Composer: Hildegard von Bingen, Marcus Davidson, Emily Levy, Ivan Moody, Laura Moody, Stevie Wishart, Tim Lea Young
Performer: Voice, Emily Burn, Victoria Couper, Clemmie Franks
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Somm
Catalogue: SOMMCD0652
Release: 2022
Size: 1.17 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Bingen: O clarissima mater
02. Moody I: O quam mirabilis
Moody L: Hildegard Portraits
03. Humility
04. Universe as Body
Young: Three Wings, Pt. 1
05. In una via (Version for 3 Voices)
06. Bingen: O virtus sapientae
07. Davidson: Musical Harmony
08. Wishart: Aseruz trium vocum
Moody: Hildegard Portraits
09. Sermon
10. Sing
11. Bingen: O mirum admirandum
12. Wishart: O choruscans lux
13. Bingen: O Orzchis Ecclesia
14. Davidson: O Boundless Ecclesia
Moody: Hildegard Portraits
15. O Woman
16. Love
17. Levy: How Sweetly You Burn
18. Bingen: Unde quocumque venientes
Moody: Hildegard Portraits
19. The Living Light
20. Bingen: Nunc gaudeant
“Hildegard Portraits” draws on close relationships between Voice and the featured composers. It takes its title from the first recording of Laura Moody’s seven-part setting of Hildegard’s letters forming a portrait, Moody says, of “not so much a saint, seer or symbol, but a woman who lived and loved”.
Their collaboration with “friend and mentor” Stevie Wishart continues with first recordings of Aseruz trium vocum and O choruscans lux (choir version), responses to what Voice describe as “the soaring, melismatic lines, the flourishes and ornamentation, and mesmerising unison sound” of St. Hildegard’s own music, heard to sublime effect in six pieces, including O clarissima mater, O virtus sapientie and Nunc gaudeant.
Other exclusive/first recordings include Marcus Davidson’s Musical Harmony and O Boundless Ecclesia, Emily Levy’s compelling blend of folk-inspired melody and Hildegardian ornamentation, How Sweetly You Burn, and Tim Lea Young’s Three Wings: pt.1 (all composed, like Moody’s title work, for Voice).
Ivan Moody’s O quam mirabilis exquisitely sets Hildegard’s own text “expressing to perfection awe at the mystery of the Creator God”.
Voice has self-released two albums – “Musical Harmony” (2013) and “Patterns of Love” (2015). Collaborative releases include “I Have Set My Hert So Hy” with Dufay Collective (2015), and Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared with Julius Drake and Nicky Spence (2019). Hailed by Gramophone as inheritors of “the slot left by the dissolution of Anonymous 4”, Voice – Emily Burn, Victoria Couper and Clemmie Franks – formed in 2006. Singing together since their early teens in the Oxford Girls’ Choir, and as members of Stevie Wishart’s Sinfonye, they have toured throughout the UK, USA and Europe.