New York Polyphony to Release AND THE SUN DARKENED

GRAMMY-nominated vocal quartet New York Polyphony today announced the release of And the sun darkened, a new album out Friday, March 5, 2021 on BIS Records (BIS-2277 SACD). The album marks a return to form for the ensemble - a 58-minute program of new and ancient works organized around texts appropriate for Passiontide, the last two weeks of the Lenten season in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Champions of rare and rediscovered works of antiquity, New York Polyphony presents the world premiere recording Loyset Compère's Officium de Cruce, an elaborate, multi-movement motet cycle that rivals the masterpieces of Franco-Flemish contemporaries Pierre de la Rue and Josquin des Prez, both of whom also appear on the album. Additional works include Andrew Smith's Salme 55, Adrian Willaert's Pater noster-Ave Maria, and Cyrillus Kreek's Taaveti laul 22.

Officium de Cruce is an anomaly for its time - a long-form dramatic work likely intended for private devotional use. Composed for Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan from 1466 until his assassination a decade later, it depicts the events of the crucifixion of Jesus. The compositional techniques Compère employed, as well as the work's overall expressive dimension, foreshadowed the innovations of Adrian Willaert and Nicolas Gombert a generation later. "The dramatic form of Officium de Cruce is, in a sense, a prototype for the madrigal cycles that began to appear in the late 16th century," explains New York Polyphony countertenor Geoffrey Williams. "It has an expressive arc that is deeply affecting and innovative for composers of Compère's generation."

Norwegian composer Andrew Smith's (b. 1970) affiliation with New York Polyphony dates back to the ensemble's inception. The music he has composed for the group has occupied such an important place in the group's repertoire that they consider Smith to be a key factor in the development of their acclaimed sound. "It was through Andrew's music that we learned to sing as a unit," notes founding member and bass Craig Phillips. "The format of his harmonic language, its reliance on the contours and colors of Gregorian chant, and how elegantly he sets text taught us how to communicate with each other, balance our timbres, and sing with uniformity of purpose." Composed for New York Polyphony, Salme 55 is one of Smith's most ambitious compositions. The text is a lament in which the psalmist prays to God for deliverance from the enemies that surround him, and the friend who has betrayed him. To illustrate the emotional extremes, Smith uses a range of techniques that include complex counterpoint, melodic fragmentation, and tonal ambiguity. The work received its premiere in 2014 at the Church of Saint Jean Baptiste in New York City and has remained a favorite in the repertoire of New York Polyphony ever since.

The remaining tracks on And the sun darkened serve to unify the program, intertwining elegiac themes and providing attractive variances in color and texture. Josquin des Prez's (c. 1450-1521) Tu pauperum refugium mirrors the supplications found in Compère's Officium in a plaintive, declamatory style. The settings of the Pater noster and Ave Maria by Adrian Willaert (c. 1490-1562) illustrate the text through a kaleidoscopic interplay of voices. Joining Smith's Salme 55 in providing modern sensibility, Taaveti laulud by Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek (1889 -1962) injects an unexpected and gratifying intensity to the program. A passionate setting of Psalm 22 composed in 1914, Taaveti laulud deploys floor-to-ceiling chord voicings, biting harmonies, and stark dynamic contrasts. The album ends with Pierre de la Rue's (c. 1452-1518) radiant O salutaris hostia. The motet's calm harmonic rhythm and gradually divergent vocal lines billow to a cascading conclusion - a prayerful closure to a beautifully sung and thoughtfully programmed recording.

And the sun darkened follows New York Polyphony's highly successful 2019 release Lamentationes. A finalist for the 2020 Gramophone Award in Early Music, it topped the iTunes and Billboard charts and was named one of WQXR's "Best New Classical Recordings of 2019." BBC Music Magazine praised the album's "truly affecting and serene uniformity of tone and tuning" and Early Music America wrote, "The repertoire showcases the ensemble performing at its peak. Its approach is persuasive and utterly commanding... a fantastic new album."

Recognized for the superior sound quality of its recordings, BIS Records is releasing the album as a Hybrid Super Audio CD (SACD). While the disc plays on all standard CD players, it also includes high-resolution stereo as well as surround sound versions of the recording, to be accessed via an SACD player and offering a more immediate and detailed listening experience. For details about New York Polyphony's previous releases on BIS Records, visit the BIS website.

