Luogo e data di registrazione		Evangelische Kirche, Séon (Svizzera) - 8-11 settembre 1980
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Gerd Berg / Klaus L. Neumann / Johann-Nikolaus Matthes
	Prima Edizione LP		EMI Electrola "Reflexe" - 1C 069-46 402 - (1 lp) - durata 52' 53" - (p) 1981 - Analogico
	Prima Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - CDM 7 63064 2 - (1 cd) - durata 52' 53" - (c) 1989 - ADD
	Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - 8 26524 2 - (1 cd) - durata 52' 52" - (c) 2000 - ADD
	Note		Aufgenommen in Zusammenarbeit mit dem WDR.

LEONEL POWER In the early years of the 15th century, English music was recognised as the leading force in Western music and John Dunstable (d. 1453) as its leading composer. It does not diminish Dunstable’s reputation to say that the music of his older contemporary Leonel Power (d. 1445) is of comparable stature and that several younger composers also contributed to the eminence of the English sound, known abroad as "la contenance angloise". This sound in fact derived from a mixture of French and more traditional English styles, together with some rhythmic impulses from Italy - but it was indeed a sound. The sweetness of thirds and sixths was exploited for practically the first time in Western art music, expanding the harmonic language and encouraging the use of fuller sonorities, which has often been a trait of English music. To this Leonel added his own peculiar brand of waywardness that happily defies all analysis. In the sound of a particular music lies its immediate appeal which will either attract a listener or not: but there is always another aspect awaiting our deeper appreciation (though ideally the two are inseparable): its structure. In the structure of music is based the true foundation of its expressive power, and it is in the history of musical form that Leonel’s significance lies no less than in the sonorities of his music. The major achievement of this English school was to establish the cyclic tenor Mass as a form of major importance, and Leonel's Missa alma redemptoris mater is probably the earliest example we have of such a work. The bulk of Leonel’s earlier music is found in the Old Hall manuscript, (OH), an important collection of English polyphony (mostly settings of individual Mass movements) dating from the late 14th century. In some ways this collection marks the culmination of medieval English music and it is unusual, perhaps significantly so, in providing us with the names of many of its composers. Anonymity is one trait common to most aspects of medieval art that has been equally uncommon ever since. The medieval composer was a craftsman in sound whose music sought to reflect the harmonious proportions of the universe (the music of the spheres) and the perfection of God; self-expression was not his immediate purpose. This sense of order and number plays a profound part in medieval music, and while it has never ceased to be important, has again today become a prominent aspect of the composer's craft. In the sudden flush of names provided in OH, Leonel’s clearly dominates; over twenty pieces can be credited to him, while no other composer reaches double figures. Leonel is first encountered among the records of November 1419 for the Household Chapel of Thomas, Duke of Clarence, (who was Henry V’s brother, and thus heir presumptive to the throne) where he appears as clerk and instructor of the choristers. Later, after Clarence’s death, he was received into the fraternity of Christ Church Cathedral Priory, Canterbury, on May14th, 1423 - an honour rather than an appointment. In September 1438 he appears on a legal document, also in Canterbury, styling himself “armiger” (gentleman). Then from 1439 he appears regularly in the cathedral archives at Canterbury, where his duties seem to have been light and to have involved serving as the first Master of the Lady Chapel choir. A private chronicle records that he died on June 5th,1445, within the cathedral precincts, and was buried the following day. In addition to his music there has also survived a treatise on counterpoint - designed as a practical guide in the training of choirboys, and doubtless belonging to this latter period in his life. These few facts, a bare skeleton, may be tentatively fleshed out following the researches of Professor Bowers. It may be assumed, working backwards, that Leonel was born in about 1375, so that his earliest extant music, in OH, probably dates from around the turn of the century. Henry IV’s sons were Henry (later Henry V), Thomas (Duke of Clarence), John (Duke of Bedford) and Humphrey (Duke of Gloucester). Thomas was created Duke of Clarence in 1412 and it may be assumed that his household, including the Chapel, was established at the same time. Leonel probably served from this period until 1421, when the Duke was killed while fighting in France. During his time in the Chapel Leonel would have spent at least a year in northern France in areas then occupied by the English. When his brother Henry returned to England for his wedding, Thomas remained as Lieutenant of France, At his death, the household would have been dispersed and the next period in Leonel’s life, 1421-1438, is obscure. His recorded fraternity with Christ Church Priory in 1423 is no proof that the then remained in Canterbury or had any duties there, although he may already have begun to feel an identity with the place where he certainly lived out his final years. It is generally accepted that Dunstable served in the Chapel of John, Duke of Bedford - Clarence’s younger brother; and it was been proposed that Leonel may have done likewise. There is no proof of this at all, but it would partly explain why so much of these composers works survive in foreign sources as Bedford spent much time abroad, and also why an important work (the Missa Rex Seculorum) survives in two sources, attributed in one to Dunstable and in the other to Leonel. The final period of Leonel's life involved him in work at Christ Church Priory. The establishment there of a Lady Chapel as a secular adornment of the monastic Cathedral liturgy fits the overall pattern of religious life at the time. The Lollard heresy, seeking amongst other things to simplify the service ritual and its elaborate music, provoked a reaction that was very favourable to the English musician, who was encouraged to produce a yet richer art to confute the teachings of Wycliffe and his followers, (whose spiritual descendants eventually had their way a century later under the guidance of Thomas Cranmer). This receptive atmosphere must have contributed in part to the preeminence of English music at the turning of the 14th century, as found in OH, leading to the creation of la contenance angloise. (cut). Paul Hillier
EMI Electrola "Reflexe"