MORALES The Seven Lamentations
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Cristóbal de Morales
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Etcetera
Magazine Review Date: AW16
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 63
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: KTC1538
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
The Seven Lamentations |
Cristóbal de Morales, Composer
Cristóbal de Morales, Composer Utopia |
Author: Edward Breen
This debut disc, launched via a crowdfunding campaign, presents Cristóbal de Morales’s complete Seven Lamentations. Described by the Spanish theorist Juan Bermudo in 1555 as ‘the light of Spain in music’, Morales was the first Spanish composer to enjoy a true international reputation, being compared favourably to the Flemish composers Adrian Willaert and Nicolas Gombert. Stylistically Morales retains a Spanish flavour to the fulness of his polyphony, especially in sonorous homophonic passages, but blends this with the contrapuntal weaving of Low Countries composers and shades of Palestrina. His Lamentations are less immediately yearning than are, say, Lobo’s later settings yet they are peppered with ravishing passages to which the singers respond eagerly. Listen for Nun. Vigilavit iugum iniquitatum mearum to hear voices and composer run an impressive gamut of expression while maintaining delicate intimacy.
A relatively recent recording of three sections of these Lamentations by The Brabant Ensemble (Hyperion, 11/08) calls for a comparison. As Fabrice Fitch observed, The Brabant Ensemble have a high ‘centre of acoustic gravity’ in Renaissance polyphony (Jacquet of Mantua review, 6/15) which I feel lends sheen to their sound. Utopia, conversely, have a much lower centre of gravity yet maintain similar clarity while simultaneously warming the texture with soft Flemish-tinged vowel sounds. The results are beautiful, intimate and thoroughly engaging.
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