‘Commemoration, Ritual and Performance : The
Iberian Connection : Medieval and Renaissance music from The St
Laurence Chamber Choir’ (recorded at St Scholastica’s
Chapel, Glebe, New South Wales, February 2005, directed by Dr Neil
McEwan), CD project directed by Dr Jane M. Hardie, Centre for Medieval
Studies, University of Sydney – see Symposia, ‘Commemoration,
Ritual and Performance’, July 2004. Most of the music from
Medieval and Renaissance Iberia is performed here for the first
time, and is the result of new research.
Audio sample, MS images and order form
CD contents
Review:
I have just been asked to review a new CD with the somewhat extended
title Commemoration, Ritual and Performance, The Iberian Connection,
Medieval and Renaissance music from The St Laurence Chamber Choir.
Perhaps the title was chosen by a committee but, whatever the reason,
the contents are sublime. Directed by one of Sydney’s most
outstanding church musicians, Dr Neil McEwan, and recorded in St
Scholastica’s Chapel, Glebe, the CD is a result of a Symposium
on Commemoration and Ritual held at Sydney University in July 2004.
Quoting from the CD booklet : ‘all of the music recorded
here commemorates an important aspect of the life of the Western
church as it was celebrated on the Iberian Peninsula before 1600’.
The Project Director was Jane Morlet Hardie who is to be congratulated
on such a fine initiative. Not surprisingly, the CD notes are informative
and scholarly and include translations. For me there was only one
familiar piece, the exquisite motet O quam gloriosum of Victoria.
Some of the music has previously never been recorded. There are
tracks where liturgical chant is interspersed with polyphony and
motets by composers Francisco de Peñalosa (c.1474-1528)
Francisco Gerrero (1528-99) and Cristóbal Morales (c.1500-53).
So, if you like your church music to be contemplative, from a long
valued tradition, where flowing chant and seamless phrases and
passages of ethereal beauty are sung by pure young voices, expertly
directed, this variety could be for you. The CD is purchasable
via the Centre for Medieval Studies (web + credit card), Michael’s
Music Room, and Christ Church St Laurence.
RCSM (Royal School of Church Music) Australia, NSW Branch monthly
newsletter Newsclef 18 (2005)
‘ Selections from Shakespeare in Early
Modern English’ (recorded at the International Medieval Congress
in Leeds), CD directed by Tom Burton (Adelaide) for Chaucer Studio,
2003
‘Chaucer's Tale of Melibee’ (recorded at the New Chaucer
Society Congress in Boulder, Colorado, with Andrew Lynch as Chaucer),
CD
directed by Tom Burton (Adelaide) for Chaucer Studio, 2003)
A full catalogue of Chaucer Studio recordings is on line at http://english.byu.edu/Chaucer/
‘Ductus, a guide to medieval Latin palaeography’ by
Centre for Medieval Studies Associate Member Bernard Muir (English,
Melbourne).
This CD ROM won first prize in its category at the “2000
Awards for excellence in educational publishing”. The second
edition can be purchased via the “Medieval multimedia” website
at:
http://www.medieval.unimelb.edu.au/ductus/
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