The Mass Et ecce terrae mains is a work of great magnificence and one can well imagine the tremendous impression it must have made during a solemn Easter liturgy in the private chapel of a princely household.
Brumel's 12-part Mass Et ecce terrae mains is a remarkable work, well worth reviving for modern performers and listeners. Paul van Nevel deserves a vote of thanks for recognizing its value, for restoring what was missing in the first Agnus Del and for conducting this splendid performance. It is remarkable, also, that in the sixteenth century, when it was usual to perform exclusively contemporary music, this Mass was recognized for its worth by no less a musician than Lassus. Having ordered a copy of it to be made for performance at the Bavarian Court—and that must have been some 50 years after Brumel's death—Lassus had the names of his singers, many of whom can be identified, inscribed in his massive score; and from this evidence it seems clear that he himself sang with the second tenors. It is a work of great magnificence and one can well imagine the tremendous impression it must have made during a solemn Easter liturgy in the private chapel of a princely household.
The Huelgas Ensemble are expert in sustaining the long flowing lines of the counterpoint, with their rippling rhythms rising and falling like small waves on the surface of an ocean. The extremely slow-moving harmony is carefully managed, so as rarely, if ever, to sound tedious. The dynamics are well under control, and the soft, reedy tonequality is fairly evenly matched throughout the 12 vocal parts, which is quite an achievement.
Paul van Nevel deserves a second vote of thanks for his other 'premiere', the sequence Dies irae from Brumel's Requiem Mass, and for his imaginative interpretation of the alternatim scheme: in addition to the polyphony there are slow, semimetrical chant sections, solemn brass sections and fauxbourdons. I particularly enjoyed the viol-like quality of the voices in the quiet closing phrases of the sequence. Highly recommended.
