A musical serial. Episode 36: Matins for Ockeghem
Sensenta has reached the early music, and just on time.
Tomorrow, february 6th, is the 520th anniversary of Johannes Ockeghem’s death. In honour of the old master we play Matins for the dead and the ancient Missa Pro Defunctis. Mixed with this Ockeghem’s own setting of the Requiem mass. The Matins for the Dead were performed by Scola Sancturum Amsterdam, and recorded by the Concertzender in November 1996.
Ockeghem’s Missa Pro Defunctis is the earliest preserved polyphonic setting of the Requiem mass. Guillaume Dufay probably beat him in writing the first, but that setting is lost.
Ockghem’s work is incomplete. Openings were left in the Chigi Codex, the only source for this work, indicating that more was to be added later. What did Ockeghem intend the full mass to sound like? We’ll never know.
This doesn’t subtract from the silent and sober beauty of the piece, and perhaps only adds to it. Even if it’s just the thought that without this one source, we would have never heard this music.
00:45 Dodenmetten: Invitatorim en 1 nocturne met lecties uit Job
16:16 Anoniem – Missa Pro Defunctis: Introitus
18:20 Johannes Ockeghem – Missa Pro Defunctis: Introitus
22:44 Anoniem – Missa Pro Defunctis: Kyrie
24:22 Johannes Ockeghem – Missa Pro Defunctis: Kyrie
28:41 Anoniem – Missa Pro Defunctis: Graduale
31:22 Johannes Ockeghem – Missa Pro Defunctis: Graduale
35:40 Dodenmetten: Invitatorim en 1 nocturne met lecties uit Job
45:22 Anoniem – Missa Pro Defunctis: Offertorium
49:04 Johannes Ockeghem – Missa Pro Defunctis: Offertorium
57:12 Anoniem – Missa Pro Defunctis, Sanctus
57:53 Anoniem – Missa Pro Defunctis, Agnus Dei
58:41 Anoniem – Missa Pro Defunctis, Communio
59:27 Anoniem – Missa Pro Defunctis, Postcommunio
Sources:
Dodenmetten voor Allerzielen by Scola Sancturum Amsterdam, 1 november 1996, Waalse Kerk, Amsterdam. Recording by Concertzender,
Chant, 2008, Universal Music 4766774
Requiem, 2012, Challenge Classics CC72541
Requiem, Missa Mi-Mi, 1987, Emi CDC 7 49213 2
Sensenta is a programme about long attention spans. Every episode slowly changes hue, and every next episode picks up where the last one left off. This a creates a musical serial, a chain of episodes, touching on different genres at it goes. You’re welcome to join in and give us your opinion. Where should this chain go next? Send us an e-mail at harrold@concertzender.nl, or find Sensenta on social media.
More on Ockeghem In Documento, on 30 january en 6 february.
