What’s Wrong with the World

The men signed of the cross of Christ go gaily in the dark.

About

What’s Wrong with the World is dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism...read more

In the Beginning...

...there was the Notre Dame School:

This is "Sederunt principes," by Pérotin, aka Magister Perotinus, aka Perotinus Magnus - believed to have been composed for performance in the unfinished Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris on the feast day of St. Stephen (the day after Christmas), 1199.

This is Western "polyphony" (i.e., music where more than one voice sounds at the same time) in its first full, glorious, flower.

There are a number of excellent recordings of the music of Perotinus available. I most strongly recommend the one by Antony Pitts & his brilliant ensemble Tonus Peregrinus on the Naxos label.

Comments (5)

Hey - *somebody's* got to do *something* to keep up the tone around here!

But seriously - a web-friend on another site, suffering from (I hope & assume) merely temporary visual problems, has invited me to provide him with suggestions for listening material that he hasn't heard before.

So I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to flog some of my favorites - unless & until somebody objects.

Great music. The following link is also fairly excellent, but it gets insane around the 3:50 mark with the pizzicato and harmonics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPcnGrie__M

Steve,

Thanks so much for this piece of ostensibly celestial music. (Also, not surprising you should mention the Naxos label -- can't go wrong with them!)

As before, I'm still awaiting ever so anxiously for you to grace us with your series of articles such as that discussed in previous threads. Can't wait!

The Naxos recording you mention is a good one. I especially love the first track -- Perotin's Beata Viscera -- in which, if you listen closely, you can hear rain pattering on the church roof. It's wonderfully atmospheric.

But for my money the best recording of the music of the Notre Dame school (Perotin, Leonin, etc.) is still the one made by the Hilliard Ensemble on ECM in 1988. Unsurpassed singing in a gorgeous acoustic.

cnb - well, *de gustibus*, I guess.

The Hilliard Ensemble are (were?) a fine bunch of singers, and I'm very happy to have their versions of this music in my library.

But the only instance where I'd give them pride of place over all their rivals would be, precisely, *Beata Viscera*.

Go figure.

Post a comment


Bold Italic Underline Quote

Note: In order to limit duplicate comments, please submit a comment only once. A comment may take a few minutes to appear beneath the article.

Although this site does not actively hold comments for moderation, some comments are automatically held by the blog system. For best results, limit the number of links (including links in your signature line to your own website) to under 3 per comment as all comments with a large number of links will be automatically held. If your comment is held for any reason, please be patient and an author or administrator will approve it. Do not resubmit the same comment as subsequent submissions of the same comment will be held as well.