The Liberation of the Gothic

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Above all one is drawn to the ensemble’s tone, uncommonly deep, rich, absorbing in itself, and departing significantly from the treble-dominated spectrum that is so prevalent with English-speaking... — Gramophone Magazine, November 2018 More…

Release Date: 1st Feb 2019
Catalogue No: GCDP32115
Label: Glossa
Length: 86 minutes

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Browne, J: Salve Regina

Work length17:50

$4.00

$5.15

$7.00

Graindelavoix
Björn Schmelzer

Ashwell: Missa Ave Maria

Work length42:19

$10.00

$12.90

$17.50

Graindelavoix
Björn Schmelzer
Recorded: 9-12 October 2017
Recording Venue: Beaufays (Église de Saint-Jean l’Évangeliste), Belgium

I. Gloria

Track length9:54

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Credo

Track length11:34

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

III. Sanctus

Track length9:53

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

IV. Agnus Dei

Track length10:58

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Browne, J: Stabat Mater

Work length19:36

$4.00

$5.15

$7.00

Graindelavoix
Björn Schmelzer

anon.: Rex virginum amator [Kirie: Las Huelgas Codex, 1270 England]

Work length6:55

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Graindelavoix
Björn Schmelzer

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About

With The Liberation of the Gothic, Björn Schmelzer and Graindelavoix deliver an imaginative reading of music by two English composers active at the end of the fifteenth century, the towering figure of John Browne and the slightly later and much less well-known Thomas Ashwell (or Ashewell). Björn Schmelzer draws a vivid connection between the florid polyphony of these two composers and the freedom of structure and ornament found in late Gothic architecture, notably that of the fourteenth-century Lady Chapel built as part of the “Ship of the Fens”, Ely Cathedral.

Performing Ashwell’s intricately-woven Missa Ave Maria – a landmark in polyphony – Schmelzer and his Antwerp-based ensemble echo, in the individual freedom accorded to these virtuoso singers, the rich ornamentation of foliage, seemingly in constant motion, decorating the walls of Ely’s Lady Chapel. The singers add their own “coloratura”, an approach which continues to be central to Björn Schmelzer’s interpretation of medieval and Renaissance works, as have been appearing on Glossa for a decade and a half now.

In his booklet essay Schmelzer refers to the British writer and artist John Ruskin describing the “liberation of the Gothic” as also concerning “the workers, who were not submitted to repetitive, mechanical work but invested in continuous and infinite variation.” Acting as surrounding pillars to Ashwell’s Mass on this recording are two of the extended motets, much favoured by early Tudor English polyphonists – and encountered in the famous Eton Choirbook manuscript: John Browne’s Stabat mater and his first setting of the Salve regina.

Reviews

November 2018

Above all one is drawn to the ensemble’s tone, uncommonly deep, rich, absorbing in itself, and departing significantly from the treble-dominated spectrum that is so prevalent with English-speaking ensembles in this repertory.

25th November 2018

The eight voices of Graindelavoix offer their usual rather mannered style, but the music is the thing, and a finely blended sound helps it survive.

The Liberation of the Gothic

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