Ockeghem: Missa Caput

Ockeghem: Missa Caput

Parisian Machicotage for the Mandatum Ritual
Ensemble Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32101

Contents:

1. Mandatum novum
2. Kyrie
3. Diligamus nos invicem
4. Gloria
5. In diebus illis
6. Credo
7. Maria ergo
8. Sanctus
9. Vos vocatis me
10. Agnus Dei
11. Venit ad petrum

Performers: Yves van Handenhove, Paul de Troyer, Björn Schmelzer, Lieven Gouwy, Bart Meynckens; Koen Meynckens, Paul Beelaerts, Thomas Vanlede, Arnout Malfliet

Playing time: 59'

Recording date: August 2004 (Antwerp); released: 2006

Reviewed in:
Fanfare (Vol./#-p.): 30/1-197 (September/october 2006)

This is an unusual recording in a variety of ways. First, the plainchant passages are done in the old "machicotage" style. This basically means that they are ornamented in a variety of ways. This practice was frequently condemned in writing, but also apparently goes back centuries. It was eventually eradicated with 18th & 19th century Gregorian reforms. No actual examples survive, as it was not a notated practice.

Texts chosen are from the Mandatum Ritual, the washing of the feet of twelve poor men. No mass Ordinary is part of this ritual, so the pairing is anachronistic, but Björn Schmelzer draws some connections between Ockeghem and the Mandatum Ritual and this mass.

Finally, the stated objective of this interpretation is to use individual voices which sound as distinctive as possible, ornamenting their own lines as they see fit, with no particular eye on the ensemble sound.

The next recordings by this ensemble:

Joye - Les plaints de Gilles de Bins dit Binchois

Ensemble Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32102

Poissance d'amours

Mystics, Monks & Minstrels in 13th century Brabant
Ensemble Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32103

La Magdalene

The cult of Mary Magdalene in the early 16th century
Ensemble Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32104

Cecus

Colours, blindness and memorial: Alexander Agricola and his contemporaries
Graindelavoix; - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32105

Cesena - Songs for popes, princes and mercenaries

Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32106

Ossuaires

Office for Elizabeth of Hungary by Pierre de Cambrai
Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32107

Confréries - Devotional songs by Jaikes de Cambrai

Villard de Honnecourt: Métier, memories and travels of a 13th-century cathedral builder vol. 2
Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32108

Motets: Music from Northern France

The Cambrai Manuscript A 410
Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa Platinum 32109

Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame

Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa Platinum 32110

Music for an Antwerp Church

International polyphony in Antwerp around 1600
Ensemble Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa Platinum 32111

Hanelle: Cypriot Vespers

Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa Platinum 32112

Vecchi: Requiem

Rubens's funeral and the Antwerp Baroque
Ensemble Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa Platinum 32113

De Rore: Portrait of the Artist as a Starved Dog

Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa Platinum 32114

The Liberation of the Gothic

Florid Polyphony by Thomas Ashwell and John Browne
Ensemble Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa Platinum 32115

Gesualdo: Tenebrae

Ensemble Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32116 [CDx3]

Josquin the Undead

Laments, deplorations and dances of death
Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32117

Brumel: Earthquake Mass

Manuel Mota / Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32118

Ex Nihilo

Polyphony Beyond the Order of Things
Ensemble Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer
Glossa 32119

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