Martin, F: Songs of Ariel from Shakespeare's ‘The Tempest'

Frank Martin and Olivier Messiaen have few musical features in common, but their faith overrides the fundamental differences between them and makes them two of the most important Christian composers of the 20th century. Martin's Mass for unaccompanied double choir is the profoundly ecumenical profession of faith of a fervent Christian. As to the 'Cinq Rechants' Messiaen's last a cappella work, its composer rightly thought it ‘one of [his] best works'. This title was released for the first time in 2004.

Through this second volume of secular music, the Ensemble Aedes continues their exploration of a cappella choral 20th and 21st centuries. In the wake of the first record (EL1128), they have selected 7 cycles where the word, its sound, and space for play and imagination are at the centre of the musical creation.

Eclecticism is thus once again put forward: amidst William Butler Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke and Guillaume Apollinaire, we find William Shakespeare and Paul Eluard or anonymous texts bequeathed by the people and traditions from medieval England or Moravian folklore, and a cycle which the writer is none other than the composer himself. This disc also illustrates how culture and literary tradition of a country can shape, inspire, influence and sometimes dictate a mode of songwriting and vocal, especially when the composer appropriates a language that is not his own. Sacred texts, like secular texts, are treated as madrigals depicting human passions. This cycle invokes the last two volumes that will complete this series.