Gombert: Magnificats 1-4
Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495-1560) composed texturally complicated music. If at first it seems murky, its captivating counterpoint--which is almost always  polyphonic, without a break for a straight, homophonic line--eventually  delights just because of this complexity. These four settings of the  Magnificat depend heavily on lower men's voices, making the texture even  darker, and the result is rich and velvety. Sometimes Gombert writes for two  voices twirling around each other, sometimes for as many as eight. The result is always fascinating, andTallis Scholars, finely tuned and loving every troublesome dissonance, perform this music as well as we might want. If these pieces, probably composed for the down-in-the-dumps Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, don't exactly make one want to dance, they will certainly interest fans of rich tapestries in music.--Robert Levine