Search - Dufay, Wickham, Clerks Group :: Missa L'Homme Arme / Missa Sine Nomine

Beautiful music but too fast!

Christopher McKoy | La Canada Flintridge, CA United States | 01/29/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Although Johannes Tinctoris' Missa L'Homme Arme is quite good, the real gem on this CD is the Missa Sine Nomine No.1 (Tinctoris composed three Missa Sine Nomine--"mass without name"). It is for three low voices and, as the Amazon.com reviewer notes, the low bass part is amazing. Although not a Requiem Mass or Lamentations, it is the most solemn Renaissance mass I have heard. (If you like 'dark' Renaissance vocal music for mostly low voices, a recording [CD] you will surely enjoy is Marcel Peres' Ensemble Organum's fine recording of Johannes Ockeghem's Requiem Mass on Harmonia Mundi France.) I have developed something of an obsession with Tinctoris' Missa Sine Nomine No.1 and was delighted when I discovered this CD by Edward Wickham's Clerks' Group. Unfortunately, though the intonation and the singing are impeccable, the tempos are indeed too fast (as the Amazon reviewer also notes). Those (such as myself!) looking for an alternate recording of this piece will have a difficult time: to my knowledge the only other complete recording of the Missa Sine Nomine No.1 is from 1963 and has never been transferred to CD; it is a French recording on LP: "Ensemble Vocal et Instrumental Roger Blanchard" on Les Discophiles Francais and Nonesuch records. The incredible 'Kyrie,' though, was recorded by David Munrow and is the first of the five mass movements on Munrow's highly recommended "Art of the Netherlands" set. Munrow and Blanchard both employ much slower tempos than Wickham and allow the music to sound as somber and moving as it should. I gave the CD 4 stars largely because it is the only complete recording available on CD of the Missa Sine Nomine No.1 and I am very pleased that someone finally chose to record it again. If there were other better recordings available, I would probably have given it only 3 stars. If anyone is aware of another recording (CD, LP, tape, or whatever!) of Tinctoris' Sine Nomine No.1, please post a review with the information--thanks!"