As strongly influenced by his personal musical itinerary as by music stemming from other traditions that have fascinated him for more than 40 years, Dominique Vellard’s compositions are rooted in his regular practice of sacred repertoires. That is why the pieces he has chosen to set to music are – as for his first CD, Vox nostra resonet, released in 2007 -, essential works of the liturgical repertoire.

It is, of course, the voice that is of prime importance in these compositions: the men’s voices take the role of traditional chantres, or cantors, the women’s voices having a more peaceful role or, joining with the five men’s voices and thereby expanding the sound palette, colouring it with rich harmonics.

Dominique Vellard’s writing, aside from the solo monodic parts of course, is always contrapuntal, this style of composition being entrenched in him owing to his familiarity with the great mediaeval and Renaissance repertoires. Furthermore, his concern for clarity of the discourse incites him to use a natural, clear prosody.

To the repertoire stemming directly from the liturgy are added two suites of short motets for solo voice and viols on the text of The Song of Songs, as well as the magnificent text of the ‘Beatitudes’ for two women’s voices.
In concert, all these pieces are meant to create a dialogue with early repertoires, leading the listener to perceive the correspondences and integrate the newness and originality of this writing at the same time as its belonging to a long musical tradition.

Since 1979 Dominique Vellard has been the inspirational driving force behind the Ensemble Gilles Binchois : more than 35 years of research and performance that have led to the creation of some of the essential recordings, especially of music from the medieval and Renaissance periods. An outstanding catalogue of recordings devoted to the music of Machaut, the Notre-Dame School, the Burgundian repertoire, early french polyphony or the spanish Renaissance, on labels such as Virgin Classics, Harmonic Records, Ambroisie, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Glossa y Aparté, have met public, critical and musicological acclaim. The Ensemble Gilles Binchois performs regularly mostrly across Europe, but also in Morocco, India, Malaysia USA and South America.

Heinrich Isaac’s “Missa Virgo prudentissima” stands out as a very rare work in the panorama of the Ordinary settings composed at the turn of the sixteenth century. Its monumental sound, linked to the six-voice texture – mostly used for timbral variety, but occasionally for fullness of sound – the imaginative use of its cantus firmus, and its mature and sure contrapuntal writing make it one of the most successful works by the Flemish master. The centrepiece of this recording, Isaac’s six-voice Mass Virgo prudentissima, belongs to a group of five works based on the Assumption antiphon. One of these compositions is probably earlier, but the other four are very likely part of a unified musical project, as proposed by David Rothenberg. After thirty years, the Ensemble Gilles Binchois keeps its unremitting enthusiasm in upholding the 15th and 16th century repertoires and the medieval Church music, topics of its musical work. Drawing on this deep experience, the ensemble expanded its repertoires, basing its performances on its deeply founded aesthetics within Baroque and medieval monodies which suggest connections and dialogues with other musical cultures (India, Morocco, Iran, Spain). The Ensemble Gilles Binchois can be heard regularly in Europe and has toured in Morocco, India, USA, Malaysia, South America. Dominique Vellard and the Ensemble Gilles Binchois have released more than 40 recordings and this one will be out on Evidence.

After 40 years of activities, more than 50 recordings and some 1000 concerts, the Ensemble Gilles Binchois still develop its inquiring generosity. Dominique Vellard and his musicians make all eras become contemporary. Indeed, if the core of its concerns is somewhere between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Ensemble sang everything from Gregorian chant to the religious repertoire of the nineteenth century.