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
Ma maistresse et ma plus grant amye,
De mon desir la mortelle ennemye,
Parfaicte en biens s’onques maiz le fut femme,
Celle seulle de qui court bruit et fame
D’estre sans per: ne vous verray je mye?
Helas, de vous bien plaindre me devroie,
S’il ne vous plaist que brefvement vous voye,
M’amour, par qui d’aultre aymer n’ay puissance.
Car sans vous voir, en quelque part que soye,
Tout ce que voys me desplaist et ennoye,
Ne jusque alors je n’auray souffisance.
Incessammant mon dolent cueur larmye
Doubtant qu’en vous Pitié soit endormye.
Que ja ne soit, ma tant amée dame!
Maiz s’ainsy est, si malheureux me clame
Que plus ne quiers vivre heure ne demye.
Ma maistresse et ma plus grant amye …
My mistress and my greatest friend,
mortal enemy of my desire,
perfect in good qualities, if ever a woman was,
she alone whom repute and fame hold
to be without peer: will I never see you ever?
Alas! I should rightly complain of you
if it does not please you that I see you shortly,
my love, because of whom I am powerless to love another.
For when I do not see you, wherever I might be,
everything I see displeases and vexes me,
nor until I see you will I be satisfied.
Ceaselessly my sorrowing heart weeps,
fearing that in you Pity lies asleep.
May it not be so, my so-beloved lady!
But if so it is, I declare myself so unhappy
that I do not want to live one hour more, nor even one half.
My mistress and my greatest friend …
Translation by Scott Metcalfe
credits
from Johannes Ockeghem Complete Songs Vol. 1,
released November 1, 2019
Martin Near, Jason McStoots and Sumner Thompson, voices
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 Johannes Ockeghem (c.1420-1497). 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 10 fans who also own “Ma maistresse et ma plus grant amye”
My god, what an absolutely incredible Suite. I'll admit, I've struggled to get into Pharoah Sanders due to diving headfirst into some of his most challenging catalogue and that never worked. This is the perfect place to restart. Floating Points is new for me and I can honestly say I've never heard synthesizer music this lush and organic before. the LSO is just perfect. This is one of those albums that any serious music fan needs in their life. The perfect swan song for the great Pharaoh! 5/5 ClassyMusicSnob
supported by 9 fans who also own “Ma maistresse et ma plus grant amye”
Yet another wonderful epic post-minimalist work by the master of environmental trandenscentalism. The obvious companion piece to his majestic 'Become Ocean'. polinos
“Scatter My Ashes” exists at a crossroads between multiple styles, but emerges with something rich, textural, ambient, and riveting. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 7, 2022
On "The Source," composer Ted Hearne uses bureaucratic language and poetic chat transcripts to create an electronic opera that honors its subject matter. Bandcamp Album of the Day Dec 13, 2016
supported by 9 fans who also own “Ma maistresse et ma plus grant amye”
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