he Messe de Nostre Dame is a polyphonic mass written by the French medieval composer Guillaume de Machaut. This is the Gloria movement.

I was astounded when I first heard this medieval masterpiece. Although it may sound strange to modern ears, the complex harmonies heard in this piece were a groundbreaking innovation in Machaut's time. 


Messe de Nostre Dame is also unique as it is the earliest known full mass that can be attributed to a single composer.


Instruments:
Alto Recorder: Triplum
Tenor Recorder: Motetus
Bass Recorder: Contratenor
Bass Recorder: Tenor

Gloria - Messe de Nostre Dame - G. Machaut (14th c. Medieval) [Recorder Quartet] || House Hartwold

Joint with @pios-hausmusik

Frank Piochowiak - Electric Guitar
Markus Reineke - Bass Recorder
Recorded February/March 2022

Schwingung 4 [Pio‘s Hausmusik & Markus Reineke]

Second duo session with https://soundcloud.com/kathryn_corrigan for a film by Norman McLaren (born 14th April, 1914).

Norman McLaren (version #2, 3'33 edit)

About ten years ago, I got inspired by the blossoming magnolia tree in the neighbour‘s garden and played on my bass recorder. (Almost) every year since then, when the tree starts to blossom, I rework this improvisation, either by processing it electronically, or by adding another layer of recorder playing.

This year, I took a version for processed alto and bass recorder (consisting of loosely connected „sound islands“), and played comments on it on the contrabass recorder.

[[Magnolia Blossom] Faltung] :: Comment

Chod II- for Bass Recorder
Dedicated to and premiered by Jule Helmkamp.

"Chöd"- a Tibetan Buddhist ritual. In this composition the performer attempts to stabilize sounds inherently unstable. It is a process of trying to control the everchanging and transient.

Chod II

Once again, the magnolia tree in the neighbour's garden is blossomming. I reworked my 2024 improvisation using Paetzold contrabass recorder and live electronics.

[[MB]F]::C Magnolia Blossom 2025

Sing in Blue  for the Voice of the Sea….    

Like a bird on the road, that has flown too far
feathers stiff, stuck in the gun-metal tar
like a ship out to sea where the people have fled
leaving food warm and waiting, words left to be said

I went walking one day on the turn of the tide    
felt a seeping of blood warming up from inside
Sing in Blue Sing in Blazing, in Sky Colours too
for the voice of the sea holds a memory true

There are faces there dreaming, just beyond reach
voices crooning in golden on a dream-shadow beach
It’s a calling, a drawing, it’s a pink spiral shell
whisper ocean, I hear you in a far away bell

I went walking one day on the turn of the tide    
felt a seeping of blood warming up from inside
Sing in Blue Sing in Blazing, in Sky Colours too
for the voice of the sea holds a memory true

Draw in deeper my darling, draw in wild, draw in wet
for there’s things here a-thriving, that you’ve tried to forget
And they watch as you pass, your body moves by
The yellow-head gannet slides clean through the sky
to the belly of sea and the beat of the sun
running faster we dance as the water colours run..

I went walking one day on the turn of the tide    
felt a seeping of blood warming up from inside
Sing in Blue Sing in Blazing, in Sky Colours too
for the voice of the sea holds a memory true

This is essentially an acoustic track – I was in a bit of a ‘dark celtic’ mode and I’ve been exploring how to play a wooden bass recorder (plus descant and alto) and have also included the ocean as an instrument… I recorded the waves/gulls on the beach where I originally wrote the song – how’s that for synergy??   it was a tricky mix I can tell you!!  The cello added some more grunt… well,  no synths in this piece!!  
That big recorder sure takes a lot of air to play it… but I love that hooty haunting sound… what do you think?  


Sing In Blue... for The Voice Of The Sea

When I Am Laid in Earth (Dido's Lament from the opera Dido and Aeneas)

by Henry Purcell (ca. 1659 - 1695)

Voice, recorders, arrangement, and recording by Racheal Cogan

Recorders: Bass, c-Bass and 2 Contrabasses made by Geri Bollinger

When I began thinking about an arrangement for this beautiful song over a ground bass, I knew that I wanted to use four of the very low recorders in a very simple way to underpin the clarity and purity of the high voice. Simplicity and solemnity in the beginning was key to match the idea of being laid in the earth, and as the concept of suicide bleeds deeper into the song, so the recorders speak louder and become more complex with the eloquent lyrics and melody that have come to us through almost four hundred years in time.

Each project I embark upon is another opportunity for a learning curve. This time it wasn't so much a curve as a cliff face; each different component of the whole presented new problems and asked for a lot of re-thinking and re-learning and re-peating... and all I was looking for was simplicity!  In a first recording of all the parts the silent click track sternly dictated all movement and didn't suit the beautiful breathing sentiment that the music asked for.  So I spent a couple of days working on a tempo map,  to pause, to slow down, to speed up as if each part was hand in hand with the other, breathing as one. Then I patiently re-recorded and re-mixed it all fresh again. 

