World Premiere Recordings of Peñalosa on BIS

Geoffrey Williams, Craig Phillips, Steven Caldicott Wilson, and Christopher Dylan Herbert at a recording session for the latest New York Polyphony album (courtesy of A440 Arts Group)

This Friday BIS Records will release its sixth album of the vocal quartet that calls itself New York Polyphony. The members of this group are countertenor Geoffrey Williams, tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson, baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert, and bass Craig Phillips. San Francisco readers may recall that this ensemble made its San Francisco debut with San Francisco Performances in December of 2017, when they showcased a repertoire of seven centuries of Christmas music taken from their BIS album Sing Thee Nowell.

The title of the new album is Lamentationes; and it features a Spanish composer so little known that he has yet to be given his own Wikipedia page, Francisco de Peñalosa. He only appeared in Grove Music Online when that site published an article by Tess Knighton in 2001. He was active during the first quarter of the sixteenth century, primarily in Seville; but he also served as a member of the papal choir in Rome for about four years. The album also includes short selections by Peñalosa’s Spanish contemporary Pedro de Escobar (who does have a Wikipedia page) and Francisco Guerrero (the only one of the three previously known to me). As can be expected, Amazon.com is currently taking pre-orders for this album.

Knighton’s article begins by observing that more works by Peñalosa survive than by any of his Spanish contemporaries. Much of my knowledge of early Spanish music came from my collecting a series of recordings released by the Musical Heritage Society. Peñalosa’s music never appeared on any of them, so Knighton’s claim was a somewhat humbling experience. Noting that “a considerable number of his compositions have been lost,” Knighton accounts for the currently available music as follows:

Six complete masses, six Magnificat settings, five hymns, three Lamentation settings, over 20 motets and 11 songs are attributed to him in Iberian or New World sources; surprisingly, it appears that none of his music has been preserved elsewhere.

The major offerings on the New York Polyphony album account for two of those Lamentation settings. They also sing the Gloria, Credo, and Agnus Dei sections from a mass setting based on the popular song “L’homme armé,” along with two short motets. Guerrero accounts for two additional motets on the album; and the Escobar motet is one of the earliest settings of the Stabat Mater hymn.

This album will clearly be a significant journey of discovery for all but the most accomplished experts on the early history of Spanish music. As a result, there is not much foundation for any effort to evaluate the authenticity of New York Polyphony’s approach to performance. The best that can be said is that there is an impeccable clarity to their one-to-a-part singing and a command of intonation that reflects an understanding of early sixteenth-century practices. As far as I am concerned, that alone makes the case that they offer up a journey worth taking; and I look forward to becoming more familiar with Peñalosa’s achievements.