• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Catholic Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
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

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

Richard J. Clark

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).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

Can You Spare 33 Seconds?

Here’s an audio excerpt (33 seconds) of a setting for Kyrie VIII which was recorded live last Sunday at our parish in Los Angeles. The setting (“Missa de Angelis”) is by composer Richard Rice, and you can download the free PDF if you click here and scroll to the bottom. I think Richard’s composition is marvelous. I missed a few notes on the organ, but I’ll get them right next time.

—Jeff Ostrowski
5 April 2021 • When Girls Sing

Covid restrictions here in California are still extremely severe—switching “two weeks to flatten the curve” into “two years to flatten the curve.” Since 2020, we’ve had police breaking into our church to check if everyone is wearing a mask…even when only 5-6 people are present! But we were allowed to have a small percentage of our singers back on Easter Sunday, and here is their live recording of the ancient Catholic hymn for Eastertide: Ad Cenam Agni Providi. The girls were so very excited to sing again—you can hear it in their voices!

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • FEEDBACK

“E.S.” in North Dakota writes: “I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you have put—and continue to put—into your wonderful website. In the past two years, my parish has moved from a little house basement into a brand new church and gone from a few families receiving Low Masses twice a month to several families (and many individuals) receiving Mass every Sunday, two Saturdays a month, and every Holy Day. Our priest has been incorporating more and more High Masses and various ceremonies into our lives, which has made my job as a huge newbie choir master very trying and complicated. CCWatershed has been an invaluable resource in helping me get on my feet and know what to do!!! Thank you more than I can express! May God bless you abundantly and assist you in your work and daily lives!”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“The argument moves from the existence of the thing to the correctness of the thing: what is, ought to be. Or, a popular variant: if a thing is, it doesn’t make any difference whether it ought to be—the correct response is to adjust, to learn to live with the thing.”

— ‘L. Brent Bozell, Jr.’

Recent Posts

  • 10 Examples • “Diversity of Musical Styles” (Latin Mass)
  • Can You Spare 33 Seconds?
  • “The Great Reset” • For Your Choir?
  • “Adze” • Do you know this word?
  • PDF Download • Vespers for Holy Thursday?

Copyright © 2021 Corpus Christi Watershed · Charles Garnier on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.