Sacred Music [I]: II. Palestrina and the Popes. The Sixteen - Harry Christophers. A choral history on video.
BBC is, probably, the best national broadcasting company in the world. British are able to put all their technical quality and talent at the service of culture and music.
This is one of the most fantastic examples of this. "Sacred Music BBC
Series" is a wonderful journey through the history of choral music from
the Middle Ages to our days. The Sixteen put to the service of this company his musical knowledge and high choral quality.
In the second episode, The Sixteen performed music by "The Prince of Music", Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Wonderful music, composed by one of the most impressive choral music masters in history of music.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina [1525-1594]: Missa Brevis à 4. The Tallis Scholars - Peter Phillips. Il Principe della Musica.
Peter Phillips wrotes about: "Despite its title Palestrina's famous Missa Brevis is one of the most substantial
and sonorous of all his mass-settings to be written in four parts. The
reason for its title (meaning 'short mass') is a mystery, though the use
of it may be connected with the lack of any obvious model for the
setting. Palestrina, early in his career, liked to use other composers'
motets or plainsong chant to rework in 'parody' fashion, an old and
respectable technique. Many people have looked for such a model in this
case but without success. Plainsong was the most likely starting-point,
but if so the melodies are not consistently applied. The mass was first
published in 1570 and was a success from the start, being reprinted
several times before 1620. There have been countless modern editions.
The most likely explanation for this general descriptive title Brevis
is that no other came readily to hand. In other cases of a 'free'
setting Sine Nomine was common; but some of these, like the one which
has recently been proved to be based on Josquin's motet Benedicta es,
are bigger pieces in terms of the number of voices employed, and perhaps
a distinction between the titles Sine Nomine and Brevis is implied.
Not that anyone ever proposed the title Missa Longa. The idea that
the word Brevis comes from the fact that every movement starts with a
breve in the original notation is discounted since literally hundreds of
works start with that note and it is hard to imagine anyone fixing on
this detail as being worthy of comment.
The music has a strong
character, confidently written, with the motif of the falling minor
third, usually followed by upward movement by step, appearing very
regularly. This happens not only at the beginning of most movements, but
frequently during them, for instance in the remarkable sequence in all
the parts to the word Amen in the Credo. This interval alone goes
some way to explain the unusually subtle cohesion which the Missa
Brevis displays on close acquaintance, where a casual glance might
judge it to be disparate. The music is for SATB, increasing to SSATB for
the beautiful second Agnus Dei. The phrase at the beginning of the
first Agnus - an ascending scale - is inverted at the beginning of the
second, which rounds off the music in the most satisfying way."
In words of Ivan Moody:
"Palestrina’s four-voiced Missa Brevis was first published in 1570, in
the third book of masses, and several times reprinted. Its title has
been the subject of considerable but fruitless speculation – it is not
particularly short, and could indeed be considered quite substantial as a
four-part work. Though many have looked for a model, this does not seem
to be a “parody” Mass; the world brevis was probably used simply
because no other title suggested itself. Haberl’s idea that it was
because each movement opens with a breve is certainly not be worthy of
note.
One of the most frequently sung Masses in Palestrina´s
oeuvre, the Missa Brevis has been an immediacy of melodic and a
notable clarity of texture. Its lack of recurrent reference to a musical
model is compensated for by the regular appearance of a particular
melodic features, notable a descending minor third followed by a brief
scalic ascent – this is clearly audible at the very opening of the
Kyrie. The four-part texture gives way in the Benedictus to a flowing
trio (SAT), and in the second Agnus Dei to a five-part setting, with
trebles in canon at the unison."
In my opinion, this is a fine
example of academic style by Palestrina and one of the best Mass setting
in four parts ever composed. The text is clear, absolutely
understandable, but the music is not affected by this, and the beautiful
of this piece is really incredible. This is Renaissance, voices,
harmony, melody, polyphony... an authentic example of the best
Renaissance polyphony ever composed.
This performance is really impressive. The lines move, cross and listen with incredible clarity, and sound is amazing. This album is pure Palestrina, pure "Tallis", pure Phillips, pure Renaissance, pure polyphony and pure glory.
