In Naxos' Let Voices Resound,
Jeremy Summerly and the female singers within
Oxford Camerata tackle a 1582 publication that launched several tunes that remain with us more than five centuries on. Compiled by Jakko Suomalainen, then headmaster of the Turku Cathedral School in Finland, Piae Cantiones was a compilation of 74 sacred pieces married to popular melodies already several centuries old, and probably intended as a publication for use in training amateur choruses. In Finland, Piae Cantiones is regarded as representing the remainder of what pre-seventeenth century they have, and it is still a standard text in use by choruses there, although the 1625 edition, which contains Finnish language texts over the Latin, is preferred over that in use here.
In English-speaking lands, the performance of Tempus adest floridum will be of particular interest, as the tune, transformed in the nineteenth century, became our Christmas song "Good King Wenceslas." "In dulci jubilo" is a melody so closely associated with Johann Sebastian Bach that in some sources it is attributed to him; here it is heard in a source published more than a century before his birth. "Puer natus in Bethlehem" will be known to most who have listened to at least one early music-styled Christmas album, or have taken in a Christmas concert of that kind. Although the polyphonic pieces within the 1582 edition, and there weren't many, such as "Aetas Carmen melodiae" and "Parce Christus spes reorum," are arcane and unusual even for their time, most of the 13 selections that appear on Let Voices Resound will sound familiar in some way, which accounts for Piae Cantiones' great success over the centuries.
Let Voices Resound is performed with clarity, purity, and plainness appropriate to the setting of a small, pietistic community in a remote place such as Turku. Most of the melodies are monophonic, and some simple harmonization, in keeping with practices of the time, is employed, but not in all cases. Naxos' Let Voices Resound is a terrific disc to put on quietly and zone out to, and it is a wonderful item to have around to play at Christmastime. It wouldn't make for a bad gift, either.