Matthias Maute, Ensemble ArtChoral - ART CHORAL Vol. 8: Québec (2026) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Missa Verba mea auribus: Kyrie
02. Missa Verba mea auribus: Sanctus
03. Missa Verba mea auribus: Agnus Dei
04. Maison fermée
05. À la claire fontaine (Arr. for Choir by Jean-François Daigneault)
06. Missa Grata sum harmonia: Kyrie
07. Missa Grata sum harmonia: Sanctus
08. Missa Grata sum harmonia: Agnus Dei
09. Jesus erbarme dich
10. Quand j'étais chez mon père (Arr. for Choir by Jean-François Daigneault)
11. Ja de longtemps
12. Isabeau s'y promène (Arr. for Choir by Jean-François Daigneault)
13. Noncerto de la Montagne, RR6: II. Outremont (Pain de Sucre)

Art Choral, Vol. 8: Québec offers a true journey through more than four centuries of Québec choral music. Rather than presenting this heritage as something static, the album creates a dialogue between the earliest music to arrive in New France, the oral tradition, and contemporary compositions.

The program begins at the very origins with two 17th-century French masses by Henri Frémart and Artus Aux-Cousteaux, whose scores bear witness to the repertoire that was circulating in Quebec from the colony’s earliest days. It then explores popular memory with “À la claire fontaine,” “Quand j’étais chez mon père,” and “Isabeau s’y promène,” reimagined in arrangements by Jean-François Daignault, before moving on to modern and contemporary works by Claude Vivier, William Kraushaar, MauriceGaston Du Berger, and Matthias Maute.

What gives this album its strength is precisely this interplay of echoes across eras: Renaissance counterpoint, ancient modes, and songs passed down from generation to generation reappear in contemporary compositions. “Maison fermée,” the only piece recorded for the first time on this album, for example, creates a dialogue between contemporary composition and influences ranging from Bach and Gesualdo to minimalism; “Ja de longtemps,” meanwhile, draws on contrapuntal textures inspired by the Renaissance to evoke the river and the Quebec landscape.