Performers: Josep Cabré, Marie-Claude Vallin, Katelijne van Laethem (vocal soloists), Willem Bremer, Bart Coen (recorders), René van Laken (rebec, fiddle), Wim Becu, Willy Verdievel, Harry Ries (bass trombones), Jean-Yves Guerry, Anne Mertens, Nele Minten, Godfried van de Vyvere, Rika Wouters (chorus)
Playing time: 57'
Recording date: June 1989 (Leuwen); released: 1990 (7977), 2009 (57584)
This cycle of "O" Antiphons is part of the Christmas Vespers ceremony, centered around the Magnificat. In the present case, they are heavily troped, and end with a liturgical motet in a more triumphant mood.
The music itself it thoroughly isorhythmic, and heavily syncopated. The pieces form a true cycle, linked by both a sequence of modality and motivic figures. This is the most elaborate sacred section of the huge Turin manuscript (Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS J. II 9), the one source for the Cypriot repertory.
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Todd M. McComb