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Track(s) taken from CDA67874

Libera me, Domine

composer
5vv ATTBarB; Oxford Christ Church MSS 979-983, London British Library MS RM 24d.2,f.76v & AddMSS 32377f.66v
author of text
Ninth Respond at Matins, Office for the Dead

The Cardinall's Musick, Andrew Carwood (conductor)
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Recording details: November 2010
Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel Castle, United Kingdom
Produced by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
Engineered by Martin Haskell
Release date: October 2011
Total duration: 7 minutes 31 seconds

Cover artwork: Portrait of Mary I. Hans Eworth (c1520-1574)
AKG London
 

Other recordings available for download

Contrapunctus, Owen Rees (conductor)

Reviews

‘The Cardinall's Musick are at their best in this repertoire, and their performances have confidence and authority … Parsons certainly deserves the hearing that Carwood's musicians afford us, so this addition to the catalogue is very valuable’ (Gramophone)

‘Carwood and his singers highlight the inherent drama of Parsons' style, notably in O bone Jesu, with its changing textures, brilliant canons and expressive dissonances … perhaps the crowning glory of the disc is the final Ave Maria, the slow and poignant unfolding of which echoes long in the memory. Hyperion's detailed recording, swathed in the glowing acoustic of the Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel Castle, enhances these seraphic performances’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Parsons is not a one-hit-wonder after all … one may expect the incidence of Parsons' music on programmes to increase significantly especially after such a fine sound as Carwood generates’ (Classic FM Magazine)
One link between composers of the mid-sixteenth-century is their penchant for producing sets of Lamentations and Responds from the Office of Matins in the Funeral Rite. No Lamentations have survived from Parsons but settings were produced by Tallis, Osbert Parsley, White (two sets), Alfonso Ferrabosco and Byrd. It is interesting to note these names when looking at the three Funeral Responds set by Parsons, as three similar Responds are set both by Alfonso Ferrabosco and William Byrd. Libera me, Domine (9th Respond) is an austere work with the plainsong cantus firmus maintained throughout in the tenor part. It is likely that Parsons’ setting was the model for one by William Byrd published in his 1575 Cantiones Sacrae.

from notes by Andrew Carwood © 2011

Lien avec les compositeurs des années 1550: un goût certain pour les corpus de lamentations et de répons tirés de l’office des matines du rite funèbre. Aucune série de lamentations de Parsons ne nous a été conservée, contrairement à celles de Tallis, Osbert Parsley, White (deux corpus), Alfonso Ferrabosco et Byrd. Qui s’intéresse aux trois répons funèbres de Parsons gardera en tête ces deux derniers noms, puisque nous leur connaissons trois répons similaires. Libera me, Domine (neuvième répons) est une page austère, où le cantus firmus en plain-chant est conservé de bout en bout au ténor. Elle servit probablement de modèle au Libera me publié par William Byrd dans ses Cantiones Sacrae de 1575.

extrait des notes rédigées par Andrew Carwood © 2011
Français: Hypérion

Ein Bindeglied zwischen den Komponisten der Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts ist ihre Vorliebe, Lamentationen und Responsorien des Offiziums der Matutin der Begräbnisliturgie anzufertigen. Von Parsons ist uns kein Lamentationszyklus überliefert, doch komponierten Tallis, Osbert Parsley, White (zwei Zyklen), Alfonso Ferrabosco und Byrd derartige Werke. Es ist interessant, diese Namen im Hinterkopf zu behalten, wenn man die drei Begräbnisresponsorien von Parsons betrachtet, da drei ähnliche Responsorien auch sowohl von Alfonso Ferrabosco und William Byrd existieren. Das Libera me, Domine (9. Responsorium) ist ein herbes Werk mit einem gregorianischen Cantus firmus, der durch das gesamte Stück hinweg in der Tenorstimme beibehalten wird. Es ist gut möglich, dass Parsons’ Vertonung das Vorbild für ein entsprechendes Werk von William Byrd war, das in seinen Cantiones Sacrae von 1575 herausgegeben wurde.

aus dem Begleittext von Andrew Carwood © 2011
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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