Sacred Polyphony

The Glee Club and Choral Society have just issued a 12-inch record of Sixteenth Century music, mostly Palestrina, with selections of Byrd, Lassus, and Amerio (Cambridge, CRS405). Some of this is a reissue of an earlier 10-inch disc. The major section, which is new, is Palestrina's Stabat Mater, sung with freshness and purity.

All of the works on this record are performed with a sense of style, and each is individually satisfactory. The record as a whole suffers from a certain amount of monotony, since most of these pieces are relatively chordal, or else have the separate lines obscured, with the result that there is not much polyphonic interest.

In addition, one side is devoted to works for men's voices, and these, because of either the acoustics of Busch-Reisinger or the chorus' composition, have a propensity to descend into the cellar, producing a sort of grovelling and definitely un-vocal tone.

The recording is very good, especially for a company that has not had uniform success; the slightly blurred effect is intended to approximate the resonance of a stone church, which it does, for better or worse, depending on one's taste. Listened to in sections, this is a satisfying record, and is certainly worth owning, if only for the Stabat Mater.