The deep, deep contrabass recorder had also been sounding murky and muddy in it's two lines weaving throughout this very short piece. I spent days patiently examining changes in EQ, and listening to other options - but they didn't help it to sparkle either. In the end it took a skype call with my friend Geri (the maker) to point out to me the importance of crook placement (the crook is the metal curvy part joining at the top of the instrument). So I re-recorded those two lines and then balanced and mixed the piece again. But wow, now I can hear those lines in all of their richness. 

Then the voice: I have now been working on singing and having regular lessons for five years (!). I feel like it is still very much a work in progress, especially compared to the recorders which I have been playing now for 40 years (though I'm always still learning on those as well!). I have an awesome singing teacher (Robert Poliquin) who helps me stay on track, and I had a recording of the vocal part that I thought was passable. But Robert gently suggested it still needed some work.  My broad Australian dipthongs generally don't help with un-muddling clarity and projection (it also doesn't help that they feel so damn wonderful and familiar to use so when I live so far away from home). The rest is about freedom - mainly involving a lengthening of the mouth and absolutely no tension in the jaw; hell, try that all of you night time teeth grinders (me too...).  And then projecting a very high 'c' through some imagined space above the jaw bones inside your head resonating towards the top of your skull with the jaw completely relaxed, fearlessly knowing that beauty will come (one day).  The thought warrior makes music once again. But that's what we musicians are and what we do - always balancing the possible with the impossible, with the smallest of micro movements in the body and spirit.

So I re-recorded the voice, and then some recorder parts so they would work hand in hand again. Now it is time to move onto a fresh challenge and bring with me all that I learned on this one.

Thank you so much Geri and Robert for your support, friendship and insightful comments that lead me further down this rabbit hole. I might not have seemed very happy to do the work, but my gratitude for the changes you help to bring about is immense. Months of work translated into 3 minutes of sound! And it's never good enough, never art enough; the only sanity is to remember that it is all about the journey.

When I Am Laid In Earth

When I am Laid In Earth, Purcell

Internal Discourse

Jacques Castérède (1926~2014) is a renowned composer and pianist. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1953 and has composed numerous melodic pieces including ballets, concertos, symphonies, ensemble and chamber music.

The 12 études pour flûte by the french composer were written in 1961 and feature a blend of romantic and modern languages. 

The present arrangement for bass recorder only changes the closing note, octave down, for an effective piano dynamic.

I have recorded it live at my studio using a Küng f bass + bell hole key by Daniel Bernaza.

Recording gear:
1 Neumann KM 184 condenser mic
Kahayan Proaudio 12K72 Mono mic preamp
Strymon Big Sky reverb unit
Yamaha Mixer MG16XU
Vovox cables

12 Etudes Nº 8 Andante espr. • J. Casterede (1926~2014)

Hi there,

I'm Emma... :-)
I write songs, then I play, sing and record them in my small home studio.  

Thanks for checking out my cloud!  :-)



Improvisations for recorders and electronics
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Releases:

Markus Reineke: "Was soll schon passieren" (pan y rosas discos)
http://www.panyrosasdiscos.net/pyr271-markus-reineke-was-soll-schon-passieren/

Ashwood/Bourne/Holtz/Hoogeboom/Reineke: "We Trust You"
https://martinhoogeboom.bandcamp.com/album/we-trust-you

Reineke / Wilke: "Sun Chief Moccas" (Muteant Sounds)
https://muteantsoundsnetlabel.bandcamp.com/album/sun-chief-moccas

Reineke / Wilke: "Born in Nature (Graftings)" (arborescence records)
https://arborescencerecords.bandcamp.com/album/born-in-nature-graftings

Reineke & Matthies: "waves on shore" (darkpebble-bluewave)
https://darkpebble-bluewave.bandcamp.com/

Hoogeboom/Reineke/Sanna: "Okapi"
https://martinhoogeboom.bandcamp.com/album/okapi

Markus Reineke & Paulo Chagas: "Machado Sketches" (Zpoluras)
https://zpoluras.bandcamp.com/album/machado-sketches

Reineke / Wilke: "KURGES" (Petroglyph)
https://archive.org/details/petroglyph381Reineke_Wilke-KURGES

Markus Reineke, Frank Wilke: "Dream Incorporation" (Haze)
https://hazenetlabel.bandcamp.com/album/markus-reineke-frank-wilke-dream-incorporation

Les Chants du Vent is an ongoing recording project focusing on post-Baroque French solo music.
My main page: https://soundcloud.com/ernestoschmied

A channel dedicated to creating multi-track recordings of Early to Romantic music.

Yoav Levy is a composer currently living in Haifa, Israel

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