Notes and Editorial Reviews
Listeners eagerly awaiting Anonymous 4's next recording, and who also might enjoy that same clear, beautifully colored sound made fuller and larger by the presence of 12 voices instead of four, will want this fine program of chant performed by the female counterpart (Voix de Femmes) to the 25-year-old male ensemble Le Choeur Grégorien de Paris. These women sing chant as well as it can be sung, with absolutely true unisons and lovely, fluid phrasing. No plodding, ponderous movement here--rather, the lines float and soar and swirl as one voice, at once aspiring to heavenly residence and communing with the souls below.
Which brings us to another very special
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"participant" in this recording: the 12th-century Cistercian Abbey at Fontfroide, France. Not only is this "one of the largest and best preserved" such sites in France, its 65-foot high vaulted roof and location in a valley, and the fact that the building sits above "various conduits" such as "drains and water pipes" provides a setting for absolutely stunning acoustics, one feature of which is an 11-second echo. It's an amazing effect to hear a melody slowly decaying but still clearly resonating while at the same time continuing to unfold with newer, stronger tones. These chants were made for this, the undulating melodies flowing outward and then returning and blending in un-notatable harmonies--in its way symbolic of the eternal, of creation, of renewal, embodied in simplicity and purity and unadorned beauty.
The program is carefully designed and thematically organized into five sections--Prophecies, Annunciation, Christmas, Passion, and Church of Christ--that show by means of Cistercian and other types of chant, both the human and divine sides of the Virgin Mary. Many of the chants are simple, unison ensemble forms; others involve a certain dramatic presentation, with a solo narrator and various "dialogs" between characters. The music is surprisingly varied--those listeners who think all chant sounds the same, take note--and never seems routine or merely functional. There's a higher beauty and purpose behind the tones and texts--something that these knowing, sincerely committed, vocally assured singers make clear. And Naïve's engineers make sure we are able to hear and savor every sensuous, lingering note.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Salve Regina, antiphon in mode 1 by Anonymous
Conductor:
Olga Roudakova
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gregorian Choir of Paris
Period: Medieval
Written: by 1135
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
2.
Ecce virgo by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
3.
Jucundare Filia Sion, antiphon and psalm, mode 8 by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
4.
Lecture de Sophonie by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: 20th Century
5.
Stirps Jesse florigeram, motet (from the Manuscript of Saint martial de Limoges) by Bishop of Canon Fulbert
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
6.
Ave Maria, offertory by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
7.
Suspice by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
8.
Ecce Ancilla Domini, Ambrosian Antiphona Ad Magnificat (Luke I:38, 46-55) by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
9.
Magnificat by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
10.
Beata viscera, conductus for solo voice by Pérotin
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: circa 1200; Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
11.
O magnum mysterium, responsory in mode 3 (Liber Usualis No. 382) by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
12.
Descendit de caelis, responsory in Mode 1 by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
13.
Laetabundus by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
14.
Adorna thalamum tuum, Syon, antiphon by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
15.
Dicit Dominus by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
16.
Passio: Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Johannem by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
17.
Vadis propitiator, responsory in mode 7 by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
18.
Deus Vitam Meam by Cistercian Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
19.
Stabat Mater by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
20.
Vidi speciosam, responsory, mode 3 by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
21.
Sermon de Pierre de Blois by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: 20th Century
22.
Super salutem by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: 20th Century
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
23.
Recordare Virgo Mater by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
24.
Litanies de la Sainte Vierge by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Voix De Femmes
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 03/1999
Venue: Abbey of Fontfroide
Sound Samples
Recit Evangelique: Ave Maria
Beata viscera: Beata Viscera
Sermon De Pierre De Blois (excerpts)
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