A Humanist Take On The Holy Spirit

More sacred choral music from the 16th century on this double cd of Penitential Psalms by Orlando Lassus. The performers are an English ensemble called Henry's Eight directed by Jonathan Brown. As the name would imply, this is an eight voice male choir of contertenors, tenors and basses. There isn't much information about the choir in the booklet notes and they don't seem to be currently active ( this recording was originally made in 1997 although this release of it dates from 2006 ). Despite the relative anonymity, they provide fine interpretations on thies two disks. Lassus was born in what is now Belgium but like many of his contemporaries he led a somewhat nomadic existence finding work and inspiration where he could in various courts and church settings. What made his music individual at this time was the close attention that he paid to the text and how he tried to mould the music in such a way that it expressed the thoughts and emotions of that text in sound. The penitential psalms are texts begging for understanding and forgiveness from God as well as offering praise and these are serious works that nonetheless still manage to show the indefatigability of the human spirit even when humbling itself. A minor complaint is that both these disks "jump" towards the end of the final track on one of my two cd players, a not uncommon fault with Hyperion pressings in my experience.