Dialogos & Katarina Livljanic – Dalmatica: Chants of the Adriatic (2016) [FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz]

The Croatian region of Dalmatia has many musical treasures that have long been overlooked. Resting on the boundary of Roman Catholic and Byzantine worlds, the music here features rare pieces recovered from Latin manuscripts, and polyphonic Glagolitic chants. Dialogos performs these works, conducted by Katarina Livljanic.

„The Croatian coastal region of Dalmatica has a history of various global influences ebbing and flowing with periodic war and strife. In the end it left the region with a rich musical treasure trove of medieval liturgical music that incorporates in local ways both Catholic and Byzantine music strands.

The four female singers of Dialogos under Katarina Livljanic and the group of male traditional Croatian cantors, Kantaduri, under Josko Caleta, join forces for a fascinating journey into rare Latin manuscripts, oral tradition and the polyphonic Glagolithic chants of the area. They cover by disparate examples the holy season spanning the time of Advent through to Holy Week. All this on the splendid album Dalmatica, From Oral to Written Transmission: Chants of the Adriatic (Arcana 395).

The collection is endlessly absorbing, indeed at times showing an original fusing of East and West and a medieval-and-beyond primality. There is plenty of polyphony, monodic plainchant, archaic harmonizations and a strong Byzantine influence.

There is a wealth of examples that are inimitable, unexpected, and quite beautiful in the hands of the talented and mellifluous singers. This is something special, experienced in the hearing much more so than in the telling.

I will thus leave off attempting to describe in detail the many musical ins-and-outs to be heard. Instead I will heartily recommend you listen closely and repeatedly to this offering. It is most assuredly a different confluence of early music liturgical possibilities, excellently presented.“ (classicalmodernmusic)

Tracklist:
01. Ispovidajte se Gospodinu, jer je dobar
02. Sanctus. Osanna dulcis est cantica
03. O, prislavna Božja Mati
04. Jube, Domine, nos tibi laudes canere / Consolamini, consolamini
05. Spavaj, spavaj, ditiću, ti nebeski Kraljiću
06. O, Bog se rodo, Vitlijanjo
07. In principio erat Verbum
08. Velika nam djela učini Gospodin
09. Pistula
10. U se vrime godišta
11. Annuntiamus vobis universali gaudio / Navišćujemo vam općeno veselje
12. Tri su kralja idrila, da b’ Isusa vidila / Kad se Isus, Ditić, u Betlem porodi
13. Tota pulchra es, Maria
14. Slava, čast i hvala ti
15. Ante diem sanctum Paschae
16. Potamnjele oči moje od plača moga
17. Crucem tuam adoramus / Križu sveti, Križu blagi
18. Ego sum alpha et omega
19. Ja se kajem Bože mili
20. Govorenje Judino skalam na obišenje hodeći / Štrofa / Kantanje
21. Svit se konča
22. Puče moj
23. Pismu novu svi pivajmo
24. Ante sex dies Pasche