Gothic Voices
Some aspects of being human must be "transhistorical," according to Christopher Page; sustained exposure to the music of the past opens a window onto how past humans experienced that music. Page has devoted a prolific corner of his life to using music to bridge the historical gap between human beings: Gothic Voices, the vocal ensemble he has directed since its founding in 1980. The group, clearly one of the world's leaders in the performance of medieval music, gives concerts quite frequently in England, as well as continental Europe, America, and Canada; their close relationship with Hyperion Records has resulted in nearly twenty critically-acclaimed recordings (and no less than three Gramophone Awards). Spanning musics from Hildegard of Bingen to the turn of the sixteenth century, they consistently present music of outstanding quality, with the highest standards of performance. Their vocal sound is a conscious blend of "scrupulously accurate" tuning, sensitive phrasing, careful rhythmic articulation, and a bright and clear vocal production.
Their first recording, A Feather on the Breath of God, coincided with the release of Ensemble Sequentia's Ordo virtutem, and helped launch the international resurgence in interest in Hildegard's music. Since that time, the bulk of their work has been in the music of France and England, from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. One series entitled the Spirits of England and France contains, for instance, recordings of two anonymous early English Masses, as well as a luscious recording of Binchois chansons and one of the best performances of Trouvère lyrics in print. Fascinatingly, a 1998 La Rue disc betrays some vocal uncertainty, as the group approaches music outside the repertories in which it has lived so securely. Christopher Page himself considers two recordings from the early 1990s (The Medieval Romantics and Lancaster and Valois) to represent a watershed in the life of the ensemble, when they acquired the services of two baritones whose voices so elegantly fit the group's sound. More prominently, it was also at this time that his "experiments" with vocalization of untexted chanson lines came to fruition.
Though Christopher Page himself is a philologist by training, lecturing in Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, Old French, and Latin at Cambridge University, his printed scholarship on medieval music has been highly influential (even inflammatory). His writings on music sensitively and deeply consider the role of music in medieval European life, as well as specific issues of performance practice. One of these has been dubbed by a furious critic the "English a cappella heresy": the argument that British singers steeped from an early age in Cathedral choir singing have evolved a natural proclivity towards compelling performances of vocal Early Music. Gothic Voices (with the Hilliard Ensemble, etc.), English groups which sing their music principally without instruments, and often one to a voice part, demonstrably bring a nearly inhuman clarity to vocal polyphony.
One unique contribution of Gothic Voices to this performing tradition is the "experiment" of complete chanson vocalization. Whereas an earlier generation of performers freely orchestrated the untexted lines of medieval secular song, Page (coincidentally a fine harpist) believed that evidence in medieval literature supported the notion of "instrumental" singers on untexted lines. He developed a system of all-vowel vocalises, and proceeded to enact his theory in sound through the ensemble. While this theory has not even approached universal acceptance, his characteristic blend of careful scholarship and unquestionable results in performance uses all his professional and artistic acumen to bring the music of the past alive to our ears.
© TiVo
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A Feather on the Breath of God: Songs of Hildegard von Bingen
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 avr. 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Echoes of an Old Hall
Classique - Paru chez Linn Records le 11 juin 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Splendour of Florence with a Burgundian Resonance
Classique - Paru chez Linn Records le 4 nov. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Dufay spectacle
Classique - Paru chez Linn Records le 27 avr. 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Nowell synge we bothe al and som
Classique - Paru chez Linn Records le 8 nov. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mary star of the sea
Classique - Paru chez Linn Records le 23 sept. 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Mirror of Narcissus: Songs by Guillaume de Machaut
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 sept. 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Castle of Fair Welcome: Courtly Songs of the Later 15th Century
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 mars 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Spirits of England & France 4: Missa Caput and the Story of the Salve regina
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 nov. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The unknown lover
Classique - Paru chez Linn Records le 23 sept. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Service of Venus and Mars: Music for the Knights of the Garter, 1340-1440
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 août 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Song for Francesca: Music in Italy, 1330-1430
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 sept. 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Laurel for Landini
Andrew Lawrence-King, Gothic Voices
Classique - Paru chez Linn Records le 23 sept. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Garden of Zephirus: Courtly Songs of the Early 15th Century
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 déc. 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Voice in the Garden: Spanish Songs & Motets, 1480-1550
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Study of Love: French Songs & Motets of the 14th Century
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 9 oct. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Spirits of England & France 3: Binchois and His Contemporaries
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 oct. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Spirits of England & France 1: Music of the Later Middle Ages
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 sept. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Rue: Missa De Feria & Missa Sancta Dei genitrix
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 mai 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music for the Lion-Hearted King: The Coronation of Richard I, September 1189
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 4 juil. 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Medieval Romantics: French Songs & Motets, 1340-1440
Gothic Voices, Christopher Page
Classique - Paru chez Hyperion le 1 oct. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo