NEW YORK — Now in its fourth season, Res Facta Vocal Ensemble exists in once-a-year ideal circumstances. Its Sept. 3 concert date, just before the New York City season kicks in, was one of the few slots when these 16 busy, handpicked vocal professionals could converge at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in the West Village for a program of Renaissance polyphony.
The church-filling public for Res Facta (loosely translated as “a finished product”) knew to drop everything for this year’s “Josquin and the Franco-Flemish School” program that included a not-incongruous encore composed by Dolly Parton. As always, passion and comprehension made repertoire that can be an out-of-reach utopia speak with great immediacy.
For American listeners, recordings by the Hilliard Ensemble (its relatively pale sound and interpretive neutrality showing exactly what’s in the music) and the Tallis Scholars (its lush sound making you want to know the music but sometimes acting as a smoke screen) are primary points of reference for the towering figure that was Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521). Word characterization is another ongoing question, especially outside the standardized Mass text that’s often sung with near-uniform reverence.
In his well-sequenced selection of 14 works, Res Facta artistic director Ryan James Brandau included only a few Mass movements in a cross section of motets and secular pieces by Josquin as well as Ludwig Senfl, Jacobus Clemens non Papa, Cipriano de Rore, and others that gave the composers broader creative choices and a more personal relationship with the text. Adding to that, Brandau shaped the music’s overall lines with more extroverted meaning — distinctive from but equal to the more specific word painting of later composers from Monteverdi to Mahler.
The ideal opening selection was Josquin’s “Ave Maria virgo serena,” in which Res Facta’s robust sound (richer than Hilliard, more focused than Tallis) was deftly shaded, the final line “Remember me” exhibiting a more intimate diminuendo that was, well, memorable. The clarity of the piece and the performance eased listeners into Josquin’s way of maintaining a simple melodic strand amid much polyphonic wizardry.
Unlike some performances, cadences weren’t treated as earth-bound anchors; instead, they were more lightly touched upon so as not to lose momentum. Existential crises aren’t expected in this repertoire, but Brandau wasn’t one to downplay the potent expressivity of Josquin’s “Usquequo, Domine” (How long O Lord will you forget me) with an overwhelming climax in the line “Look upon me and hear me.” Perfect for the listener feeling ignored in a world that once stood with them.
Other dramatic moments came with two views of the legendary King David grieving over his son Absalom. First was Pierre de la Rue’s “Absalom fili mi” — a shortish lament concluding with a distinctive bass-voice buzz from Res Facta. It led eloquently to Nicolas Gombert’s “Lugebat David Absalom,” written in eight highly independent vocal parts that encompass Absalom’s history of revenge. The strongly characterized contrapuntal lines became a story told by multiple passionate narrators in a complex sound picture that was almost hallucinatory. One of the few Mass excerpts on the program, the “Agnus Dei” of Pierre de Manchicourt’s “Missa Veni Sancte Spiritus,” consolidated flowing horizontal polyphony and vertically built chordal pillars of sound, though which element dominates the piece varies from performance to performance. This one was more horizontal.
Lighter pieces showed how Josquin was up for trying most anything, though “El Grillo” and “Scaramella” (respectively about a cricket and a soldier) showed the limits of Res Facta’s scope, lacking the quicksilver quality needed to put across these comically descriptive pieces. But the aforementioned encore by Dolly Parton (1946-2026) showed just how refined the group’s vocal blend can be. “Light of a Clear Blue Morning,” in a years-old arrangement by conductor-composer Craig Hella Johnson (founder of the Austin, Texas, choir Conspirare), unfolded with a reverent foundation of humming plus melodic lyricism and a sublime aura that’s worlds apart from Josquin but curiously adjacent.
