Majestic, spiritual...beautiful
luvjalba | usa | 01/02/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"i am not familiar with choral work such as this. i heard this at a tower records listening booth and just stood there absolutely amazed at how beautiful the human voice can sound. these songs date back to around 450 years ago, when the church had absolute rule over any artistic expression. assuming these songs were performed in the same manner at that time, you can revel in the thought of sitting in a cathedral listening to men and women singing to praise God above. or you can do as i did, just marveling at the majestic scope of voices as they were meant to be heard in a cathdral setting. the topper here is 'spem in alium', a piece designed for 8 groups of 5-part choirs that washes the listener in sound. it is best, in my opinion, to listen to something like this through a good pair of headphones loud, but not so loud as to distort or disturb, but rather to pick up every single nuance, since i can assume that choral works such as this have subtleties missed when listening casually. a great beginning to my exploration of choral music from this time period."