...there was the Notre Dame School:
This is "Sederunt principes," by Pérotin, aka Magister Perotinus, aka Perotinus Magnus - believed to have been composed for performance in the unfinished Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris on the feast day of St. Stephen (the day after Christmas), 1199.
This is Western "polyphony" (i.e., music where more than one voice sounds at the same time) in its first full, glorious, flower.
There are a number of excellent recordings of the music of Perotinus available. I most strongly recommend the one by Antony Pitts & his brilliant ensemble Tonus Peregrinus on the Naxos label.
Comments (5)
Hey - *somebody's* got to do *something* to keep up the tone around here!
But seriously - a web-friend on another site, suffering from (I hope & assume) merely temporary visual problems, has invited me to provide him with suggestions for listening material that he hasn't heard before.
So I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to flog some of my favorites - unless & until somebody objects.
Posted by steve burton | February 15, 2009 6:02 PM
Great music. The following link is also fairly excellent, but it gets insane around the 3:50 mark with the pizzicato and harmonics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPcnGrie__M
Posted by Step2 | February 15, 2009 8:10 PM
Steve,
Thanks so much for this piece of ostensibly celestial music. (Also, not surprising you should mention the Naxos label -- can't go wrong with them!)
As before, I'm still awaiting ever so anxiously for you to grace us with your series of articles such as that discussed in previous threads. Can't wait!
Posted by aristocles | February 16, 2009 4:05 PM
The Naxos recording you mention is a good one. I especially love the first track -- Perotin's Beata Viscera -- in which, if you listen closely, you can hear rain pattering on the church roof. It's wonderfully atmospheric.
But for my money the best recording of the music of the Notre Dame school (Perotin, Leonin, etc.) is still the one made by the Hilliard Ensemble on ECM in 1988. Unsurpassed singing in a gorgeous acoustic.
Posted by cnb | February 17, 2009 10:58 AM
cnb - well, *de gustibus*, I guess.
The Hilliard Ensemble are (were?) a fine bunch of singers, and I'm very happy to have their versions of this music in my library.
But the only instance where I'd give them pride of place over all their rivals would be, precisely, *Beata Viscera*.
Go figure.
Posted by steve burton | February 18, 2009 12:42 AM