Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Les Voix Humaines, Christopher Jackson - Rise, O My Soul: English Anthems (2007)

This collection of English verse anthems and viol fantasias -- there are no examples of the a cappella, highly polyphonic full anthem -- comes from Montreal's vibrant early music scene and it offers a fresh version of these often-recorded classics of English choral music of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The verse anthem, written in English, was a characteristic Anglican genre, alternating between choral and solo passages and deploying the text across plain but often rather fervent lines of music. It is accompanied here, as was normal, by viols; an organ can also be used. Done right, a work like John Ward's Prayer is an endless chain (track 2) or any of the three thorny but exultant anthems by Orlando Gibbons should have the combination of piety and rich beauty that would be characteristic of Bach's music a century or more later. Conductor Christopher Jackson, leading the 13-voice, mixed-gender les Voix Humaines and the fabulous viols of le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, creates a distinctively warm sound that may for many be more immediately attractive than the ethereal children of the English cathedral or the chilly perfection of certain Continental groups that have ventured across the Channel. The occasional sharp dissonances, which in this repertory usually add a general richness rather than illustrating specific ideas with a pungent effect, are given just the right weight. The music seems to proceed in waves, with the choir flowing naturally out of the solo passages rather than providing a contrasting block of sound -- and this often fits the sense of the words very well. The predominantly francophone (although doubtless in many cases fully bilingual) singers bring no trace of a French accent to the music. However, their accomplishments in enunciation aren't fully conveyed by the rather ponderous sound environment of the Eglise St.-Augustin de Mirabel, which makes understanding the texts difficult, at least without recourse to the booklet (in French and English throughout). The soloists, moreover, seem often to be lurking somewhere off in the distance. This is damaging in a genre that was all about text intelligibility, but this disc is nevertheless worth getting acquainted with.