Ockeghem Requiem

 Day 185

Ockeghem Requiem

The Clerk’s Group

Edward Wickham

This is the earliest surviving polyphonic setting of the Requiem. Ockeghem, whose dates are c1410-1497, Not much is known about its origins - various dates from the 1460s to 1480s have been proposed. There is also some controversy about whether the work has come down to us in an incomplete state as some of the key sections of the Requiem text are missing. Nonetheless what we have is an imposing piece lasting half an hour or so. 

I found it a fascinating piece. It seems to occupy a position between medieval music such as that of Machaut and the music of the Renaissance. So it has the angular shapes of medieval music with lots of open 4th and 5ths and some really odd rhythmic distortions. At the same time it does have elements of Renaissance polyphony with much smoother lines and worked-out counterpoint.

As with all of the music of this period much of the way a piece like this is performed must be guided by educated guesswork. The surviving sources give no performance indications all - the notes and the rhythms are there but nothing else. So decisions about speed, dynamics, number of voices, etc have to be made by the editor and performers. This performance was beautifully voices with enormous care and subtlety. It made a real impression but I did wonder, as I have done before with early music, whether the original performance would have sounded like this - wouldn't it be wonderful to have a time machine to be able to go back to the 1400s and hear a contemporary performance - though I suspect that it might some as something of a shock after hearing such a professional and mellifluous performance as this one.