Secrets
of the Heavens - Seven Invocations for the Contemplation of Things Celestial
Catherine
King - mezzo-soprano
Mark Tucker - tenor
Mark Rylance - reader
THE MARINI
CONSORT
Pavlo Besnosiuk - lira da braccio, vielle
Jacob Heringman - lute, viol
Alison Crum - harp, viol
Roy Marks - viol
Angela Voss - viol
'This
age, like a golden age, has brought back to light those liberal disciplines
that were practically extinguished: grammar, poetry, oratory, painting, sculpture,
architecture, music and the ancient singing of songs to the Orphic lyre.' So
writes the Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) in praise of the
great cultural achievements he has seen in his native city at the height of
the Italian Renaissance. In pride of place, singing - in particular the re-creation
of an ancient tradition of accompanied verse in the manner of the legendary
musician Orpheus. In this recording we are evoking the spirit of Ficino's Orphic
singing in the Florence of the late quattrocento, where the Platonic Academy,
under his leadership, revived this art of improvised invocation as part of a
philosophical and religious aim to harmonise the human soul with the cosmos
and remind it of its true origins in God.'
[Extract from the CD notes by Angela Voss].
Dr Angela
Voss and the Marini Consort use the Orphic hymns as translated by Thomas Taylor.
Between the invocations there are instrumental pieces from the 15th century,
and readings by Mark Rylance from the Letters of Marsilio Ficino.
