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DISCOGRAPHY
polyphonicsZORGINA's début recording, polyphonics, is a compilation of sacred and secular three-part music that spans from the oldest extant three-voice work (early 12th c.), to high Renaissance madrigals (late 16th c.), to traditional Balkan folk song. More than a mere timeline of compositional styles, the pieces on polyphonics are interpreted according to their text, original performance context, and the particularities of their historical era, revealing the unique, inner life of each piece. Polyphonics has enjoyed a good deal of attention in the media. The recording was featured in radio presentations on Bayrische Rundfunk, Bavaria's largest radio station, and on the Viennese radio station ÖF1. In November 1997, polyphonics was featured in Brigitte, Austria and Germany's leading women's magazine (Concert and CD Reviews). In the USA, polyphonics has been featured on three National Public Radio programs: Ellen Kushner's Sound and Spirit, Robert Aubry Davis's Millenium of Music, and John Schaefer's New Sounds. Polyphonics is somewhat revolutionary as an early music recording. Rather than recording in a church-like acoustic -- the industry standard for early vocal music -- we recorded in a studio with three separate microphones. This enabled the production team to control the type and amount of reverb on each piece, further distinguishing the various musical styles, and it allowed the three singers' voices to retain their unique color and character within a clean and balanced vocal blend. Congaudeant Catholici, Codex Calixtinus, 12th c triplicitétriplicité refers to a phrase used by Eustache Deschamps, a contemporary of the 14th century composer, Guillaume de Machaut, to describe three-voice composition: triplicité des voix ("threeness" of voice). triplicité is a recording of three-voice, secular music from a span of about one hundred years, ca. 1350 to 1450, the period in European musical history that produced the greatest wealth of three-part music. The music from this period can be surprising to people who are more familiar with chant or early medieval polyphony. Composers in the 14th century experimented with new techniques of composition that pushed the limits of chromatic motion and rhythmic complexity, resulting in music of extraordinarily rich texture in as few as three parts. For the first time in any significant way, secular music was being composed for its own sake, marking a shift in the very act of composition itself. Many composers also wrote their own poetry -- elaborate, metaphoric texts rich with images from classical mythology and focusing on spiritual and earthly love, a theme that dominated the poetry and literature at this time of Dante and Petrarch. The music composed during this hundred year period from 1350-1450 also charts the transition from medieval to Renaissance style. Compositional techniques changed during this time, as did so many aspects of European society, and by the end of the 15th century the elements of Renaissance musical style were firmly in place. From now on, composers would pay more attention to the vertical aspects of a composition than to the complexity of the individual lines. A mere three parts could hardly suffice any longer. With triplicité, ZORGINA lingers in the liminal zone between ancient and modern, a time when 'threeness' was still quite a lot. Dove, dove, or dove é le mio signore - Lauda,
anon, Escorial IV Manuscript, 15th c. |
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