Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs Vol.2

Several masses by Ockeghem are staples of any university course on Renaissance music, and choirs of various sizes have taken to their long, sinewy lines without obvious melodic linkages. His chansons, by comparison, are much less often recorded. A few individual songs show up on collections, but there are just a few systematic treatments, and many of the songs here have been newly edited by Blue Heron director Scott Metcalfe. They are quite different from the language of his masses, shorter, mostly quite lyrical in tone, and seeming to point directly toward the sacred music language of Josquin Desprez. Sample the limpid Ma bouche rit, probably the most familiar Ockeghem song, for an idea. Blue Herons recordings, well researched by director-musicologist Metcalfe, seem aimed at offering a variety of possible sounds for the songs, with a range of instruments and voices. The forces are small, mostly with two or three musicians per piece, and the use of the instruments is subtle (some songs dont use instruments at all). There are more interventionist recordings of early Renaissance secular music, and the church sound here is not quite right, but this quiet recording is an enjoyable introduction to a largely unknown repertory. ~ James Manheim