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Music : Officium
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Officium by: Anonymous, Czech Anonymous, Guillaume Dufay, Pierre de La Rue, Cristobal de Morales, Perotin, Sarum Chant, Hilliard Ensemble, Jan Garbarek |
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Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0028944536928 Label: Ecm Records Manufacturer: Ecm Records Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Ecm Records Release Date: November 16, 1999 Studio: Ecm Records Sales Rank: 94263 MPN: 445369 Disc 1: Related Items:
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Editorial Review: Amazon.com: What is this music? Fundamentally, it's an exploration of what happens when an improvisatory instrumental voice (saxophone) is placed into the world of early vocal music--which has elements of both improvisation and formal structure. In reality, it's an adventure in which the four male voices of the Hilliard Ensemble travel the 14th- and 15th-century territory of Morales and Dufay, visit the 12th century of Perotin, and roam even earlier ages of plainchant, accompanied by the always sensitive and tasteful--and often astonishing--saxophone improvisations of jazz master Jan Garbarek. Sometimes, these new melodies simply accompany; sometimes they transform the common--a routine minor chord, for instance--into a sublime, indescribable moment. The answer to the above question is easy--but it's different for each listener. --David Vernier Customer Reviews
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 Rating:  - TimelessI came across this album while walking through the halls of the MET in Midtown. I walked home that night with the CD, I was 16 years or so. Now at 30, I still listen to this album regularly, and now put my kids to sleep with this album as part of a nightly mix of Officium, Tim Janis, and Thomas Otten... Rating:  - Generally beautiful, but rather homogenous and limited in its possibilitiesWhile working on a film in Iceland, ECM label head Manfred Eicher was listening to a mix of medieval European vocal music and the contemporary jazz of Jan Garbarek. In September 1993, Eicher brought together the Hilliard Ensemble and Jan Garbarek in a German monastery for a fresh new crossover concept. As the Hilliard Ensemble performed 14 early vocal pieces, ranging from the most ancient chants to the more elaborate settings of Perotin and Dufay, Jan Garbarek improvised on soprano and tenor saxophones. The resulting music is generally quite beautiful, with the saxophone giving more variety of timbre but the music of the vocal ensemble keeps everything rooted in (pre-)tonality. The interaction of the vocalists and the saxophone nowhere seems ... Read More: Rating:  - I Wish I Could be More Positive......but I really hate the soprano sax played over these beautiful pieces. The singing is superb and the repertoire is rare (only one other recording of the Morales, for instance, and that is done quite differently, anent the sax). I think I would have liked it better if Garbarak had played a lower horn, like an alto or tenor sax. These pieces are about something, and I don't feel that Gabarak really knew what the texts were about and what the composers were responding to in the texts. I keep it for the exquisite "Parce mihi Domine" sung withoug the screeching sax. Rating: - Perfect for "Old Souls"I'll never forget hearing this music for the first time, in 1993 or 1994 at a sampling station at Borders. I have to admit I was intrigued by the cover photograph likely taken at a cemetery, of a spider web-draped angel statute. That was when CDs were still new, and my first thought was "This is the perfect sound for CDs: clear, quiet, ethereal." I bought the handsome 2-CD package then and there, and my interest in this unique musical project has gradually matured in the past decade. Most recently, following a significant family death in 2002, I've started a personal tradition of spending New Year's Eve alone at home, with only candles burning after 7:00 p.m., listing to recordings of great requiems (Mozart, Durufle, Rutter and Verdi) and ... Read More: Rating: - Mixed feelings about mixed genresAlthough I enjoy listening to these recordings for their serenity and sense of magical wonder, I tend to sympathise with some of the less glowing reviewers. My favourite passages are, without a shadow of a doubt, those in which the eminent Mr Garbarek's sax is 'tacit' or, at least, 'pianissimo'. Indeed, from time to time I struggle with an impulse to shout out: "Oh shut up, Jan, and let me listen to those wonderful singers!" That said, the voices and the sax do sometimes synergise, though I get the distinct impression that Mr Garbarek was simply overdubbing an existing recording by the Hilliard Ensemble: he seems to be reacting to them, but not vice versa. And with more rehearsal, his notes might have been more appropriate. FINAL VERDICT: an interesting ... Read More: |
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