Ryan Recommends

Ryan Recommends

Choral music is such a central part of my life that it’s hard to remember how I first fell in love with it. But I do remember one or two of the first choral cds I ever owned and the impact they had on my young ears. I thought I’d share some of these with the Chorale so they can have a sense of where I’m coming from.

Like many people, my music listening goes through phases. But no matter where my interests venture, I always come back to two genres I absolutely love: Renaissance music and Christmas music. (Christmas music stays on the play list year-round). My love affair with the Renaissance began in eighth grade. A friend of mine introduced me to a cd by the Voices of Ascension called Beyond Chant: Mysteries of the Renaissance.

The Voices of Ascension sing beautifully in tune, with a steady, solid tone that allows the chords to tune and gives real substance to the overall sound. The tempos are somewhat brisk. They don’t try to do anything fancy with the music in terms of special tone colors, dynamics, or even phrasing. And they don’t necessarily need to; Palestrina and others have built in interest with the counterpoint. If you’re looking for a recording of Renaissance music that allows it simply to speak for itself, in its own language, this is an excellent choice. These days, for my own taste, this recording sounds a little stolid and wooden. I like performances that have a greater sense of building and releasing tension – more Z axis. But as an introduction – and especially as a wide cross section of Renaissance (and early Baroque) choral repertoire – it remains very useful.





The disc opens with one of the best: Sicut Cervus by Palestrina. I’ve never listened to this piece – particularly on this recording – without marveling at the way the lines both work so beautifully on their own but then take on new life when the counterpoint bring them into harmonic engagement with the others. The piece will always remain a touchstone for me. The second track, a recording of Josquin’s Ave Maria, shows superhuman vocal control, and is my favorite recording of this piece. Spare, simple, stunning.

The third track contains a “moment” (suspension and resolution) at 0:50 that might in fact be the very thing that first made me fall in love with this music. When I first heard that sound – that sensation—I was hooked. I went on a wild search, buying other choral discs that promised to offer something similar, and the rest is history. To this day, I’m a sucker for a good suspension.

I’m less intimately familiar with the rest of the disc because I haven’t listened to it as many times as I have listened to the first three tracks. Throughout my teens, I would play this cd after I climbed into bed and would listen until I fell asleep. By the end of the Josquin I tended to be wonderfully relaxed, and once I heard “the moment” in the Lassus, I’d drift asleep.

But the rest of the disc contains some real gems. The Victoria Jesu Dulcis and Byrd Ave Verum are two of the more sensitively-sung recordings on the disc. I love Schütz' Selig Sind Die Toten and enjoy this recording. The Heu nos miseros is a beautifully sumptuous piece. The Victoria O Magnum Mysterium is a good recording.

And, to my Awesome Altos, since I can't demonstrate it myself, I can't help but point out that the also sound is dense and rich but focused and forward.

RJB