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Views from the Choir Loft

Blue Heron shines the light on Ockeghem—“The best composer you’ve never heard”

Richard J. Clark · March 2, 2018

ELEBRATING someone’s 600th birthday is a rare event. To do so over the course of five or six years is an historical rarity. This is what the Blue Heron ensemble and Music Director, Scott Metcalfe have set out to do, performing the complete works of Johannes Ockeghem (c.1420-1497) over the course of thirteen or fourteen concerts that also includes many other composers

Refreshing is Metcalfe’s attitude (and public assertion), that he and the ensemble are growing with new insights through this project. Performing concerts that feature many composers in addition to Ockeghem, he states that once the cycle is complete, they might just start all over again “because we are learning so much.”

• Boston Globe review from St. Cecilia Parish, Boston, Thursday, March 1, 2018: Blue Heron continues remarkable journey through Ockeghem.

Widely acclaimed by the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, and others, Blue Heron is shining the light on music that is rarely performed despite being on par with the greatest of all time. Metcalfe asserts, “He is in every way a composer of Bach’s stature and accomplishment both technically and expressively, someone whose music is rich at every level.” Called “the Bach of the 15th Century” Metcalfe also reminds us that Bach is truly “the Ockeghem of the 18th Century.”

The rich inventiveness of Ockeghem’s counterpoint is certainly a high point of all of Western Music. Blue Heron animates these heights with pristine clarity and passion.

      * *   Listen to a recent broadcast on WCRB FM of a live performance at First Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts here.

      * *  Listen to Blue Heron and Scott Metcalfe compare Ockeghem to Bach:

      * *  Listen to here to the Credo from Missa Ecce ancilla domini by Ockeghem:

With a recent performance at St. Cecilia Church in Boston and a performance tonight at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Wellesley, Massachusetts (7:30pm), do not miss their upcoming performance at First Church in Cambridge on Saturday, March 3, 2018 • 8 PM. See info here.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    This coming Sunday—13 July 2025—is the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). All the chants have been conveniently assembled and posted at the feasts website. The OFFERTORY, Ad Te Levávi, is particularly beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
    Our readers will be interested in this job offering for Music Director at Saint Adalbert’s Basilica, located 40 minutes from where I live. My pastor was recently elevated to this basilica. He is offering $80,000 per year, plus benefits. I’m told Saint Adalbert’s Basilica is utterly gorgeous and contains one of America’s most magnificent pipe organs. It would be fantastic to have a colleague nearby!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

Don Fernando de las Infantas wrote to the Pope, trying to get him to stop Palestrina from corrupting all the plainsong editions: “The errors which certain musicians, in all good faith, think they have found in plainchant are not errors at all, but on the contrary contain some of the most beautiful musical passages ever written.”

— Don Fernando de las Infantas (1578 A.D.)

Recent Posts

  • “How to Conduct 90 Vespers Services Each Year and Live to Tell the Tale.”
  • 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
  • The Tallis Scholars
  • Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
  • Pope Saint Paul VI to Consilium (14 October 1968)

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