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Prima
Missa in Commemoratione Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum (Requiem Mass)
The Monks' Choir of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Martin, Beuron,
Cond. Dr. Maurus Pfaff, O.S.B. Recorded
on 1st April 1954
Originally released as Archiv Produktion LP APM 14002
Duration: 38'30
I
can highly recommend this atmospheric disc and Pristine Audio’s
distinctive delivery mechanism means that it comes at a highly affordable
price....
Robert Hugill, Musicweb International
review
In this
remarkable recording, we get to hear music shaped by many centuries of
tradition, presented as living art. The origins of the Litugical Office
for the dead in the latin Church date back to the second century AD and
an annual commemoration of the deceased. The earliest records of the texts
- as still used today - date from the 10th century, and it would appear
that aspects of the music, particularly the Kyrie, have remained
more or less constant since around the year 500.
Later
aspects of this music, such as the Dies irae, date from around
1200, with a melody dated to around 1300. Clearly, then, this is music
that has evolved throughout the history of the Christian Church, and this
recording of the Monks of the Abbey of St. Martin, Beuron, Germany,
is a testament to that long history, as well as to the scholarly research
work of their conductor, Father Maurus Pfaff.
REVIEW
OF Gregorian Requiem Mass
Monks of Beuron Abbey, 1954
I
come in musicological sackcloth and ashes to this recording
as I am signally unfamiliar with Gregorian Chant except that
it is the fountainhead for Western Civilization's music. I have
heard it occasionally, but I have never much listened. It is
plainchant, no accompaniment, no harmony, performed by a single
voice or many voices. The rhythm is very free and there is much
room for pitch improvisation. The words are entirely in Latin
and follow mostly the normal Mass, except the Gloria and Credo
are omitted from a Requiem, being considered a little too joyful.
I
began listening out of duty and within five minutes was pretty
well gripped by the beauty of the performance and the sound.
The Mass begins with a Requiem Aeternam in mood like Faure
with alternating solo and choral phrases. Then, a darker Kyrie-Christe-Kyrie
Eleison sequence, again alternating solo and chorus, is heard.
A beautiful, virile voice begins a lengthy plainchant on a
single note with melismas (musical curlicues) on each word,
always ending softly, and I am hooked! This is again interspersed
with choral plainchants almost in the manner of a concerto
grosso.
Then,
to my surprise, I hear a familiar melody and the spell is
somewhat broken. I hear the plainchant Dies Irae (Days of
Wrath), used by Berlioz in his Requiem and in the 5th movement
of the Symphonie Fantastique, used by Liszt in the Totentanz
as the subject of variations, used by Rachmaninoff in the
Paganini Rhapsody and the Symphonic Dances and used by Respighi
to depict his poisonous vipers in Brazilian Impressions.
But
here the theme is in its pure state and it breaks my otherworldly
mood somewhat. The work goes on considerably longer and peace
returns. I am so impressed with the strength and the differences
in the solo voices of the monks. The sound lets one hear the
purity of the singing and the spiritual space of the cathedral.
But what is more telling for me is the realization is that
as the musical means become more limited, the musical results
can become so much more powerful
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I
can highly recommend this atmospheric disc and Pristine Audio’s
distinctive delivery mechanism means that it comes at a highly affordable
price....
