Spanning The Centuries

The vocal ensemble The Orlando Consort put together intriguing projects for their recorded output. The thrust of this disk, Scattered Rhymes, is early 14th century choral music of astonishing rhythmic ingenuity and radical harmonic language, together with two contemporary composers' take on it. The main 14th century work in question is Messe De Nostre Dame by Guillaume De Machaut. Filled with extremes of dissonance and passion, it is still an outstanding and most individual work, here given a performance by the Consort that more than does it justice. The title track of the disk is a response to this sound world by US based British composer Tarik O'Regan, who manages to combine the sound world and rhythms of De Machaut with a genuinely contemporary feel, somewhat minimalist in style without going to repetitive extremes. On this track, The Orlando Consort are joined by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under director Paul Hillier and the two ensembles combine wonderfully with overlapping lines of music. O'Regan also offers his variation on another secular theme by De Machout, Douce dame Jolie, while fellow Brit Gavin Bryars is represented with a fine piece titled Super Flumina and the 14th century's side of the concept is held up by Dufay's Ave Maria Celorum.