Notes and Editorial Reviews
IEREMIAS
•
Jaan-Eik Tulve , dir; Vox Clamantis
•
ARION ARN 68602 (72:47
Text and Translation)
Jaan-Eik Tulve is an Estonian choral conductor who studied chant direction with Louis-Marie Vigne of the Choeur Grégorien de Paris, then established this chant schola in his native land in 1996. He has made numerous chant recordings with various ensembles on several labels. His soloist on this disc is Jean Pascal Ollivry, a longtime member of the same Paris schola. The disc is of outstanding merit among recordings
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of chant for the systematic Holy Week program and the quality of both singing and interpretation, based on the semiological approach of Dom Eugène Cardine. Beginning with the tract
Deus, Deus meus
for Palm Sunday and ending with the gradual
Christus factus est
(which concludes Tenebrae each night), we hear the nine lamentations and their nine responsories. These constitute the first nocturns for the three nights of Tenebrae before Easter. Ollivry sings the lamentations in the Hispanic chant versions published by Dom German Prado in 1934, except for two sung in the standard versions of the
Liber Usualis
. The concluding lamentation, the prayer of Jeremiah, is sung in the Hispanic version printed in the
Liber Usualis
. It is so much superior as an alternative to the standard Roman version that the latter has never been recorded. While the lamentation tone is one of the most beautiful elements in the entire chant repertoire, the more elaborate Hispanic versions are of surpassing excellence. The only fault I can find is the reduction of most lamentations to the first three verses. This could have been avoided by omitting the tract from the program, but it is unnecessary to second-guess Tulve’s choice of selections, given the quality of the disc. The responsories sung by the schola furnish the alternate choral texture to the solo lamentations, but the melodies have been edited by Dominique Crochu in accordance with recent revisionist approaches to chant. The tract has been recorded a dozen times, but this is an exemplary version by two members of the schola singing alternate verses in an unusually meditative style. In 2004 I put this disc on my Want List and have continued to listen to it with admiration ever since.
FANFARE: J. F. Weber
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Works on This Recording
8.
Sicut ovis, responsory by Anonymous
Conductor:
Jaan-Eik Tulve
Period: Medieval
Written: Europe
Length: 2 Minutes 39 Secs.
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