When I said yesterday that I didn’t have that many indulgences to begin with and therefore that finding something to give up would be a bit difficult, I confess that I fibbed just a tad. One of the means by which I habitually get through the day is to have my radio on in the car and the office, tuned to the local classickal station. I turned it off for Lent last year and found myself missing it a great deal, even if technically speaking it was largely background noise. After having thought it over, I’ve decided to take the same measure again this year.
However, as far as sitting down and listening to musick in a serious way in the evenings, I’ve decided not to cut that out. (Truth be told, the last few months I haven’t really listened formally to much musick anyway.) However, for the season, I plan to stick strictly to spiritual works. (Was it not Augustine who said that he who sings prays twice?)
To this end, I’ve got a fairly large stack of works to get through, including a lovely recording the Monteverdi 1610 Vespro della Beata Vergine and an outstanding collection of
Monteverdi duets and solos by Emma Kirby and Evelyn Tubb.
I’ve also got this powerhouse awaiting a suitable reflective moment:
The Bach St. Matthew Passion. Regular readers of a musickal bent probably will pelt me with rocks and garbage for having put on airs up to this point when I confess that I have never actually even heard this work performed before! I bought this CD some time last fall after reading rave reviews of it and have been saving it up for a special occassion.
Then there is Handel’s Messiah. Don’t let the usual Christmas association fool you: Only the first part of the oratorio deals with Jesus’ birth – the full production goes right through his life, death and resurrection. Indeed, if memory serves, the first performance of The Messiah took place at Easter in Dublin.
Another piece I intend to come back to is Haydn’s Missa In Tempore Belli, written at the height of the Napoleonic War. I am trying out a new recording here, featuring the outstanding English Baroque Soloists under the direction of John Eliot Full-of-Himself. A funny story about this piece: Back in college I had a cassette of it recorded by some Soviet bloc orchestra and chorus. I would swear that the chorus was using a Classical Latin pronunciation, not a Church Latin one. I often wondered if this was required by the censors to keep the thing strictly a work of art and not let it get contaminated by religious cooties.
Well anyway, that’s just some of the musick I intend to listen to. Any other suggestions – particularly from earlier periods – would be greatly appreciated. In particular, I’ve been meaning to get into some Thomas Tallis and really don’t know where to start.
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February 26, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Old Dominion Tory
Robbo: Seeing as it’s Lent, I suggest you begin with Tallis’ Lamentations of Jeremiah. There are a number of recordings of it available.
February 26, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Anchovy
Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories are at the top of my list for Holy Week listening. And a resounding second to Tallis’ Lamentations. I have a taste for Gesualdo, and while I rather suspect you might not, you could try him if you’re feeling adventurous. Naxos has a nice recording of all the 5-voice motets–his O vos omnes (Lamentations again) is hair-raising.
February 26, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Anchovy
And if I may back up a bit, the Taverner Leroy Kyrie is one of the high-points of English Renaissance music–the Tallis Scholars have a recording of it with the Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas. All three of Byrd’s masses deserve hearing too, and his beautiful Corpus Christi motet Ave verum corpus. And if you like even older, the Dufay Missa L’homme armé is a 15th century favorite of mine. Feeling even more adventurous? Perotin. Viderunt omnes, for example–there’s nothing else quite like it. Why, I’d even put together a CD of favorites for you, provided no laws are broken in the process.
February 26, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Robbo
Thankee, folks. Tallis, Taverner and Byrd are all now on the playlist.
February 26, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Anchovy
If you have room for the Victoria, you won’t regret it.
February 27, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Monica
Indeed, I loved singing “Behold, the Lamb of God” from Messiah during last year’s Lenten season.