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Editorial Reviews

Cristóbal de Morales is not the best-known of Renaissance composers; he stands somewhat in the shadow of his younger contemporary Victoria, who sounds much more distinctively Spanish. The "Missa Queramus cum pastoribus" that forms this album's centerpiece may have received its debut recording when the present disc was issued in full-price form on the Hyperion label in 1992, and no further version has come along to supplant it. Despite this unjustified obscurity, the listener who has come to understand something of the basic sound of the Renaissance mass could do worse than pick this budget reissue as a starting point for understanding the form in greater depth. The mass is of the type variously known as a parody mass or imitation mass. Both terms are somewhat misleading; the music is not a parody in the modern satirical sense, and it does not necessarily make use of the imitation technique whereby one voice repeats the material of another that has already entered. Instead, the music parodies or freely imitates an existing model, in this case a sweet Christmas motet by Jean Mouton that was widely popular in the sixteenth century and was also subjected to the parody treatment by several other composers. The Morales mass, clocking in here at over 36 minutes, is a rich, complex elaboration on the motet, increasing the setting from four to five voices and expanding it into a sumptuous burst of melody. The booklet outlines some of the transformations, and listeners can add others for themselves; the two pieces are strongly connected through pitch and motivic content, but the relationships are rarely obvious. A group of compact and perfectly proportioned motets, mostly in five parts, opens the program. The clarity and especially the sinewy boy trebles of the Westminster Cathedral Choir under James O'Donnell are ideal in this music. They have recorded a good deal of Palestrina, whose style, though a generation later, resembles that of Morales in some respects, and they bring out the music's details confidently and smoothly, without an over-cherubic sound. A superior Renaissance sacred music recording, especially at a budget price. James Manheim, All Music Guide

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