Album of the Evening

[accwai]

Thanks for the Pandolfo reminder. He's a real virtuoso, isn't he?

 

Yes, his performances really stand out--they have real character. Anyway, have been meaning to get to this one sooner, but at least better late than never:

 

John Taverner: Missa Corona Spinea, Dum transisset Sabbtum I & II

The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips

 

 

This one is rather insane. A quick skim through parts of the score shows that the highest treble voice goes as high as B-flat above C5 and only very occasionally dips to A-flat above middle C. Seems like the lower part of the soprano range is deliberately avoided. This detaches the treble voice and allows it to dance above the rest of the choir, which it does almost non-stop. Declamation of the text of the Mass probably isn't a priority here. It's just some excuse to make some magnificent music. And magnificent it is

[pas]

[Musicophile]

Thanks for the Pandolfo reminder. He's a real virtuoso, isn't he? And, yeah, I'm a little obsessed

 

Here are 2 recordings of selections from 6 L'homme arme masses that might have started the tradition. Many think that Antoine Busnoys, a student of Dufay's, wrote the 6 anonymous masses. He did write one that is certainly his and he likely wrote it before Dufay, but that is a different album for another day. Both 6 mass recordings are good and have mostly different selections from the Masses. Each has a different approach to performance. I'm no expert, but I don't think they are necessary for understanding/appreciating the more celebrated L'homme arme masses.

 

L’HOMME ARMÉ:

Six masses attributed to Antoine Busnois,

Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale

Cantica Symphonia

Giuseppe Maletto

 

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La Dissection d'un Homme Armé: Six Masses After a Burgundian Song

Van Nevel, Huelgas Ensemble

 

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Let me join the Pandolfo party here, with this excellent album:

 

[Booster MPS]

Highly recommend the new Sarah Jarosz album, Undercurrent. This one is every bit as good as her previous work, but this time around it feels like she is doing less with more if that makes sense. Gary Paczosa behind the boards so the sound quality is extremely high. On sale this weekend at HDT.

 

 

[kumakuma]

Highly recommend the new Sarah Jarosz album, Undercurrent. This one is every bit as good as her previous work, but this time around it feels like she is doing less with more if that makes sense. Gary Paczosa behind the boards so the sound quality is extremely high. On sale this weekend at HDT.

 

 

 

+1

 

I downloaded it yesterday and I have listened to it several times since. The "acoustic" songs are especially enjoyable.

 

Here is a review of the album from the Wall Street Journal:

 

Undercurrent by Sarah Jarosz Review: An Economical Approach to Passion - WSJ

[sedest]

[Jud]

Catching up on all studio albums by Led Zeppelin...

 

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Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

 

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Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

 

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Led Zeppelin - Presence

 

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Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door

 

Seen Train's latest?

[Jud]

 

Two roughly beautiful "American" voices, if I can use that adjective, that one wouldn't expect to blend nearly as well as they do. Great song selection and terrific backing musicians. I'll be playing this one often.

[Jud]

Highly recommend the new Sarah Jarosz album, Undercurrent. This one is every bit as good as her previous work, but this time around it feels like she is doing less with more if that makes sense. Gary Paczosa behind the boards so the sound quality is extremely high. On sale this weekend at HDT.

 

 

 

Thanks to you and Tom (kumakuma). Just needed to hear bits of two songs to know I'm really going to like this one. Downloading now.

[Booster MPS]

Yikes just reread my earlier post.

 

No no she is doing MORE with less. Cry pardon. Great album.

 

And Steve Earl is awesome. Will check that out.

[master]

Seen Train's latest?

 

Thanks for the heads up. Have a few of Train albums, but was not aware of this one.

 

Ordered.

[BacHolz]

Highly recommend the new Sarah Jarosz album, Undercurrent. This one is every bit as good as her previous work, but this time around it feels like she is doing less with more if that makes sense. Gary Paczosa behind the boards so the sound quality is extremely high. On sale this weekend at HDT.

 

 

 

Didn't pick up the HD download but received the disc yesterday.

Been a fan for years and this work reveals her maturing artistry.

She remains one of the "New Grass" artists I most enjoy.

Would love to hear a new release from Alison Krauss.

[christopher3393]

Let me join the Pandolfo party here, with this excellent album:

 

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Thanks. Added to Tidal queue.

 

John Taverner: Missa Corona Spinea, Dum transisset Sabbtum I & II

The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips

 

 

This one is rather insane. A quick skim through parts of the score shows that the highest treble voice goes as high as B-flat above C5 and only very occasionally dips to A-flat above middle C. Seems like the lower part of the soprano range is deliberately avoided. This detaches the treble voice and allows it to dance above the rest of the choir, which it does almost non-stop. Declamation of the text of the Mass probably isn't a priority here. It's just some excuse to make some magnificent music. And magnificent it is

 

Interesting, thanks! Here's a bit of Richard Taruskin: Taverner “remained true to an older attitude, according to which the music contributed something essentially other than what human language could encompass. The English melismas continued to hide the text, so to speak, from aural view, and thus preempt it.” His music, “aspiring to raise the listener’s mind up above the terrestrial, provided a sensory overload: higher treble parts than anywhere else, lower bass parts, richer harmonies…” and then something I didn't get about the "suspended sixth" that Taverner employs that gives his music "that special English tingle". I hope to listen to this again a little further down the road.

 

Listened to this for Busnois' Missa L'homme arme. Evidently, this was a very influential work in its time, but this is one (and easily the better one) of only 2 recordings of this Mass. Found it fascinating musically. Recommended.

