MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Philipp DULICHIUS (1562 - 1631)
Sacred Motets
Quaerite primum à 7 (PDV 292) [2:08]
Benedic anima mea Domino - Non secundum peccata nostra à 8 (PDV 288) [7:25]
Christus humiliavit semetipsum à 8 (PDV 237) [4:16]
Anni nostri sicut aranea à 5 (PDV 44) [3:48]
Ecce quomodo moritur iustus à 7 (PDV 223) [4:07]
Iustorum animae in manu Dei sunt à 7 (PDV 279) [3:30]
Nolite solliciti esse à 5 (PDV 159) [1:59]
Magister, licetne censum dare à 5 (PDV 168) [2:59]
Ecce quam bonum à 8 (PDV 215) [3:49]
Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden à 6 (PDV 328) [2:42]
Deus noster refugium à 7 (PDV 270) [3:01]
Cantate Domino à 8 (PDV 238) [3:00]
Beatus homo, qui corripitur à 7 (PDV 225) [4:14]
Dixit Iesus discipulis suis à 5 (PDV 129) [2:46]
Beati qui habitant in domo tua - Elegi abiectus esse à 8 (PDV 243) [6:05]
In domo patris mei à 7 (PDV 222) [2:54]
Gaudens gaudebo in Domino à 7 (PDV 295) [2:49]
Lobet und preiset den Herren à 8 (PDV 240) [2:52]
(PDV refers to the catalogue of Dulichius' works, edited by Otfried von Steuber)
Weser-Renaissance/Manfred Cordes
rec. 18-20 August 2008, Stiftskirche, Bassum, Germany. DDD
Texts and translations included
CPO 777 352-2 [64:46]

Experience Classicsonline

Philipp Dulichius is one of the German composers from around 1600 whose oeuvre has been almost completely neglected, despite the fact that in 1896 a German musicologist devoted a study to him. Whereas other composers took profit from the emergence of the phenomenon of the amateur church choir in Germany, Dulichius was overlooked. There are several reasons for this. One of these is that almost all his motets were written on Latin texts which made them less suitable for the Lutheran liturgy. Another is that they are scored for five to eight voices whereas the church choirs always consisted of four voices.
 
When he was rediscovered in the late 19th century he was nicknamed "the Pomeranian Lassus", after Pommern, the region which today is partly in Germany and partly in Poland. Its main city was Stettin (now Szczecin) where Dulichius worked for many years as Kantor. He was born in Chemnitz as son of a cloth merchant who belonged to the middle class and several times took the position of mayor. He matriculated at Leipzig University in 1579. Held in high esteem in his time, his collections of music were widely disseminated and individual pieces, in particular those for double choir, included in anthologies.
 
Dulichius's oeuvre comprises only sacred compositions which were printed in 12 collections between 1588 and 1630. The last year before his death he planned a publication of 100 motets; only 36 were printed. Until the end of his life he stuck to the traditional polyphony of the 16th century, the prima prattica. There is little text expression in the sense that individual words are depicted. In this respect the nickname "Pomeranian Lassus" is not really fitting, because in Lassus we quite often find elements of text expression and especially madrigalisms, which are largely absent from Dulichius. That doesn't mean that there is no connection between text and music, though. The dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees about paying taxes to the Roman emperor (Magister, licetne censum) is realised through reduction and augmentation of the number of voices. The piece eloquently ends with just two voices singing unisono, expressing the text that the Pharisees left Jesus and "went away". The joyful character of Cantate Domino and Gaudens gaudebo in Domino (I rejoice in the Lord) comes across impressively, thanks to the lively rhythms. The disc closes with Lobet und preiset den Herren which is largely homophonic. Because of the rapid exchanges between the two choirs and the exhilarating rhythms it is a quite exciting piece.
 
Now and then elements of a more immediate illustration of the text are noticeable. Dixit Iesus discipulis tuis includes an ascending line on "resurgere" (rise), whereas the word "mortuis" (the dead) is set to a low note. In Ecce, quam bonum an descending line is used to illustrate "quod descendit" (which flows down). There is also a madrigalism on "tympano" in Cantate Domino.
 
A number of pieces are for double choir. It has been suggested that Dulichius had made a journey to Italy, but there is no evidence of this. He must have been very well aware of the practice of cori spezzati in Venice, though. He not only splits an eight-part texture in two opposing groups, sometimes these are of a different line-up, for instance a 'high' versus a 'low' choir, for instance in Benedic, anima mea and in Lobet und preiset den Herren. Notable is Deus noster refugium (God is our refuge and strength) for its use of a cantus firmus on the text "Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?" - If God is for us, who can be against us? This is repeated several times by a tenor, supported by a sackbut.
 
That brings us to the issue of performance practice. The programme has been divided into six groups of three motets each, ordered according to keys. Dulichius himself valued the use of the various modi of his time. In each group one motet is in an authentic mode and one in a plagal mode, with a composition in the modus connexus at the end. The performance pays tribute to the various ways in which sacred music was performed at the time. In some motets the voices are doubled by instruments, in others one or two parts are sung with the other parts played by strings or wind. In a couple of motets for double choir the instruments are divided: the strings play with the voices in the first choir, the wind join the voices in the second choir. This differentiation in performance practice guarantees a large amount of variety. Not that the music of Dulichius really needs this: even with an a cappella performance his motets would make a lasting impression. Some of the Dulichius motets have been included in anthologies, but this is the first disc which is entirely devoted to his oeuvre, and that is well deserved. Apart from the fact that comparing him with Lassus isn't quite correct, he doesn't need it: Dulichius's music is very good in its own right. Weser-Renaissance delivers immaculate and often exciting performances. The solo contributions of various members of the ensemble are outstanding. The instrumentalists make much impression with their 'vocal' executions, and the balance between voices and instruments is perfect.
 
The quality of music and interpretation means that this disc fully deserves to be labelled Recording of the Month.
 
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Error processing SSI file