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The Holy Head from a fifteenth-century Book of Hours.
Archive Service Only
Rickmansworth Masonic School Chapel, United Kingdom
Produced by Martin Compton
Engineered by Tony Faulkner
Release date: November 1996
Total duration: 67 minutes 30 seconds
'A fascinating disc with superbly informative and enticing notes by Christopher Page' (BBC Music Magazine)
'At last, for the first time in over thirty years, we can hear this glorious work … As always, the booklet material is an absolute model of what these things should be; a self-contained lesson in medieval aesthetics, miraculously presented' (BBC Record Review)
'A very special achievement … Music of the very highest order, seldom recorded. Essential listening! (Gramophone)
'Christopher Page traduit avec toujours autant de sûreté mais aussi beaucoup de transparence les longues et expressives phrases musicales de cet ensemble remarquable' (Répertoire, France)
'Comme à l'accoutumée, une impeccable justesse le dispute à la rigueur rythmique, à la vocalité, à l'homogénéité des ensembles, au sens du phrasé'(Diapason, France)
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Movement 2: Gloria
[4'53]
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Movement 3: Credo
[5'40]
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Movement 4: Sanctus
[5'02]
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Movement 5: Agnus Dei
[4'42]
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The English anonymous fifteenth-century Missa Caput at the centre of this disc is probably the most significant work from the period. It was copied all across Britain and the Continent and was largely responsible for the universal adoption of the 'parody mass' technique and of today's standard four-part choir arrangement. It is a work of great stature and beauty, in this performance interspersed with a curious Latin poem which describes how two small boys composed the Salve regina antiphon while languishing in Hell. (The poem has recently been discovered and is the subject of a forthcoming monograph by Christopher Page.) Also represented here are six fifteenth-century carols, and an exquisite Agnus Dei from the Old Hall Manuscript. |
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