Taverner

Rather than trying to evoke some sort of archaic feeling, I’d invite a listening of this short song (of the 1520's) as if it was electronica.

Great pleasure is to be had from hearing the parts build from a single note to an unfathomable and unpredictable weave of sound. In the richest places, if you listen from one vocal line to another in a different register, the piece ends up having an almost tangible sense of depth, like peering through trees.

Its tempo is so slow - to the point of being dense - and the ‘drop’ or resolution is always achingly close. The plainchant (male voices) near the start, and at the end, provide solid pillars to an otherwise too-ephemeral vocal fabric.

Its brevity, disjunction and seeming lack of definite climax leave you almost perplexed. For a song the same length as We Share Our Mother’s Health it has an enormous amount to say.

Taverner - Audivi Vocem de Coelo