Notes and Editorial Reviews
ZU GOTTES EHR UND DEINEM TROST
•
Ulrike Volkhardt, cond; Ens Devotio Moderna
•
CANTATE 58047 (62:25
Text and Translation)
Sorry to use the only title given on the booklet: The ensemble’s first six CDs of music from northern German convents (
Fanfare
33:1, 33:3; 33:4; 33:5) bore English as well as German titles. They were all made in one month, and now Ulrike Volkhardt has returned with a widened search for sacred music of the Reformation era. She examines two
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printed hymnals and a manuscript, adding other pieces from contemporary sources as well. Devotio Moderna is the same ensemble in name only, for the seven women who sang in the first five discs have been replaced by Veronika Winter and tenor Florian Lohmann, accompanied by three players. The venue, a year and a half later, is the same convent at Isenhagen where the previous set was made.
The first eight tracks are hymn texts sung to contemporary tunes. The two soloists share the first seven selections; the eighth is a duet. The program concludes with the longest selection, a passion text based on the four gospels set to a tune by Sebald Heyden. This is quite unlike the
St. Matthew Passion
on the fifth disc in the series, which was similar to the medieval chanted passions sung during Holy Week. The notes tell us that these hymns were sung in a North German dialect whose flavor and rhymes are impossible to capture in modern German, let alone English, but the translations are furnished to facilitate understanding. The similarity of these settings to secular songs of the era is not to be overlooked; the passion moves along in a jaunty tempo that hardly conveys the mood of the text. For specialists in Lutheran church music of the early Reformation, this will have evident value.
FANFARE: J. F. Weber
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Works on This Recording
1.
Ein fest burg ist unser Gott, hymn by Martin Agricola
Conductor:
Ulrike Volkhardt
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ensemble Devotio Moderna
Period: Renaissance
Venue: Kloster Isenhagen
Length: 3 Minutes 26 Secs.
2.
Wan ich der zeitt, hymn by Gregorius Langius
Conductor:
Ulrike Volkhardt
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ensemble Devotio Moderna
Period: Renaissance
Venue: Kloster Isenhagen
Length: 7 Minutes 35 Secs.
3.
Magnificat (Cantionale Wittenberg) by Anonymous
Conductor:
Ulrike Volkhardt
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ensemble Devotio Moderna
Period: Renaissance
Venue: Kloster Isenhagen
Length: 3 Minutes 49 Secs.
5.
Aus tiefer not schrei ich zu dir, hymn by Caspar Othmayr
Conductor:
Ulrike Volkhardt
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ensemble Devotio Moderna
Period: Renaissance
Venue: Kloster Isenhagen
Length: 8 Minutes 53 Secs.
8.
Sie ist mir lieb die werte Magd, hymn by Michael Praetorius
Conductor:
Ulrike Volkhardt
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ensemble Devotio Moderna
Period: Renaissance
Venue: Kloster Isenhagen
Length: 3 Minutes 34 Secs.
9.
Es sind doch selig alle die, hymn by Hans Leo Hassler
Conductor:
Ulrike Volkhardt
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ensemble Devotio Moderna
Period: Renaissance
Venue: Kloster Isenhagen
Length: 32 Minutes 34 Secs.
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