The Friday Play List

This morning, driving to work, I was listening to Early Music composed by Jacob Obrecht entitled Missa Caput : Salve Regina. As some of you know and others may have surmised I am by no means a religious person but music of this calibre does convince me of the existence of a higher intelligence. The higher intelligence in this case being Jacob Obrecht who was an extraordinarily gifted composer. Born 1457/8 in Ghent (in what is now Belgium) he (and here I am quoting from the sleeve notes) will always be seen to have a special position among the composers who changed the musical world in late fifteenth-century Europe.

He is distinguished from his contemporaries for the serenity of his musical vision, his unmatched ear for sonority and, not least, the astonishingly affective range of his writing which encompasses the playful, the jubilant and the rapturous. Obrecht's music is more than a window into late-medieval society: it has the power to move, inspire and console us, even today.

I have to agree with Rob C. Wegman (who wrote the liner notes) because it certainly had a calming influence on me, driving through the hectic rush hour traffic of early morning Belfast.

For those of you who may want to purchase a copy it can be found on the NAXOS label reference no. 8.553210.