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Editorial Reviews

This collection includes three Gramophone Award-winning CDs by early music ensemble Gothic Voices, founded and conducted by Christopher Page. A Feather on the Breath of God: Sequences and Hymns by Hildegard of Bingen (1980), was the group's first release and was one of several catalysts for a renewal of popular interest in Hildegard's music. The group is joined by soprano Emma Kirkby in singing Hildegard's distinctive, melodically remarkable monophonic chants, some as solos and some in choral unison, some unaccompanied and some supported with a drone. Several of the selections are sung by men, a practice that would currently be looked on as historically questionable, but the lower voices do lend variety to the collection.

A second disc, The Service of Venus and Mars: Music for the Knights of the Garter (1988), is devoted to English and French polyphonic music of the very late Middle Ages. It's the most musically diverse disc in the set, with pieces ranging from carols to ballades to complex isometric motets. The ensemble, which consists of male voices and a single alto, has the opportunity to show off its virtuosity in maintaining a pure blend while allowing the individuality of each voice to shine through.

A Song for Francesca (1989) consists of music from the same period and showcases the differences between the Northern and Southern musical cultures. The Italian music of this era, while beginning to incorporate some of the polyphonic developments of the French, is essentially more melodic, with more attention paid to comprehensible text setting than to sophisticated contrapuntal practices. The ensemble here consists of lower women's voices and high men's voices, and the uniformity of range and timbre tends to wear thin over the course of the CD. The second two discs in the set include lovely interludes played on the medieval harp by Andrew Lawrence-King and Page.

The vocal ensemble sings with extraordinary purity, focus, and warmth. Its interpretations are tailored to the vocal idioms required by the diverse repertoire on the three CDs. Hyperion's sound is consistently clean and present, with an ideal level of resonance. It's easy to hear why these exemplary performances were acknowledged with Gramophone Awards. Stephen Eddins, All Music Guide

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