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
S’elle m’amera je ne scay,
Mais je me mectray en essay
D’acquerir quelque peu sa grace.
Force m’est que pars la je passe,
Ceste fois j’en feray l’essay.
L’autre jour tant je m’avençay
Que presque tout mon cuer lessay
Aller sans que luy demandasse.
S’elle m’amera je ne scay,
Mais je me mectray en essay
D’acquerir quelque peu sa grace.
Puis apres le cop m’en pensay
Que lonc temps a que ne cessay
Ne ne fut que je ne l’amasse.
Mais c’est ung jeu de passe-passe:
J’en suis comme je commençay.
S’elle m’amera je ne scay …
tenor & contratenors
Petite camusecte,
A la mort m’avez mis.
Robin et Marion
S’en vont au bois joly,
Ilz s’en vont bras a bras,
Ilz se sont endormis.
Petite camusecte,
A la mort m’avez mis.
If she will love me I know not,
but I shall put myself to the test
to gain, in some small measure, her favor.
I am forced to go that route:
this time I shall attempt it.
The other day I advanced so far
that I almost let my whole heart
go, without asking anything of her in return.
If she will love me I know not,
but I shall put myself to the test
to gain, in some small measure, her favor.
Then after that try I thought to myself
that for a long time I hadn’t stopped loving her,
nor did I ever not love her.
But it’s a game of sleight-of-hand:
I’m right back where I started!
If she will love me I know not …
(Tenor and countertenor)
Little snub-nose,
you have brought me to death’s door.
Robin and Marion
go off to the green wood,
they go off arm and arm,
they have fallen asleep.
Little snub-nose,
you have brought me to death’s door.
Translation by Scott Metcalfe
credits
from Johannes Ockeghem Complete Songs Vol. 1,
released November 1, 2019
Martin Near, Owen McIntosh, Stefan Reed and David McFerrin, 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 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 9 fans who also own “S’elle m’amera / Petite camusecte”
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 “S’elle m’amera / Petite camusecte”
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