About New York Polyphony
Praised for a "rich, natural sound that's larger and more complex than the sum of its parts," (NPR) New York Polyphony is one of the foremost vocal chamber ensembles active today. The four men, "singers of superb musicianship and vocal allure," (The New Yorker) give vibrant, modern voice to repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to cutting-edge compositions. Their dedication to innovative programming, as well as a focus on rare and rediscovered Renaissance and medieval works, has not only earned New York Polyphony two GRAMMY nominations and wide acclaim, but also helped to move early music into the classical mainstream.

New York Polyphony tours extensively, participating in major concert series and festivals around the world. Noteworthy engagements include performances at Wigmore Hall in London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, a residency at Stanford University, and the 2018 European première of The Vespers Sequence - a work commissioned from Ivan Moody - at Musica Sacra Maastricht (the Netherlands), and performances at the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg (Germany), Festival Internacional de Música Abvlensis (Spain), Stavanger Kammermusikkfestival (Norway), Cartagena Festival International de Música (Colombia) and Early Music Vancouver (Canada), among others.

In 2020, New York Polyphony released Aleph Earth, a groundbreaking audiovisual work developed in collaboration with the University of Oregon's Artificial Intelligence Creative Practice Research Group (AICP). A statement on the global threat of climate change, the 12-minute presentation was created using artificial intelligence to visualize the musical complexities of Spanish Renaissance composer Francisco de Peñalosa's Lamentationes Jeremiae Feria V.

New York Polyphony's growing discography includes two GRAMMY-nominated releases and albums that have topped the "best of" lists of The New Yorker, Gramophone, WQXR, and The New York Times. The ensemble's collaboration with BIS Records has resulted in six albums to date. Lamentationes, released in September 2019, was a finalist in the 2020 Gramophone Awards and praised by Classics Today as "perfect ensemble singing, ideally recorded." The 2017 release Missa Charles Darwin (Navona Records) features Gregory W. Brown's innovative work of the same name-a piece that directly inspired bestselling author Dan Brown's most recent novel in the Da Vinci Code series, Origin. New York Polyphony's 2016 release Roma aeterna debuted at #4 on Billboard's Classical chart and was hailed as "resplendent and elegant" (San Francisco Chronicle) and "nothing short of revelatory" (AllMusic). Called a "spacious, radiant retreat" by The New York Times, 2014's release Sing thee Nowell earned New York Polyphony the group its second GRAMMY nomination in the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance category. Commended as "a complex, clear-eyed yet still painfully beautiful tapestry" (Gramophone), Times go by Turns (2013) amassed substantial critical acclaim and garnered the group's first GRAMMY nomination. New York Polyphony's previous releases include endBeginning (2012), named one of the Top Ten Notable Classical CDs of 2012 by The New Yorker; Tudor City (2010); and a debut album I sing the birth (2007).

And the sun darkened marks the final project for New York Polyphony baritone Christopher Herbert. Herbert, who joined the group in 2010, announced his departure early last year. Beginning in the 2021-2022 season, Steven Wilson and ensemble founders Geoffrey Williams and Craig Phillips will be joined by long-time collaborator and early music specialist, Andrew Fuchs. Learn more at www.newyorkpolyphony.com.

And the sun darkened Track List
1. COMPÈRE, Loyset (c. 1445 - 1518) - Crux triumphans [5'55]

2. DESPREZ, Josquin (c. 1450 - 1521) - Tu pauperum refugium [3'04]

3. SMITH, Andrew (b. 1970) - Salme 55 (Manuscript) [12'27]

4. WILLAERT, Adrian (c. 1490 - 1562) - Pater noster [4'34]

5. WILLAERT, Adrian - Ave Maria [3'33]

6. KREEK, Cyrillus (1889 - 1962) - Taaveti laul 22 (Psalm 22) © Edition 49 [4'37]

COMPÈRE, Loyset - Officium de Cruce [19'22]
7. Prima pars: In nomine Jesu [2'09]
8. Secunda pars: Adoramus te Christe [1'43]
9. Tertia pars: Patris sapientia [1'50]
10. Quarta pars: Hora prima [1'46]
11. Quinta pars: Crucifige clamitant [2'16]
12. Sexta pars: Hora sexta [2'12]
13. Septima pars: Hora nona [2'24]
14. Octava pars: De cruce deponitur [2'18]
15. Nona pars: Hora completorii [2'38]

16. de la RUE, Pierre (c. 1452 - 1518) - O salutaris hostia [3'08]

TT: 58'26

New York Polyphony:
Geoffrey Williams, countertenor; Steven Caldicott Wilson, tenor; Christopher Dylan Herbert, baritone; Craig Phillips, bass