For some reason Dunstable has alwasy been a disaster area in the record catalogues. No English composer before or since has had an international standing and influence comparable to his; but no record has succeeded in conveying his greatness or indeed anything else more than a kind of 'interestingness'. The occasional individual piece has worked well on record; but in general there has been something about the wayward flow of his lines, the apparent lack of direction between consonances, and a certain thickness of sound, all of which contribute to the inscrutable image that his music conveys.
Now at last we have a Dunstable record that can be recommended without a moment's hesitation. The Hilliard Ensemble make no fuss about the music. They simply sing. They have wonderful voices, of course, but they use them with such balance, precision and musicianship that the music communicates immediately. In fact they represent the most powerful testimony that earlier performers have made the music seem difficult by allowing temselves to complicate it—whether by adding unnecessary instruments, by attempting abstruse proportional relationships, or simply by looking for expressive possibilities that are not actually present in the music. Here the music speaks directly.
Moreover repeated listening is an extremely rewarding experience. The very simplicity of their readings can stimulate the mind to seeing and hearing other possible interpretations, gaining further insights into the man who for me has long been the most baffling of composers. I hope and believe that this record will set a standard and provoke more ensembles into performing and recording Dunstable's music. And on a more academic level this record is the first, I think, that can lead to useful discussions of the matters of pitch, speed, chromaticism and texting which occupy so much of Dunstable scholarship today.
The record contains nine of Dunstable's finest pieces. For what it may be worth, Sarah, aged four-and-a-half days, lay silent in open-eyed astonishment gently waving her hands throughout the two sides. It is well recorded, includes complete texts with good translations (itself no easy matter), and has an unusually evocative sleeve-note by Paul Hillier.'