Next installment is a quick two-fer.
Next installment is a quick two-fer. Because it's part of the liturgy surrounding Christmas, many composers have written a setting of the motet "O Magnum Mysterium". I know that ever since Chanticleer (I think) recorded it, the Lauridsen has been the go to, but my favorite will always be the one written by Tomas Luis de Victoria. He's even got a whole mass based on it, not that the mass has anything to do with xmas.
There are so many recordings of this. Oddly, it's hard to find one that both showcases the flow of polyphony and still is clean, clear, and beautiful. Which just goes to show that polyphony is anything but "simple". In addition, there's a lot of links on YouTube with superfluous stuff other than the music. No thank you. The one I chose to link to is a hair slower than my personal favorite tempo, it has other lovely qualities and it shows you the score so you can follow along. Really heart-rendingly beautiful and wonderfully climactic alleluia.
The two of the two-fer is a setting of the same by Gabrieli (Giovanni, the famouser nephew of Andrea), contemporary with Victoria and the pinnacle of the Venetian Renaissance/transition to Baroque. Imagine yourself in St. Mark's (officially Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), surrounded by the different choirs and brass in the different galleries reverberating and waves of sound washing over you from every direction, rippling and reverberating everywhere. If people didn't have religious experiences from the music in St. Mark's in the late 16th and early 17th century they had no soul. This was the original surround sound and you just have to experience it to have an inkling of why it was such an influential revelation at the time. Having your entire body bathed in sound is nothing like just having it pumped into your ears. Just sayin'.
The Victoria:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKvNxYMDxE
The Gabrieli:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8_3NXASokM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKvNxYMDxE
There are so many recordings of this. Oddly, it's hard to find one that both showcases the flow of polyphony and still is clean, clear, and beautiful. Which just goes to show that polyphony is anything but "simple". In addition, there's a lot of links on YouTube with superfluous stuff other than the music. No thank you. The one I chose to link to is a hair slower than my personal favorite tempo, it has other lovely qualities and it shows you the score so you can follow along. Really heart-rendingly beautiful and wonderfully climactic alleluia.
The two of the two-fer is a setting of the same by Gabrieli (Giovanni, the famouser nephew of Andrea), contemporary with Victoria and the pinnacle of the Venetian Renaissance/transition to Baroque. Imagine yourself in St. Mark's (officially Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), surrounded by the different choirs and brass in the different galleries reverberating and waves of sound washing over you from every direction, rippling and reverberating everywhere. If people didn't have religious experiences from the music in St. Mark's in the late 16th and early 17th century they had no soul. This was the original surround sound and you just have to experience it to have an inkling of why it was such an influential revelation at the time. Having your entire body bathed in sound is nothing like just having it pumped into your ears. Just sayin'.
The Victoria:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKvNxYMDxE
The Gabrieli:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8_3NXASokM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKvNxYMDxE
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