 

 

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/notes/55288-B.pdf

[EuroChamp]

Willie Nelson, Wynton Marsalis

Here We Go Again (feat. Norah Jones)

 

[AmosM]

 

Sprawling, complicated record with a lot of good songs and sounds both. Seems to have been recorded with a lot of love. Unusual, too, that the songs grow stronger in the back half.

[master]

 

Prince - The Undertaker

 

Prince is on an absolute roll with the guitar. Some of the best ever in fact.

 

Highly recommended... just for the riffs alone.

[accwai]

Here's a bit of Richard Taruskin: Taverner “remained true to an older attitude, according to which the music contributed something essentially other than what human language could encompass. The English melismas continued to hide the text, so to speak, from aural view, and thus preempt it.”

 

Yes. On first listen, the most obvious melisma is track 6, which is one minute eight seconds and is made up entirely of the single word "Benedictus". It's 29 bars in the score from Gimell. But looking at the score closer, there are numerous instances where an entire line is filled with dashes. So malismas are all over the place.

 

His music, “aspiring to raise the listener’s mind up above the terrestrial, provided a sensory overload: higher treble parts than anywhere else, lower bass parts, richer harmonies…”

 

Yup, the text is just an excuse

 

[...] and then something I didn't get about the "suspended sixth" that Taverner employs that gives his music "that special English tingle". I hope to listen to this again a little further down the road.

 

Hmm... I believe suspended sixth is a triad with no third but a major sixth instead. So a simple example would be Do-Sol-La sounded together. In root position, there is a major second between fifth and sixth, so it's dissonant. But you also have perfect fifth and major sixth, so it's probably not too bad. If it's used beyond first position, intervals of perfect fourth and minor seventh would show up. No idea how it's normally used though.

 

Used in a certain way would probably give a particular type of sound. But unless you know exactly what to listen for, it might not be that easy to associate the sound back to the chord. If a place in the score is already given to you, it would be easy to experience the effect in question. Otherwise, the score from Gimell is 77 pages. Analyzing it might be quite tedious...

 

Let me join the Pandolfo party here, with this excellent album:

 

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Continuing the Pandolfo party

 

Marin Marais: Le Labyrinthe & autre histoires

Paolo Pandolfo, Mitzi Meyerson, Thomas Boysen, Juan Carlos de Mulder,

Alba Fresno, François Fauché, Pedro Estevan

 

[christopher3393]

Thanks for the comments and recommendation. Wonderful that you read music so well!

 

Ockeghem: Missa L'homme Arme / Ensemble Nusmido: one voice per part, close miked, mellifluous sounding.

 

 

 

Here's old Ockeghem leading his students:

 

[accwai]

[...] I believe suspended sixth is a triad with no third but a major sixth instead. So a simple example would be Do-Sol-La sounded together. [...]

 

Thanks for the comments and recommendation. Wonderful that you read music so well!

 

Not well enough unfortunately. Turns out suspended sixth is a triad with no fifth but a major sixth instead. Things didn't click until I read Richard Taruskin on Google Books. He even provided an example of it, from the end of Benedictus in Taverner's Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas:

 

 

The score fragment in the Taruskin book is a little messy so the above is from Gimell (see p. 60). The last bar is essentially F, A and C, i.e. F major triad, except for the beginning little bit on line A1, which is a D. The D is a major 6th above F and is suspending a note from the previous bar. That's why is called suspended sixth, and it resolves down to a fifth, providing the tonic triad to end the section. You can hear it at the very end of Track 3 on the Tallis Scholars Taverner Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas CD. The little blip goes by very quickly though.

 

And a couple of other interesting things looking at this score: 1. The final chord is an F, and the key signature of 4 flat can mean F minor. There are a bunch of E-flat though, so if it's F minor at all, it's a natural minor. 2. On the A1 line, there is a E in the second last bar with a flat sign in bracket. The bracket means it's just a reminder, the flat is already in the key signature. I suppose this is stressing the fact that this note is the subtonic of a natural minor. Without it, you can't descend to scale degree 6 and the suspended 6th wouldn't have been possible. 3. The natural sign in front of the A on the Tr and T lines are there to force ending chord into major. I'm taught a major ending chord carries much better than minor in a big space like a church. There is a fancy name for it: Picardy third. I always thought it's a Baroque things, but looks like it's earlier than that.

 

Interesting stuff... Now back to Album of the Evening:

 

Heavenly Spheres

Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Christopher Jackson

 

[master]

 

Cowboy Junkies - Pale Sun, Crescent Moon

 

Nice band, good music and all, but it's Margo Timmins and her ethereal voice that elevates Cowboy Junkies to a special status. Kind of like Dolores O'Riordan and her "sweet" vocals for The Cranberries.

 

Margo Timmins grabs you and does not let you go... kind of arresting you with her vocals to the extent you become oblivious to the rest of the music and the instruments - in a way you don't recall the guitar riffs, the drum roll, etc.

 

Raison d'être to check out the Cowboy Junkies... even if it means you'll find a new vocalist to fall in love with.

[Nikhil]

The Black Crowes: Shake Your Money Maker

Enjoying myself some Southern Rock right now.

 

[jcn3]

The Black Crowes: Shake Your Money Maker

Enjoying myself some Southern Rock right now.

 

 

LOVE this album -- it really rocks!

[jcn3]

All of the Nelson Riddle albums with Linda are great and sound really good. Enjoying this one ripped from CD.

 

[Musicophile]

Bach: Cantatas vol. 34 - Suzuki

 

[accwai]

J.S. Bach: Organ Works - Heyday in Weimar

Andrea Marcon