Noël Akchoté - Missa Tournai – (B-Tc 476, Anonym, 14th Century), (For Guitar)
Bandcamp, 2024
One must admire the guitarist Noël Akchoté for his persistent curiosity and unflagging musical courage. He addresses all music as equally deserving his attention and interpretation. Akchoté reaches deep for the Missa Tournai, an anonymous mass notated in 14th-century France. Historicially, Medieval masses were groups according to mass parts. For example, the Ivrea Codex (Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, 115) and Trésor 16 bis "Apt Codex" both include musical settings for the mass, grouping the individual mass parts together such that all the Kyries are together, all the Glorias are together, etc. The priest, responsible for selecting the music for Mass, would choose one from each group to be included, enabling the use of any setting of a movement in combination with any other. The Tournai Mass is the first known mass to be written in a manuscript as if it were a single unified setting of the entire ceremony.1
This repertoire is not new to Akchoté. The guitarist has recorded many medieval and Renaissance pieces. Akchoté favors using his trusty Gibson ES-175-D for these recordings. On Missa Tournai, the guitarist coaxes the delicate polyphonic elements from each Mass part, extracting and displaying a certain rustic charm and calm captured from the vocal performances. The Kyrie rings true, though hesitant, revealing an uncertainty or awe derived from the ancient texts. The Credo translates melodically, Akchoté capturing a corner of the polyphony of the period. This release marks Akchoté’s turning his attention to the Anonymous Codexis of 14th Century France. He dedicates his next recording to the Toulouse Mass, which is closely associated with the Ivrea and Apt Codexis.
Comparison Recording
Ensemble De Caelis & Laurence Brisset Missa Tournai (Ricercar, 2008)
Wikipedia Contributors. (2022, October 26). Tournai Mass. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournai_Mass
Great article !