Saturday, 10 September 2005, 8 pm.
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Road, Kew
Subscription Concert 4
Parody was a major sixteenth-century compositional technique, especially in the setting of the Mass. The composer would take as a model a chanson or motet and re-work the material as Kyrie, Gloria, etc. Certain pieces were repeatedly re-worked by a variety of composers: Richafort’s Quem dicunt homines, for example, served as the model for at least eight Masses, including settings by Mouton, Morales and Palestrina.
PROGRAM
Jean Richafort Quem dicunt homines
Jean Mouton Missa Quem dicunt homines
Jean Richafort Philomena praevia
Nicolas Gombert Missa Philomena praevia
| SOPRANO | ALTO | TENOR | BASS |
| Deborah Summerbell | Belinda Wong | Peter Campbell | Alexander Roose |
| Carol Veldhoven | Niki Ebacioni | Tim Van Nooten | Tom Reid |
| Fiona Seers | Rebecca Woods | Vaughan McAlley | Jerzy Kozlowski |
| Claerwen Jones | Jenny George | Stuart Tennant | |
| Maria Pisani | |||
| Kathryn Pisani |
REVIEWS
Monday, 12 September 2005,The Age [Melbourne], page 16, Metro.
Ensemble handes Richafort with great poise
Joel Crotty
HISTORY is littered with composers whose fame appeared to be short-lived. Renaissance composer Jean
Richafort is a good example of a musician who was widely respected during his lifetime but quickly lapsed
into the footnotes. On Saturday, Ensemble Gombert revived Richafort’s music and gave a glimpse into the
world of a near-forgotten composer.
During the early 16th century, Richafort’s motet Quem dicunt homines was a Renaissance “hot hit”.
Composers from across Europe were attracted to the work’s rhythmic ebullience, and parodied it in their own
works. One such composer was Jean Mouton, who produced his Missa Quem dicunt homines . It is stark
work that demonstrates a composer more concerned with smooth-flowing transparency rather than deeply
configured polyphony.
While the choristers, under the direction of John O’Donnell, delivered both these works with their usual
degree of professionalism, the main musical focus occurred in the second half of the program. Richafort’s
beautifully expressive motet Philomena praevia was coupled with Gombert’s parody of it in the composer’s
Missa Philomena praevia. The performance revealed a choir that was able to handle the differing complexities of each work with poise.
The ensemble is heading to Europe next year for another tour, and from its performance of Gombert’s Mass
and Richafort’s Philomena motet, one hopes these works are being considered as repertoire items.
Joel Crotty/Courtesy of The Age