Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72041 in Music
• Released on: 1994-09-13
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com essential recording
"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, 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

Absolutely Gorgeous!
This is one of the most innovative and sublime CDs in my expansive collection. I'll stay away from trying to explain what centuries the pieces were written in, blah, blah, blah. Bottom line: they were all written before the saxophone was invented. Therefore, Garbarek's "intrusions" should seem as such, interrupting the Hilliard Ensemble's vocalizing. Quite the contrary, though. Garbarek's first notes, although somewhat unexpected, seem quite appropriate and fitted. His "improvisations" around the traditional structure of the vocals are sometimes subtle, sometimes more upfront, but always in keeping with the spirit of the original pieces. He winds and weaves his way around and through the vocal arrangements like a fifth vocalist--no restraints or boundaries but with a keen ear for what will sound good where.

This CD is on my very short list of classical "desert island" discs and ranks right up there with Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma's HUSH for improvisational yet traditional music, with ingenious wrinkles thrown in. It's hard to call it straight classical, but it isn't exactly jazz, either. The styles are merged beautifully. The best metaphor I can think of would be a braid: separate entities intertwined and working together for a common goal and a common effect.

Anyone who claims to be a fan of good music--jazz, classical, or whatever--should check out this CD. It is a bit on the mellow side, so don't expect a Keith Jarrett improvisational explosion or a thunderous symphonic event. In the vein of the works of Anonymous 4, another spectacular classical vocal group, this CD is a meditative, almost spiritual experience. It will not disappoint!!

((saxophonist) + (chant + polyphony + motets)) = Officium
I bought this album on a whim shortly after its release several years ago after never having listened to any of its tracks, and was completely surprised when I heard it being played as I entered the stave church model located in the Norway region of Disney's Epcot Center during my first visit to the park earlier this year, because I have never at any time heard any of its tracks played anywhere outside my home. The stave church is a strange place to play this secular work, but perhaps the layperson might discover the reasons for this if the liner notes included English translations of the Latin. In my opinion, this album is comprised of some of the best blends of music styles I have ever heard. Essentially, the blends consist of Latin lyrics from the pre-12th through 16th centuries set to jazz. According to the liner notes, the vocal quartet produces "chant, reaching back to its pre-literate forms; early polyphony, where the number of parts was a matter of experiment and the same piece could exist in many different versions; and Renaissance motets that were conceived chordally, and might provide structures over which a saxophone could improvise". The unity of these music forms were united in light of the fact that just as jazz had no name at the beginning of the 20th century, polyphony did not have a name when it began 1000 years ago. As the liner notes explain, "these two nameless historical moments were points of departure for two of the most fundamental ideas in Western music: improvisation and composition".

This CD is gorgeous.
At first I was sceptical about how the fusion of a vocal quartet and a jazz sax would sound. But after the first listening, my opinion changed. This is some of the most perfect music that I have ever heard. If you haven't got a copy of it, I would place an order immediately.