume Dufay was the most famous composer in Europe during the mid 15th century he can certainly be credited with increasing the popularity of the piece even if he can't claim copyright.
This version, recorded at the Chapel of Hartford College in 1994 by Jeremy Summerly's Renaissance music experts `Oxford Camerata', uses five voices (male and female) to provide a subtle and intimate version of the piece and the recorded sound from the chapel is surprisingly atmospheric.
Two other works are included, `Illumina faciem tuam' (Make your face shine) and `Supremum est mortalibus bonum' (Peace is the supreme good of mankind).
The CD liner notes provide 4 pages of brief notes on Dufay, Summerly and the Oxford Camerata (including singer's names) and a translation of the texts from Latin to English completes a very satisfactory album of Early Music.
Don't blame Karl for plagiarism however, for the original Missa L' homme arme (Mass for the Armed Man) was written during the Renaissance some 5 centuries ago around the mid 1450's and has since been used by more than 20 composers as a cantus firmus for the Roman Catholic Ordinary Mass.
While Dufay's version may not be the original (that honour is variably attributed to French composer Antoine Busnois) its melody line can certainly be traced to it, and considering Guillaume Dufay was the most famous composer in Europe during the mid 15th century he can certainly be credited with increasing the popularity of the piece even if he can't claim copyright.
This version, recorded at the Chapel of Hartford College in 1994 by Jeremy Summerly's Renaissance music experts `Oxford Camerata', uses five voices (male and female) to provide a subtle and intimate version of the piece and the recorded sound from the chapel is surprisingly atmospheric.
Two other works are included, `Illumina faciem tuam' (Make your face shine) and `Supremum est mortalibus bonum' (Peace is the supreme good of mankind).
The CD liner notes provide 4 pages of brief notes on Dufay, Summerly and the Oxford Camerata (including singer's names) and a translation of the texts from Latin to English completes a very satisfactory album of Early Music.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Dufay's life seems to have been entirely within the 15th century. He was based at the abbey of Cambrai and seems to have enjoyed a wide reputation spreading as far as Scotland, where one of the manuscripts of this mass survives. The mass is a large-scale work, with a Sanctus lasting over ten minutes (which is a lot longer than, say, Verdi's), and an Agnus Dei taking well over eight. To complete the set there is a motet 'Supremum est mortalibus bonum' dating from the 1430's, and one very intriguing feature of this disc is the presence of an unharmonised 'Veni sancte spiritus' (sung to a popular tune) after the Gloria and two plainsong items 'Jubilate Deo' following the Credo and 'Illumina tu faciem' right at the end after the Agnus Dei. Sadly there is no illumination of this in the liner-note, which is really the most frightful guff saying next to nothing and saying it rather badly. Provisionally I have to assume that these numbers (all short) were sung at appropriate points during the celebration of the mass, otherwise what is the point of sequencing them in this way on the record? What I would have liked some guidance on is whether the composer envisaged these extras as integral parts of the setting of the mass - e.g. do they occur in the manuscripts, of which there are no fewer than four? Evidently I shall have to research this question elsewhere.
I am an admirer of the Oxford Camerata in general. As in their record of Josquin's mass based on the same chanson, there are 12 singers, those male these feminine as Milton puts it, numbering 7 and 5 respectively. I have read some comment that finds them prone to over-slow tempi, but I have been used to 15th and 16th century ecclesiastical polyphony all my life from childhood, and while I have no pretensions at all to being expert on the subject I suppose I can say that I find nothing untoward in any aspect of the Camerata's approach. The recording is predictably good, and the strength of the vocal tone impressed me.
English translations of the Latin are provided for everything here. These are in general accurate, although it is worth pointing out that towards the end of the Veni sancte 'Da...sacrum septenarium' means literally 'grant seven holy years', and 'da salutis exitum' means unequivocally 'grant final salvation'.
Format:Audio CD
This expressive performance of Dufay's austere music is a sterling achievement by Oxford Camerata. The excellent program notes comment on why uninitiated ears will find this music homogeneous and will likely gloss over Dufay's subtle intentions. This is not music for those venturing into the medieval sound world for the first time. The disc has deservedly won 3 European awards.
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