Cool, spacious, mantra -like Mass
This is a remarkably `clean’ piece, acoustically, the quality of the setting, not to mention the very even quality of the singers, who hold their notes without vibrato, so that long open notes just roll out, gently rising, falling, intermingling.
The effect is rather like standing on some quiet, calm shore with the waves barely ruffled by breeze. Out beyond the edge of vision, where sea and sky meet, fading into each other, it becomes impossible to see which is which, and an empty space opens and continues. On and on.
The viewer/listener, is floated and held by this cool immensity of horizon/sound. This is singing with the quality of a mantra and The Tallis Scholars do something most magical to hold such a perfectly placed, strong and pervasive ease and poise for what is after all, a long Mass.
Unfortunately I can’t find a You Tube clip of the Tallis Scholars singing this piece, and the only You Tube version was too ‘bounced and busy’ to please me, so the clip below IS of Obrecht, and IS with the Tallis Scholars, doing beautiful things to another sacred piece. However, there is no visual! Gaze at the black rectangle, and just listen.
Obrecht: Missa Maria Zart Amazon UK
Obrecht: Missa Maria Zart Amazon USA
This is a stunningly pretty collection. The fourteenth century composer 
Here is music by Josquin des Prez, effortlessly rendered by the Orlando Consort
whole.
cheaply, but only as a CD so you can’t hear on mp3 
`sacred style’ Western choral singing composed by her, very much in 
Alas, this was a while ago and I can no longer find that particular clip
For the first time, I can really see the close connection between music and maths. These pieces are composed of such close and weaving harmonies, that they seem to create a sacred geometry of sound space, constructing something almost architectural in its balance and perfectly poised tensions. Listening to this, its at times impossible to work out whether the music is rising or falling, expanding or diminishing and contracting, as it seems to perform those oppositions all at once.
fruition or resolution, this music comes from a different place. The devotion and faith which created it seem totally secure. The musical lines seem always to be resolved, even as they move to resolution. There is such a sense of always renewing balance.
That’s the music itself, and then there is the combination of fluidity and control from The Clerk’s Group, an effortless, everflowing stream of voices, building this rare fantastical soundscape.
Lady Fancifull 
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