60 Ans de Musique Coffret Inrocks Fnac

Among the different practices of the Renaissance, the act of singing to the accompaniment of the lyre held a special symbolic role, linked to the myth of Orpheus and to the divine figure of Apollo. With its origins in the mid-15th century, this recitation of epic and lyrical texts initially took the form of monophonic music accompanied by the lira da braccio. With the invention of the lirone in the years around 1500, the role of the accompaniment develops into the recitative style of the 1600s which led to the development of the earliest operas.

Born in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, Antoine Gosswin was recruited at a very young age by the Bavarian court chapel, where he was in frequent contact with Orlando di Lasso and accompanied the Emperor Maximilian II on his travels. Esteemed as a singer and composer, he was also part of the violin band employed by Duke Albert V at the legendary wedding of Prince William in 1568. Gosswin would go on to conduct the chapel of Prince Ernest, Bishop of Freising and later of Liège, to whom he dedicated his Newe teutsche Lieder. Extremely prolific, Gosswin produced several masses and motets as well as madrigals and German songs in which he continued the musical developments initiated by his master Lasso.

This collection of English verse anthems and viol fantasias – there are no examples of the a cappella, highly polyphonic full anthem – comes from Montreal's vibrant early music scene and it offers a fresh version of these often-recorded classics of English choral music of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The verse anthem, written in English, was a characteristic Anglican genre, alternating between choral and solo passages and deploying the text across plain but often rather fervent lines of music. It is accompanied here, as was normal, by viols; an organ can also be used. Done right, a work like John Ward's Prayer is an endless chain (track 2) or any of the three thorny but exultant anthems by Orlando Gibbons should have the combination of piety and rich beauty that would be characteristic of Bach's music a century or more later.

With this 2011 release, Musica Vaticana, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, led by its founder Christopher Jackson, solidifies its reputation as one of the very finest choirs specializing in music of the Baroque and Renaissance. Its tone is warmly blended and pure, and it is able to produce a wide range of tonal colors suited to whatever is being performed. Most importantly, the chorus enters fully into the spirit of the music, so its performances are lively and spontaneous-sounding.