The Hilliard Ensemble - A Hilliard Songbook: New Music For Voices (2000)

This recording represents a wide and diverse repertoire. The virtuosic singing of this male quartet will just blow you away. The vocal style has that distinctly renaissance sound to it, yet put with this modern repertoire the juxtaposition is just wonderful. As previous reviewers have mentioned there are very good liner notes, and much of the material has been written specifically for this ensemble and can be found nowhere else.

Most of the music is some way religious in theme, although certainly not to the taste of some! Several recordings on this disk are among my favorite choral music. The 8 selections from the composition "The Hilliard Songbook" are an interesting take on the idea of harmonies representing colors, with the refrain of 'True beautie.'

Arvo Pärt's "And One of The Pharisees..." is a mini-drama for three voices, very unusual and distinct from anything else I've heard by him. Each verse of the scripture text is set to a different harmony, with the melody only moving away from that harmony if the word is multi-syllabic. One voice represents Christ, another the Pharisee. As these rules get broken in the last couple verses the spiritual lesson is hit home.

"Sharp Thorne" is an exquisite yet difficult pill to swallow, it is amazing how much dissonance can be brought out between four voices. The text juxtaposes a medieval poem written from Christ's perspective ("what might I suffer more than I have suffered, man for thee") with a modern text heaping all the sins of modern atrocities onto that timeless sacrifice (it equates the spear that pierced him with weapons forged at Vickers). Devastating and powerful.

All of the tracks are definitely worth a listen, from the rollicking 'Kullervo's Message,' based on a passage from the Kalevala, to the furious 'Whale Rant' which sets a sermon from Moby Dick.

If you like modern choral/vocal ensemble music this album is a tour-de-force that shouldn't be missed!