ASV has been recording
plainchant from various parts of the
British Isles for some time now. In
this enterprise they have worked with
Capella Nova under Alan Tavener. This
is a relatively undiscovered area and
much of the music is unknown. Apparently
all except one track on this new CD
is newly recorded. The other earlier
discs have been realized for mixed voices.
This new one uses the four women’s voices
of ‘Canty’ which, since the days of
the American group ‘Anonymous 4’, has
proven to be an effective and successful
format.
On this disc, what
is especially attractive is the occasional
appearance of the very Celtic clarsach
harp, an instrument increasing in its
popularity. William Taylor improvises
in the appropriate mode, something which
he has been studying for some time.
Stories of all sorts were often chanted,
as here, on just three or four notes.
The effect is like the chanting of an
epistle or gospel, or a declamation
to the accompaniment of the clarsach
in a hall or meeting room. The instrument
makes its first entry with the story
about King Dubthach and his affair with
his servant girl, Brocsech, with whom
he has a famed daughter, St. Briget
herself. The story of the saint is told
throughout the disc with, in between,
nine nicely chosen responsorial plainchants
and Antiphons (short prayers) suitable
for Matins on her Feast day. These fit
aptly with the reading or I should say
the Lectio. The clarsach also plays
for most of the Antiphons, which are
in a different mode from the Lectios.
In this way what we might call ‘key
fatigue’ is avoided and contrast offered.
Brigit’s feast day,
being incidentally on 1 February, was
marked in pre-Christian times as the
day of putting out the old fires and
building new ones. St. Brigit became
the patron saint of metalworkers and
blacksmiths as a consequence, hence
the title of the disc ‘The Flame of
Ireland’. Fire features in two of the
legends recited here.
The disc has been ‘hung’
around the Feast of St. Brigit. ‘Who
she?, you might ask. Well, the excellent
booklet essay tells us. She was born
in or around 453 and died in about 524.
She founded an oratory in Kildare at
Cill-Dara (translated as ‘Church by
the Oak’), now a fine city with a wonderful
Cathedral (good Norman work) and spiritual
centre. She is the most important female
saint of Ireland. Even in England churches
and villages have been dedicated in
her honour.
The chants selected
come from two manuscripts in Trinity
College Dublin, prosaically called MS78
and TCD 88, which have collated to recreate
a shortened version of Matins. In addition
Canty have recorded some other suitable
Antiphons as listed above for Vespers
and Lauds used also on the saint’s Feast
Day. It is good to be told in the notes
that Dr. Ann Buckley has edited and
transcribed the plainchant; something
I am often asking record companies to
do.
These plainchants are
divided nicely between solo lines and
tutti voices with the wire-stringed
clarsach weaving delightfully in and
out of the texture. Each singer is superb.
The tuning is immaculate - as one has
come to expect in early music. The text
is delivered in the Lectios in a dramatic
manner where necessary and with beautifully
clear diction. It is a good idea to
follow the texts and their excellent
translations by James Reid-Baxter -
some of it in quite obscure Latin -
as one can more appreciate what William
Taylor is attempting on the harp by
way of descriptive word-painting. For
example when Brigit as an infant is
left in a house which suddenly catches
fire, the harp likewise seems to catch
a flame or two from the blaze.
The beautifully presented
booklet is adorned with the well known
image of the Virgin and Child from the
Book of Kells - also to be seen at Trinity
College, Dublin. The texts are given
but sometimes not quite complete. Some
Gloria Patris are missing and you should
listen out for some textual repetition
in the Antiphons. Also the texts for
tracks 7 and 9 have been printed in
the wrong order. Photographs and biographies
of the performers are also given, as
usual.
I recently visited
Haddington Church which is the biggest
parish church in Scotland. It’s not
far from Edinburgh and with its super
acoustic is an excellent choice. The
effect is of space around the voices,
as if in a vast uncluttered medieval
abbey. Even so the sound remains clear
and intimate.
Listening to this disc
has been a beautiful, relaxing and spiritual
experience. The music is most sensitively
performed, unique in its sound-world.
It is a disc I will play regularly.
Gary Higginson
Canty (Libby Crabtree; Ruth Dean; Anne
Lewis; Rebecca Tavener) 
