死の恐怖

ルネサンス期の貴重なミサ曲が
アンサンブル・ジル・バンショワの名演で日の目を見た

シャルル・ダルジャンティーユ(1500頃-1557)は今日ほとんど知られていませんが、ローマの教皇庁礼拝堂でバス歌手を務めつつ、儀式のためのレクイエムを確立した人でした。ここに収められた「死者のためのミサ曲」は1550年以前に作曲され現存する死者のための典礼作品12曲のうちの1曲で、世界初録音。

アンサンブル・ジル・バンショワは、ジョスカン・デ・プレ直後世代の見過ごされがちな部分に光を当てています。豊かな響きのスタイル、模倣とホモフォニーの絶妙なバランスなど、この時代の作曲家たちが至った高度な熟達を証明してくれます。
キングインターナショナル

Timor mortis ("fear of death") is an interesting title for an album that includes a requiem mass and a set of Lamentations for Jeremiah, and the music here is likewise original. It comes from 16th century France, whose tradition of sacred music is not much investigated or recorded. Two of the composers, Charles dArgentil and Jehan Barra, will be unknown to all but musicologists, and the third, Claudin de Sermisy, is familiar mostly from his sprightly chansons. The booklet here has a substantial scholarly essay on this music, and the album will be essential for library collections of Renaissance music, but the bottom line is that the music is distinctive even for general listeners of Renaissance music. As annotator David Fiala points out, even though the three composers had very different careers, there is a common style here. The Lamentations of Sermisy, the Salve Regina misericordia motet of Barra, and even the Requiem of dArgentil have lighter, more transparent textures than the monuments of Flemish polyphony that have come down to us from the great Italian houses. The Requiem will be quite expressive and moving even for listeners new to the repertory. The two-voices-per-part readings of the Ensemble Gilles Binchois may be smaller than those that would have sung this music originally, but the singers under conductor Dominique Vellard deliver a nice clean edge, and the sound from the Abbaye Saint-Michel en Thierache is ideal. A genuine novelty in the Renaissance sphere, of great interest. ~ James Manheim