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Henrik Odegaard's music doesn't shout. It scarcely even whispers / LIMELIGHT

After dedicating past ECM New Series recordings to the works of contemporary composers Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Helena Tulve and most recently Cyrillus Kreek, the Vox Clamantis choir, under the direction of Jaan-Eik Tulve, turns its attention towards Norwegian composer Henrik Ødegaard with a fine-drawn programme of liturgical choral music. Vox Clamantis are at home in the worlds of both old and new music, having addressed Gregorian chant and the polyphony of Pérotin as well as present-day compositions on previous albums. The ensemble and the works of Ødegaard make a perfect match, as the composer’s work, in a subtle sleight of hand, interweaves Gregorian chant with Norwegian folk song.

“In this recording, Gregorian chant is the protagonist,” writes Kristina Kõrver in the liner notes, “sometimes in its pure beauty, sometimes intertwined with the ‘new song’ of Henrik Ødegaard. As an organist and choir conductor, his musical thinking has been strongly influenced by two important traditions, Gregorian chant and Norwegian folk music, both of which have found unique expressions in his work.”

While these two traditions appear inextricably merged into one in the performance of the choir, they are visibly separated from one another in Ødegaard’s scores – the passages of Gregorian chant being marked in square notation, the predominant musical notation form in European vocal music from the 13th to the early 17th century. It’s a symbolic divide, translated gracefully into the music by opening up monophonic plainchant with modern polyphonic ingredients. The composer employs liturgical hymns as source material, from which he then branches off with his own compositional voice. 
 

Henrik Ødegaard (Vox Clamantis, Jan-Eik Tulve). A composer's subtle, generous homage to the music of the past 

LIMELIGHT's Alexandra Coghlan writes….In this new recording by Vox Clamantis and Jaan-Eik Tulve the veteran Norwegian composer’s music creeps up on you by stealth, a sonic haze illuminating, amplifying, commenting on and – sometimes – even introducing a note of doubt into the absolute certainty of the plainchant melodies that are the foreground of this collection of Paschal meditations, hymns and anthems.

It’s all in the restraint. Take the opener, for example. Jesus dulcis memoria grows from a solo voice (and is that the faintest of hummed drones? So much of this music sits right on the cusp of uttered and imagine sound) to unison statements, all passed between male and female voices. Gradually the texture is filled out with subtle harmony. Voices cling to notes as they sound, turning them into pedal points, or melodic echoes, shimmering threads tethering the matte core of chant floating above.

If the philosophy remains constant, the results are by no means a one-note exercise. The propulsive, processional energy of hymn O filii et filiae is retained in an organum-inspired arrangement with plenty of punch, while Psalms 148 to 150 (part of the longest work on the disc – the cycle Meditations over St Mary Magdalene’s Feast in Nidaros) get a dreamier, more elusive treatment with lines splintering and swelling-out into an intricate root-ball of harmonies.

Tulve directs the impeccable Vox Clamantis. Tone is pure but not self-consciously so, and blend is precise (supported and softened by a generous acoustic). Best of all is the chant itself, which flows with organic ease and only the gentlest of inflections. The skill here – both in performance and composition – is invisible. What a wonderfully generous piece of music-making.
 

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