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Track(s) taken from CDA66908

Canzon in echo duodecimi toni a 10, C180

composer
1597; No 11 of Sacrae Symphoniae

His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts
Recording details: March 1997
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard
Release date: September 1997
Total duration: 3 minutes 53 seconds
 

Reviews

‘This superb disc … is the very essence of La Serenissima. Masterly performances, alive with authentic detail’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Excellent. The playing is fluent and exhilarating. An excellent recording. The notes are exemplary’ (Classic CD)

‘Magnificent. The range of color, breadth and depth of sonority and the majestic nobility of the composer's conception are all revealed in a manner even the most expert of modern brass players could not possibly emulate. A superlative disc and a real credit to everyone involved’ (Fanfare, USA)

«L'ensemble anglais est aujourd'hui au sommet de son art» (Répertoire, France)
This remarkable work seems closest among the six 12th-mode canzonas to real military music, partly because of its unique, treble-dominated scoring of eight cornetts and two sackbuts, divided into two choirs, and also because of its simple, regular harmonic structure and processional feel. Was this perhaps a symbolic evocation of a military band of antiquity?

Echo-writing is one manifestation of composers’ liking, around the turn of the seventeenth century, for special effects of musical perspective. Here the effect depends on the dynamic possibilities of the cornetts rather than their physical placing, for each choir takes turns to echo the other.

Like some other canzonas, the Canzon in echo anticipates the ritornello form of the later concerto, the soloistic echo passages being framed by full ten-part sections. This structure is especially clear in the alternative version of the piece (No 12).

from notes by Timothy Roberts © 1997

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