Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial, Hesperion XX - Francisco Guerrero - Sacrae Cantiones (1992) {Naïve Astrée ES 9953 rel 2000}

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Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial, Hesperion XX - Francisco Guerrero - Sacrae Cantiones (1992) {Naïve Astrée ES 9953 rel 2000}

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Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial, Hesperion XX - Francisco Guerrero - Sacrae Cantiones (1992) {Naïve Astrée ES 9953 rel 2000}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 308 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 161 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 35 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1992, 2000 Auvidis / Naïve / Astrée | ES 9953
Classical / Renaissance / Choral

Sixteenth-century Spanish composer Francisco Guerrero is featured in a reissued disc of motets for four, five, six, eight and 12 voices, with and without instruments. They come from a handful of collections published between 1555 and 1597 and show Guerrero’s skill in evoking a wide range of moods, joyful, sombre and contemplative in turn. Jordi Savall’s ensemble is well-equipped to project the skilfully wrought structures and expressive allure of the music. Some of the pieces fare better than others in respect of vocal texture and ensemble. Tenors and basses occasionally lack tonal refinement but, at their strongest the performances provide a radiant conspectus of Guerrero’s masterly motets.

Pure Water for the Spirit: The Motets of Francisco Guerrero

Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) was once one of the most famous composers in Europe, not only in his native Spain, but across the continent. He was celebrated above all for his motets—sacred songs made usually for four to eight voices that are more free in their form than masses. In America, Guerrero is not exactly a household name; I’m not certain of the extant of his popularity in Spain or Europe, but I don’t think it could be called flourishing. This is unfortunate, since his music is some of the most beautiful of the Renaissance, and is imbued with a deep and abiding mysticism.

I am not even religious, and yet his music fills me a sense of devotion and calling. For an atheist such as myself, I am transported not to God by this music, but directly to a place of deepest aesthetic appreciation, a loftiness of spirit that transcends man and glimpses the infinite. I suppose it is a mental place similar for believers— one that looks to a world beyond our own, however we may call it. I am not given in the least to New Age pseudo worship, but can say without embarrassment that such music gives me a sense of the universe, of dark mysteries. Guerrero does not call attention to himself, but always seems to be pointing through him, beyond him, to a higher place of thought. As such, he achieved his mission, stated in a dedication page of music, "not to caress the ears of pious persons with my songs, but on the contrary to excite their souls to devout contemplation of the sacred mysteries."

How to describe these motets? For those with knowledge in musical history, it might help to say his music is closest to that of Morales, his teacher, and that it shares the basic qualities of pan-European Renaissance music exemplified by one of its chief architects, Josquin des Pres. It is more harmonically advanced than the music of Palestrina, which it resembles in terms of regular metrical divisions and purity, and less harmonically adventurous than the chromatic works of Gesualdo and Cipriano de Rore. Guerrero’s music uses ample imitation, possessing a great contrapuntal dexterity that weaves the sequentially appearing themes shared among the vocal lines into exquisite tapestries of sound. The music is less dour than that of Morales, but rather shines in a generally bright color that is given contrast by flashes of minor mode melancholy, shades of darkness that give the light more poignance and clarity. These motets cover a vast array of emotions, including suffering, ecstasy, yearning, joy, serenity, humility, passion and triumph. It is calming and exciting at once, yet ever gentle and soothing to the mind and ear.

This recording is a superb introduction to Guerrero’s music, performed as it is by some of the finest musicians and singers of early music, Hesperion XX, under the direction of Catalonian, Jordi Savall. You may know Savall’s excellent work for the film, "Tous Les Matins Du Monde," which ushered in a giant resurgence in the recording and study of early music. Though these motets were written for a capella choir, Savall adopts the Renaissance practice of occasionally enhancing the vocal lines with instruments, in this case a consort of viols (strings), cornet, and organ. In some cases, he arranges the vocal parts for instruments alone. In others, he also substitutes some of the voices for instruments, keeping the soprano line intact. It is possible to imagine a very strict purist objecting to some of these choices of arrangement, but I doubt it. The arrangements bring out the lines effectively, and allow the listener an opportunity to follow the musical ideas more easily. As with all such music, the singing style contains little vibrato (much less, say, than in operatic singing). This lends to a clarity of line and purity of sound. The soprano, Monterrat Figueras (Savall’s wife) sings this music with her trademark grace and emotional commitment, and the entire choir nearly matches her feeling and sensitivity. The musicians, as in virtually every recording put out by Hesperion XX, are outstanding.

The disc includes 16 motets and has a generous playing time of 68 minutes. As a final thought, let me say this music is not for driving, as it somewhat hypnotic. It has served for me as a great headache reliever: turn off the lights, put on this CD, and you will be bathed in a sweet sauce of sound until your pain evaporates. Well, it works for me. Obviously, with its liturgical texts, it could serve in any private meditation or prayer for the devout Christian. But, as I have pointed out above, you need not be religious to appreciate this music. If anything, it provides a gateway to a time when things were slower paced than in our world, and presents as perfect an anodyne— apart from silence— to the noise of modern living.

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Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial, Hesperion XX - Francisco Guerrero - Sacrae Cantiones (1992) {Naïve Astrée ES 9953 rel 2000}

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Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial, Hesperion XX - Francisco Guerrero - Sacrae Cantiones (1992) {Naïve Astrée ES 9953 rel 2000}

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Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial, Hesperion XX - Francisco Guerrero - Sacrae Cantiones (1992) {Naïve Astrée ES 9953 rel 2000}

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