Sun 3 July - Ockeghem, Requiem Mass

[french frank]

Here's a good one for the Early Music enthusiasts, Sunday, 5pm:

"In a programme recorded at the 2011 Aldeburgh Festival, Stephen Johnson is joined by Ensemble Organum and Marcel Peres to explore the earliest surviving setting of the Requiem mass by the 15th Century composer Johannes Ockeghem."

[ardcarp]

Look forward to it...except I'll have to LA. I wonder if they will use the now preferred pronunciation of 'Ockeghem' which involves a lot of glottal activity!

[Serial_Apologist]

It will be instructive (hopefully) hearing expert knowledge on a composer of the late Mediaeval?earl.y Renaissance period discussed in depth.

A friend moved to Holland last year, and is now learning Dutch. Suffering as he does from a lot of catarrh it is always fun bringing up the name of Ockeghem. Sounds kinda Flemish.

[french frank]

hearing expert knowledge

Apologies to Marcel Pérès for omitting the accents - it was a cut 'n' paste job ...

[Roehre]

Here's a good one for the Early Music enthusiasts, Sunday, 5pm:

"In a programme recorded at the 2011 Aldeburgh Festival, Stephen Johnson is joined by Ensemble Organum and Marcel Peres to explore the earliest surviving setting of the Requiem mass by the 15th Century composer Johannes Ockeghem."

Looking forward to that one. It isn't btw the earliest surviving setting of the Missa pro Defunctis, it is the earliest example not set by that long-living and very productive composer named Anonymus

[ostuni]

But were there actually any anonymous polyphonic Requiems predating Ockeghem's? A quick glance at my bookshelf finds Atlas and Strohm both supporting the listing's claim. Dufay wrote one, of course, but it has disappeared...

Of course a pedant could insist that the listing, as punctuated above, only claims that this is Ockeghem's earliest surviving Requiem: The addition of a comma after 'mass' might make things less ambiguous...

[Simon]

I remember doing some of this early stuff at A level. Wasn't there a pal of his called Tinctoris or someone? If I've got it right I think that we thought Ockeghem's work was more approachable - fuller, more rounded in the sense that we were used to with the more familiar English early stuff - than his contemporaries. Whatever, I recall enjoying a couple of pieces, though what they were I haven't a clue now. I'm looking forward to hearing this work: thanks for flagging it up.

[Roehre]

But were there actually any anonymous polyphonic Requiems predating Ockeghem's? A quick glance at my bookshelf finds Atlas and Strohm both supporting the listing's claim. Dufay wrote one, of course, but it has disappeared...

Of course a pedant could insist that the listing, as punctuated above, only claims that this is Ockeghem's earliest surviving Requiem: The addition of a comma after 'mass' might make things less ambiguous...

There is at least one anonymous polyphonic Requiem dating from around 1440/1450, a parody mass with Requiem aeternam as the cantus firmus (by chance in Britain: the manuscript is in the Bodleian). Dufay's is dated from 1470/'71. but has gone lost, and Ockeghem's is therefore the earliest surviving example of a REquiem of which we know the composer. There is reason to discuss that this might date from 1461: the funeral of Louis XI that year, but the evidence to prove this conclusively is still rather flimsy (and that discussion lasts for over 25 years now).

[ardcarp]

Radio 4 has turned up trumps again. Its excellent series The Making of Music (which I think is a repeat) was on at 3.45pm today, and it included an extremely thorough look at the Court of Burgundy with Dufay and Binchois...and a mention of the influence of our John Dunstable. James Naughtie is the presenter. Worth a listen.

[ardcarp]

PS Yer 'tis:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b007mvlf

[french frank]

First time round it was on at 3.45pm on R4 and at 4pm-5pm R3 played connected music. That's when they cleared out the old 4pm programmes like Voices and Choral Evensong. Presumably they decided they couldn't repeat that this time (they'd have to move Choral Evensong again ).

[jean]

I love Ockeghem, I find Ensemble Organum's take on plainsong interesting and I love them in their Corsican repertoire.

I'm not sure I like what they're doing to Ockeghem just now, though.

[jean]

The sort of energy and excitement they get into their performances of Corsican music seems totally absent from their Ockeghem.

I know it's a Requiem, but surely it doesn't have to be so lacklustre?

[Roehre]

The sort of energy and excitement they get into their performances of Corsican music seems totally absent from their Ockeghem.

I know it's a Requiem, but surely it doesn't have to be so lacklustre?

I don't think it's lacklustre. E.g. the deep basses at the the very beginning of the Kyrie (and elsewhere) were IMO hair rising /causing goosebumps. And without the text you can follow what is sung. I think this performance was on par with their recording of the Messe de Nostre Dame (re-released on Harmonia Mundi).

A missed point in this episode of DM is not pointing out the cantus firmus which defines large stretches of this Missa pro Defunctis. It is that aspect which contributes more than anything else to understand the music and how this type of polyphonic music works.