Guillaume Dufay, Cantica Symphonia, Guiseppe Maletto - The Masses For 1453

Published Wednesday 7th January 2015
Guillaume Dufay, Cantica Symphonia, Guiseppe Maletto - The Masses For 1453
Guillaume Dufay, Cantica Symphonia, Guiseppe Maletto  - The Masses For 1453

STYLE: Choral
RATING 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 154920-
LABEL: Glossa GCDP31907
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474) was an influential composer and musician at the time when plainchant was being superseded by polyphony. Squeezed into one new disc by Guiseppe Maletto's Cantica Symphonia from Italy are two of Dufay's most important polyphonic works: the "Missa Se la face ay pale" and the "Missa L Homme armé". The two masses were amongst the first to use popular songs for their cantus firmus: Dufay's own chanson for the first mass and the anonymous popular tune, "The Armed Man", for the second. The year 1453 was an extraordinary one in Western Christendom with the fall of Constantinople following the acquisition by Louis, Duke of Savoy of what we know as the Shroud of Turin. As Anne Walters Robertson describes in her scholarly analysis for the CD booklet, these two events provided the backdrop for Dufay, newly recalled by the Duke to the Court of Savoy, to compose these remarkable commemorative masses. Cantica Symphonia opt for performances which embrace the use of instruments such as slide trumpets, sackbuts, fiddles and the organ alongside vocal forces and Director Giuseppe Maletto and organist Guido Magnano discuss their reasons for such instrumental involvement in the booklet. To my ears the brass overwhelms the vocalists in places but it does sound suitably martial. The instrumental playing is good and so is the singing so it is a little disappointing when the vocals disappear behind or beneath a wall of brass but this no doubt reflects ancient performance technique (and, let's be realistic - the brass section is always too loud; it always has been and it always will be). Much attention to detail has gone into this release: the packaging is well done and the booklet notes illuminating. It is, though, probably too specialist for the general listener.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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