The Sword and the Lily

Program: #24-37   Air Date: Sep 09, 2024

NOTE: All of the music on this recording is from The Sword & the Lily, featuring the ensemble Fount & Origin directed by James Tomlinson. It icon the Invecta label and is INV1008.

In their debut album, early music ensemble Fount & Origin present a musical meditation on the Franco-Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden's altarpiece image of The Last Judgement at the End of time. This multi-paneled work survives as a monument of fifteenth-century art, relating in vivid detail and color van der Weyden's dynamic and terrifying account of the world's final moments. The nine polyphonic settings recorded here were composed in Europe in the mid- to late-fifteenth century and include works by composers such as Johannes Ockeghem, Johannes Regis, Johannes Martini and Antoine Brumel, with each piece thematically tied to an element or figure in the painting.

From Rob Wegman: For me this disc was a genuinely happy surprise. Of course I was drawn initially by the significant but sadly too little-known figure of Johannes Regis.

It seemed strange at first that the CD presents only one movement from Regis's L'Homme armé Mass. But that has been done before, and it does no harm to the music, on the contrary. Remember David Munrow's 1974 recording of The Art of Netherlands, with a complete Mass consisting of five movements taken from five different cycles. I would have not have learned and profoundly loved the Kyrie of the Missa Sine nomine I by Johannes Tinctoris but for this decision. More discs of this kind should be brought out, to have a broader and more varied sampling of the music from this time. In the same way the single movement of the Regis Mass is almost everything you need to hear to come to love this work. Having your attention distributed across five movements is good for an overall impression, but it takes more focused hearing to enjoy the little details, and note the arresting musical gestures that make you want to find the score and see how Regis did it.

Just as in the case of Munrow, moreover, it "frees up" space to make some really interesting and unexpected repertorial choices. The disc includes settings of the Mass proper that I found richly rewarding to listen to. Those are some extraordinary pieces there, well worth hearing.

I was unable to put a date on them just from listening, beyond probably last quarter of the fifteenth century, and perhaps later rather than sooner in this timeframe. That made it more intriguing to listen to, for at the end of the day you want to be able to place the music in some style-historical context, allowing comparisons to be made with other composers— at least if you're an incorrigible Medieval musicologist like myself. Unfortunately the booklet gave no indication where these settings came from. An inexplicable omission which has to be noted as a point of criticism, along with the absence of meaningful commentary on the style and context of the music.

In the end I had to write to the director to find out. He kindly responded that the Propers came from the manuscript Trent 91, that is, the 1470s. Extraordinary! It sounded more advanced than I would have thought for a musical source from that decade. To repeat, it would have been helpful to have learned this from the booklet up front.

In any case, I have very much appreciated the felicitous choice of repertory. In large part it is also the performance that makes a compelling case for the significance of this music. Nowadays there seems to be a taste for minimalist performances: one voice to a part, to the obvious detriment especially of 15th-c. sacred music, with (at times) absurdly fast tempos that destroy whatever is left of the consonant sonority. Perhaps a concession to the more vocal music critics out there.

But is worth pointing put that the Book on Counterpoint by Johannes Tinctoris (1477, is essentially a study of the infinite shades of consonant vocal sonority, as well as a course in developing the ear to appreciate it. Such trained ears, aures eruditae, were the ones that deemed music older than 40 years no longer worth hearing. I wish that some directors would be more attuned to this musical sensibility.

But that is not a criticism that can be levelled at this disc. The sonorities are perfect, the tempi are appropriate, and the overall approach is one of restraint and introspection— qualities that used to be appreciated in Ockeghem until he, too, came to be dragged alone into the unthinking pursuit of faster tempi. Don't get me started.

This disc makes a convincing plea for the captivating sounds of the 15th century. It is not may not be showy upon first hearing, but it will last you a long time if you let it do its job of gentle persuasion.