MISSA MAGNA
Mass at the papal chapel in Avignon; 14th century
Released: 1999
1 Puer natus est nobis (Introït)
2 Kyrie Jhesu Deus Dulcissime (de Fronciaco)
3 Glória in excélsis Déo (Bosquet)
4 Concede quæsumus omnipotens Deus (Collecte)
5 Viderunt omnes (Graduel)
6 Alleluia dies sanctificatus
7 Laetabundus exultet fidelis chorus (Sequence)
8 Crédo in únum Déum (Bombarde)
9 Tui sunt caeli, et tua est terra (Offertoire)
10 Per omnia saecula saeculorum (Preface)
11 Sanctus (Saint Omer)
12 Agnus Dei
13 Viderunt omnes (Communion)
14 Presta, quaesumus, omni potens Deus (Post communion)
15 Ite missa est (Post missarum)
Listen
Our program is very closely linked to a prestigious and relatively well-preserved building: the Palace of the Popes, built mainly by Benedict XII and Clement VI, and in particular the chapel of St Peter in which all the solemn liturgies were concentrated. On certain important occasions, the crowd followed the many processions and was allowed to attend the liturgies. We then crowded to better see the richly decorated vestments of the cardinals, the brilliant decorations adorning the altar and the choir, the magnificent papal cathedra behind the altar, and to listen to the extraordinary and new polyphonic compositions of the cantors, housed in their enclosure. particular to the east of the chapel of St Pierre.
The Palace of the Popes quickly became a fundamental artistic center, ideally placed halfway between Rome and Paris, for which worked, and in which lived the greatest artists of this time: musicians, painters, poets, sculptors, architects. Within the Curia, "the papal chapel" is an institution created by Benedict XII in 1334 to replace the Roman "Schola cantorum", which did not follow the pope on his many trips. It includes from the start 12 chaplains. This group of singers will acquire considerable fame during the fourteenth century [...] These chaplains were the best singers in the Western world.
The main genre with which we are concerned here is the polyphonic mass. The habit of singing the Ordinary of the Mass in polyphony will develop considerably in the second half of the century, on the initiative of the papal chapel.
Distribution
Tenors: Raphaël Boulay - Olivier Germond - Antoine Guerber
Baritone: Jean-Paul Rigaud
Bass-baritone: Emmanuel Vistorky
Bass: Philippe Roche
Recorded at the Abbey of Fontevraud from September 22 to 25, 1999
Sound recording, editing: Jean Marc Laisné
Newspaper
"The listener remains under the spell of these lapidary and beautiful voices launching towards the sky melodic lines of incredible complexity, which sometimes touch to brush against radiant dissonances, sometimes move away to form evocative harmonies, with a deliciously archaic."
Xavier Lacavalerie - Télérama, December 1999