Thios Omilos: Gallus, Hassler, Schein

Thios Omilos (Male vocal quintet)

Contrasts in German Church Music around 1600
Hans Leo Hassler (1546-1612): Cantate Domino (from: ,,Sacri concentus" 1601), Motet super
,,Dixit Maria ad angelum", Missa super ,,Dixit Maria", Laetentur coeli Jacobus Gallus (1550-1591): In nomine Iesu, Ecce quomodo moritur iustus, Vae nobis, Natus est nobis, Ante luciferum genitus, Canite tuba in Sion, Ascendit Deus in iubilatione, Civitatem istam Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630): Sacred concertos: Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott (Opella nova I 15), Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (Opella nova I 30), Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz (Opella nova II 30), Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (Opella nova I 2), Christ lag in Todesbanden (Opella nova I 7), Christe, der du bist Tag und Licht (Opella nova I 4)

The male vocal quintet Thios Omilos was founded in 2002 by members of St Thomas's Boys Choir Leipzig. From its beginnings, the ensemble gained a reputation through its tasteful and engaging performances of both sacred and secular literature from the Renaissance through to the Modern era. The ensemble's homestead is the church of St Thomas Leipzig where Thios Omilos can be heard regularly in the 'motet' and other services.
The compositions recorded by Thios Omilos on this disc, ordered according to the liturgical year, and centring around Hans Leo Hassler's mass ordinary, give the listener an insight into the highly nuanced and changing design of German church music around 1600. How close innovation and tradition were, how strongly new and old actually influenced and related to each other, and how little one may be conceived without the other may be surprising at first; those, however, who are curious to hear the new, 'contemporary' music of the seventeenth century emerging (without rejecting its historical heritage), should undoubtedly let the ensemble Thios Omilos take them by the hand and lead them into the world of Jacobus Gallus, Hassler, and Johann Hermann Schein.

Price: $27.98