Instead of depicting a triumphant visual Resurrection, Brumel's Earthquake Mass focuses on the psycho-acoustic moment of the earthquake, mimicking tectonic cracks and fractures with its 12-voice polyphony.
Interpretation
The performers chose not to reconstruct the missing parts of the Munich manuscript for the Agnus Dei, but instead to highlight these gaps and holes as symptoms of catastrophe.
Instruments
The recording features deliberately anachronistic instruments like the serpent, cornett, and two natural horns, which are typically 18th or 19th-century creations, to enhance the work's apocalyptic sonority.
Recording & Production
The album includes instrumental tracks by Manuel Mota, an electric guitarist, developed with the wind instrumentalists, which act as interventions between the parts of Brumel's mass.
Compositional Technique
Brumel's 12-voice Earthquake Mass uses the beginning of an antiphon melody for the Easter liturgy as a cantus firmus, or leitmotif, around which he weaves fragmented, repeating patterns.
Composer Biography
Antoine Brumel, composer of the Earthquake Mass, was a contemporary of the more famous Josquin Desprez and served as choirmaster of Notre-Dame in Paris around 1500.
Composition History
Brumel's Earthquake Mass was considered lost by the mid-16th century but was rediscovered after the Iconoclasm of 1566 and transcribed for performance at the Bavarian court by Orlando di Lasso.
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