Document

  1995
    February 1995
        Choral and Song
                W. Mundy Kyrie. Magnificat. Tye Mass "Euge Bone".

W. Mundy Kyrie. Magnificat.

Tye Mass "Euge Bone". Omnes gentes, plaudite. Peccavimus cum patribus. Oxford Camerata / Jeremy Summerly.

Naxos (Super budget price) (CD) 8 550937 (58 minutes: DDD). Texts and translations included.

Two alternatim pieces by Mundy, with smooth legato chant sections, offset, in this recording, by Tye's well-known, six-part Euge Bone Mass and two of his motets—including Peccavimus, his deeply penitential trope to the preces that used to be sung at the end of the Wednesday and Friday processions during Lent. The Oxford Camerata really take off in this performance. I found it exhilarating to listen to them: they achieve a quite remarkable penetration of the music. The acoustics of the Chapel of Hertford College are much kinder to the voices than those of Wellington College the group's earlier venue.

But there is more to this performance than the suitability of a building: it is distinguished by good pacing, intelligent phrasing, sensitive dovetailing and long, steadily sustained crescendos. There is a remarkable blend, particularly among the lower parts, yet the voices manage to retain their individuality, and the vocal balance is usually good, though the second countertenor tends at times to overshadow the first.

In the Euge Bone Mass there is great variety of mood and some neat time changes. The Gloria is truly splendid (though the choice of the Sarum VI intonation might have been more appropriate modally than Sarum V). There is a fine stretch of quiet singing by the three lower voices at "qui tollis", and I was delighted to hear this trio of voices again, joined by the first countertenor, in the first of the Agnus Dei invocations, to be matched by a calmly controlled rendering by the high voices divisi of the incomparable four-in-one canon in the next invocation, leading to a strong entry by the full chorus, for the final petition. My one regret was that the original first invocation had been omitted: Tye had composed four of these instead of the customary three, and the first one begins with the same theme as all the other movements of the Mass. Its absence meant that this movement began inauspiciously, out of the blue and the overall balance was weakened. But that said, what a marvellous bargain this super-budget recording represents!

MB



		Two alternatim pieces by Mundy, with smooth legato chant sections, offset, in this recording, by Tye's well-known, six-part Euge Bone Mass and two of his motets—including Peccavimus, his deeply penitential trope to the preces that used to be sung at the end of the Wednesday and Friday processions during Lent. The Oxford Camerata really take off in this performance. I found it exhilarating to listen to them: they achieve a quite remarkable penetration of the music. The acoustics of the Chapel of Hertford College are much kinder to the voices than those of Wellington College the group's earlier venue.



		But there is more to this performance than the suitability of a building: it is distinguished by good pacing, intelligent phrasing, sensitive dovetailing and long, steadily sustained crescendos. There is a remarkable blend, particularly among the lower parts, yet the voices manage to retain their individuality, and the vocal balance is usually good, though the second countertenor tends at times to overshadow the first.



		In the Euge Bone Mass there is great variety of mood and some neat time changes. The Gloria is truly splendid (though the choice of the Sarum VI intonation might have been more appropriate modally than Sarum V). There is a fine stretch of quiet singing by the three lower voices at "qui tollis", and I was delighted to hear this trio of voices again, joined by the first countertenor, in the first of the Agnus Dei invocations, to be matched by a calmly controlled rendering by the high voices divisi of the incomparable four-in-one canon in the next invocation, leading to a strong entry by the full chorus, for the final petition. My one regret was that the original first invocation had been omitted: Tye had composed four of these instead of the customary three, and the first one begins with the same theme as all the other movements of the Mass. Its absence meant that this movement began inauspiciously, out of the blue and the overall balance was weakened. But that said, what a marvellous bargain this super-budget recording represents!