endBEGINNING

“My end is my beginning, and my beginning my end.”

With those words, New York Polyphony ends a program which explores the themes of grief, loss and mortality. Apart from the closing paraphrase by Jackson Hill (b. 1942) on Guillaume de Machaut’s famous 14th century rondeau Ma fin est mon commencement and two examples of plainsong, all works included on endBeginning were composed by masters of the Franco-Flemish school of polyphony active in the first half of the 16th century.

The music was partly used liturgically, for instance Brumel’s Mass for the Dead, which incorporates the first known polyphonic setting of the Dies irae as its extensive centerpiece. Similarly the Lamentations by Crecquillon—a setting which is possibly appearing on disc for the first time—would have been used in churches during Holy Week, with the destruction of Jerusalem as mourned by the prophet Jeremiah standing as a symbol of the Passion of Christ. The two Gregorian chants Libera me and In paradisum both form part of the Roman Catholic burial service, the first a prayer for the soul’s delivery from eternal death and the second an evocation of the hereafter. Of a more subjective nature, the two texts Absalon fili mi (“Absalom, my son”) and Tristitia obsedit me – Infelix ego (“Sadness has besieged me – Alas, wretch that I am”) have moved their respective composers to settings of rare intensity.

endBeginning was recorded October 2010 in the superb acoustics of the 14th century church of Länna, Sweden.

Thanks to a special partnership with eClassical.com a pre-release of the full album (plus a holiday bonus track!) is AVAILABLE NOW.

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Want to know more? View the “making of” VIDEO courtesy of BIS Records.