This disc comes in an attractive 4-panel wallet-style format, with a CD sleeve. There is no plastic tray, which makes for a greener (and more lightweight) package.
Besides eleven songs by Johannes Ockeghem (c.1420-1497), this disc includes two related works: the anonymous “En atendant vostre venue” from the recently-discovered Leuven Chansonnier (probably copied c. 1475 in the Loire Valley, where Ockeghem lived and worked), whose text borrows the first line of Ockeghem’s "Quant de vous seul", and "Au travail suis" by the composer Barbingant, which quotes both text and music from the opening of Ockeghem’s "Ma maistresse".
Ockeghem was one of the most celebrated musicians of the fifteenth century and is one of the greatest composers of all time, every bit the equal of J.S. Bach in contrapuntal technique and profound expressivity, and like Bach able to combine the most rigorous intellectual structure with a beguiling sensuality. His two dozen songs set French lyric poetry in the courtly forms of the fifteenth century—rondeau, virelai, and ballade—to exquisitely crafted polyphony in which all voices are granted equally beautiful and compelling melodies.
The CD booklet contains complete texts and translations and notes on the music and performance practice by Sean Gallagher (musicological adviser for "Ockeghem@600", Blue Heron’s project to perform the complete works of Johannes Ockeghem in a series of thirteen concert programs) and Blue Heron’s music director Scott Metcalfe.
Includes unlimited streaming of Johannes Ockeghem Complete Songs Vol. 1
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
En atendant vostre venue,
Mon bien que je desire tant,
Une heure me dure bien cent
Quant de vous seul je pers la veue.
Bien souvent seullete, esperdue,
Je passe mon temps en pleurant
En atendant vostre venue,
Mon bien que je desire tant.
Mais bon Espoir m’a maintenue
Et de son bon gré m’asseurant
Que je vous reverray briefment,
Qui en joye m’a entretenue.
En atendant vostre venue …
While awaiting your return,
my dear one whom I so desire,
one hour feels like a hundred
when I lose sight of you alone.
Very often, alone, desperate,
I pass my time in weeping
While awaiting your return,
my dear one whom I so desire.
But good Hope has sustained me
through her good will, assuring me
that I will soon see you again,
and so has maintained me in joy.
While awaiting your return …
Translation by Scott Metcalfe
credits
from Johannes Ockeghem Complete Songs Vol. 1,
released November 1, 2019
Margot Rood and Owen McIntosh, voices
Scott Metcalfe, harp
Engineering and mastering: Joel Gordon
Producer: Scott Metcalfe
Editing: Eric Milnes & Joel Gordon
Assistant Session Producers: Michael Barrett, Eric Milnes & Martin Near
Graphic Design: Melanie Germond
Cover photo: Young Woman with a Pink, c. 1485-90, attributed to Hans Memling (d. 1494, Bruges), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437059)
Recorded at Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill
September 29-October 2 & October 28-30, 2018
Music composed by an anonymous 15th-century composer. All songs edited from original sources by Scott Metcalfe.
Winner of the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music (the first non-European group to win the award), Blue
Heron (Scott Metcalfe, dir.) has been acclaimed by The Boston Globe as “one of the Boston music community’s indispensables” and hailed by Alex Ross in The New Yorker for the “expressive intensity” of its interpretations....more
supported by 9 fans who also own “En atendant vostre venue”
Yet another wonderful epic post-minimalist work by the master of environmental trandenscentalism. The obvious companion piece to his majestic 'Become Ocean'. polinos
supported by 9 fans who also own “En atendant vostre venue”
Simply amazing to hear a new album with Wadada and Ewart!! ...And Reed rounds out this trio beautifully.
Just gave it my first spin. Absolutely magical. jeffrey maurer
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