Josquin Desprez

The press is talking about it!

This month, the penultimate volume of the Complete Masses of Josquin Desprez, recorded in the Church of Javols (Lozère) by the Ensemble Métamorphoses, appears. Initiated and produced by Maurice Bourbon, this monumental fresco confirms the variety of inspiration of the innovative Picard genius, the great European master of vocal polyphony of the early Renaissance. This album is the ninth and penultimate in the series of complete masses by Josquin Desprez, an undertaking as titanic as it was daring. The two works gathered this time have to do with Belgium. They are performed with the same perfection as the previous volumes.

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Technical note : (5/5)
Author: Olivier Olgan - Article published on 7 May 2021

A former scientist, Maurice Bourbon has been leading the Association La Chapelle des Flandres whose creative dynamic is based on the harmonious balance of the three ensembles that make it up: Métamorphoses, Coeli et Terra and Biscantor. This unique tool allows the former geologist to explore the immense continent of polyphonic music: from the 15th to the 21st century, from Johannes Ockeghem... to his own compositions. This immense choral conductor has just completed the complete Masses of the great Franco-Flemish master Josquin Desprez.

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A Cartesian mind

Among the great choral conductors of his generation (HerrewegheGardiner), Maurice Bourbon stands out for his career. Far from being a child of the ball, this geological engineer (Ecole des Mines de Paris) has led a scientific career in research at the CNRS (doctorate in sedimentology). It is also as a scientist that he has invested the complexity and mathematical ordering of the immense heritage of vocal polyphony: "I am not a believer, but I am amazed at the arrangement of these veritable musical cathedrals, the arrangement of volumes, the minute mathematical workings that respond to each other, resulting in works of great emotion.”

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