Morales: Officium Defunctorum, Missa pro Defunctis a 5
Jordi Savall and his musicians recreate the starkly beautiful funeral music sung in  Mexico City in 1559 at memorial ceremonies for Emperor Charles V. They perform Morales's  score with a complement of cornet, sacbuts, and viols doubling the voices. (This was regularly done  in 16th-century Spanish cathedrals; whether it was done at funerals is less clear.) Savall and his  musicians are sensitive; and fascinating in the plainchant sequence Dies iræ, which is done with  parallel fifths and similar embellishments. Ultimately, however, Savall is overly swayed by the  music's simplicity: He makes Morales's music sound like the sort of austere workmanship one must  admire but can rarely enjoy (like Shaker furniture or macrobiotic cuisine).--Matthew  Westphal