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Signum Classics

Dufay - Sacred Music From Bologna Q15 / Clerks' Group

$19.99 Only 2 left

Details

Composer
DUFAY, GUILLAUME
Artist
Wickham
Format
CD
Label
Signum Classics
Released
Jan 01, 2002
Catalog #
SIGCD023
UPC
635212002322

About

Although the music of Dufay is no stranger to CD--groups such as Pomerium, the Binchois Consort, Gothic Voices, and Orlando Consort all have devoted discs to his masses and motets--this offering by The Clerk's Group, featuring selections from an important Italian manuscript known as Bologna Q15, provides a fascinating overview of both early and later works from this illustrious 15th century French composer. The hour-long program focuses on motets and mass movements that reveal a progression in Dufay's compositional style, from the rather square motet Vasilissa, ergo gaude (the composer's "earliest datable work") to the complex rhythms and free ornamentation of O gemma, lux et speculum and the sophisticated structure and highly developed melodic/harmonic relationships of the Credo (manuscript No. 108).

If you're an early music fan, you'll be right at home with this mostly male ensemble's finely focused, reedy sound (there's one woman among the group's six members, veteran alto Lucy Ballard), and there's no letting down of energy or concentration throughout the longest phrases within individual motets or across the more extended mass movements. The closely recorded voices and overall bright sonic quality wears a bit after 15 or 20 minutes, but you can't fault the singing, which brings a vibrant, assured presence to these ancient works; and if you're looking for fine, clearly sung, stylistically conscientious performances, you really can't go wrong here.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Tracklist 12 tracks

  1. 1 Vasilissa ergo gaude 02:47
    Track
    1
    Title
    Vasilissa ergo gaude
    Duration
    02:47
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  2. 2 Kyrie: Fons bonitatis 06:58
    Track
    2
    Title
    Kyrie: Fons bonitatis
    Duration
    06:58
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  3. 3 O beate Sebastiane 02:59
    Track
    3
    Title
    O beate Sebastiane
    Duration
    02:59
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  4. 4 Gloria 04:47
    Track
    4
    Title
    Gloria
    Duration
    04:47
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  5. 5 O gemma, lux et speculum 04:37
    Track
    5
    Title
    O gemma, lux et speculum
    Duration
    04:37
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  6. 6 Credo 06:29
    Track
    6
    Title
    Credo
    Duration
    06:29
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  7. 7 Supremum est mortalibus 06:25
    Track
    7
    Title
    Supremum est mortalibus
    Duration
    06:25
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  8. 8 Sanctus and Benedictus 06:21
    Track
    8
    Title
    Sanctus and Benedictus
    Duration
    06:21
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  9. 9 Inclita stella maris 04:07
    Track
    9
    Title
    Inclita stella maris
    Duration
    04:07
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  10. 10 Agnus Dei 03:26
    Track
    10
    Title
    Agnus Dei
    Duration
    03:26
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  11. 11 Gloria: Spiritus et alme 06:03
    Track
    11
    Title
    Gloria: Spiritus et alme
    Duration
    06:03
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay
  12. 12 O sancte Sebastiane 05:01
    Track
    12
    Title
    O sancte Sebastiane
    Duration
    05:01
    Composer
    Guillaume Dufay