Choirs on EMS

[ardcarp]

There are some interesting and perhaps lesser known choral ensembles featured on Sarurday's EMS.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017cfh0#segments

[ardcarp]

I wonder if anyone heard the Byrd 3, 4 and 5 part masses on Sunday's EMS? If so, what did they think of the performances? They can sound (dare I say it) quite boring. It's not a very HIPP thing to do, but using some tempo changes, dynamic changes and even changes in vocal tone can bring them to life. And who knows whether or not recusants lurking in cellars might have rendered them with some religious fervour?

[french frank]

Where's doversoul?

[DracoM]

Eheu! At the moment iplayer for that broadcast does not seem to be working.

[decantor]

I wonder if anyone heard the Byrd 3, 4 and 5 part masses on Sunday's EMS? If so, what did they think of the performances? They can sound (dare I say it) quite boring. It's not a very HIPP thing to do, but using some tempo changes, dynamic changes and even changes in vocal tone can bring them to life. And who knows whether or not recusants lurking in cellars might have rendered them with some religious fervour?

One honest post deserves another, I guess. I started to listen....... the word 'arid' floated before my eyes...... I switched off and focused on lunch. 'Nuff said. (But I did switch on again for Harmonium.)

[DracoM]

It was efficient singing but it felt like the usual, slightly bloodless Tallis Schols production line. Feel sorry for them because it surely must be wrong to mash so much Byrd one after the other into one programme.

[Miles Coverdale]

I think there's a strong argument to be made that Byrd's masses are not church music (in the strict sense of music composed to be sung in church) at all. I think that when sixteenth-century Catholics wanted to celebrate mass, but couldn't obtain the services of a priest (which must often have been the case), singing music such as this must have acted as a substitute for the sacrament - in other words, the music became the sacrament.

In any case, Renaissance masses are not symphonies, and were never designed to be listened to one movement after another.

[DracoM]

Agreed.

[ardcarp]

not symphonies, and were never designed to be listened to one movement after another.

Oh! So sympnies are meant to be listened to one movement after another. Has anyone told Roger Wright?