[hciman77]

I have just discovered Palestrina's "Missae Papae Marcelli" - wow this is fantastic stuff. Amazing what you can do just with voices. I would like to explore this period in music a bit more. Does anybody have any reccomendations for interesting music in the same kind of era ?

Cheers

 

[Shosta]

If you liked Palestrina (Papae Marcelli is one of his most important works) you must try Victoria or Lasso.

I can recommend the Officium Defunctorum of Victoria http://www.goldbergweb.com/es/discography/1987/2284.php

Another good one is the Officium Defunctorum of Cristobal de Morales
http://www.goldbergweb.com/es/discography/1992/2288.php

Another fantastic cd (if you like the way the almost heavenly way of sing of the Hilliard Ensemble) is 'In paradisum' where you can listen works of Palestrina and Victoria.

 

[TMHBAT]

Michael Noone's recordings on Glossa of Spanish Renaissance music are among the best researched, best performed, and best recorded there are:

http://www.glossamusic.com/catalogue/2001.htm
http://www.glossamusic.com/catalogue/1404.htm
http://www.glossamusic.com/catalogue/1402.htm

Other "big hits" of the Renaissance are Josquin Desprez's Missa Pange Lingua, Brumel's Misssa "Et ecce terrae motus," and Ockeghem's Requiem.

An older (1986) , but still benchmark recording of the Desprez is this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000027NUZ (you have to buy it from the Marketplace)
Like the Noone recordings, but unlike many recordings of this music, this one performs the plainchant sections that would have been performed originally (not just the polyphony), and they get the incomparable Ensemble Organum to do it.

The same group recently recorded Brumel's best known mass:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009EPFF (also from the Marketplace)

The Clerks' Group won a Gramophone Award for their striking performance of the Requiem in their Ockeghem series:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000030PB


Not all Renaissance music is sacred music, of course. This is an excellent recording of some instrumental music. Like the Glossa recordings above, this one, on Alpha, is audiophile quality.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002JELEA

You can hear audio clips at these European sites:
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00012D89C
http://www.abeillemusique.com/produit.php?cle=9294

 

[astaireboy]

My favorite Renaissance/Early Music troupe has always been The Baltimore Consort. Their albums on Dorian are incredible recordings and the variety is astounding. If you want to listen to Parental Advisory recordings of the 1500's, check out "The Art of the Bawdy Song"

Shocking!

But seriously, I would also check out Custer LaRue's (she sings with The Baltimore Consort) solo recordings. Very beautiful.

Check them out at: www.baltcons.com

PS Their catalog is entirely secular.

 

[TMHBAT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by astaireboy Their albums on Dorian are incredible recordings

Dorian is (or was - not sure which at the moment) a very fine label with very high quality recordings. Baltimore Consort are very good. I saw them perform last month, actually. Another superb group whose three recordings on Dorian are just excellent is Piffaro: http://www.piffaro.com/pages/about.html

 

[hciman77]

Many many thanks for the music suggestions - some are already in my "cart", others will follow as funds become available - we have some very knowledgeable members here - I appreciate the advice. I see the area is much wider than I had originally thought.

Cheers

 

[TMHBAT]

Hey by the way, I notice you are a self-proclaimed "Wagner fiend." I spent a while studying Wagner and lectured on him in the German department at my last university. I now recommend this to anyone who loves Der Ring: http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/48 (See my review.)
(This is, needless, to say, considerably earlier than Renaissance.)

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMHBAT Hey by the way, I notice you are a self-proclaimed "Wagner fiend." I spent a while studying Wagner and lectured on him in the German department at my last university. I now recommend this to anyone who loves Der Ring: http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/48 (See my review.) (This is, needless, to say, considerably earlier than Renaissance.)

Cool - I found a Red Book version on Amazon, it is in the cart now. Cheers.

 

[Masolino]

Palestrina's Missa Papae is actually less intricate than
most Renaissance a cappella music. For something
that has more Renaissance splendor, one can always try
the many masses by Josquin Desprez who was a colleague
of Leonardo DaVinci in Milan. The recordings by the French
group A Sei Voci are rather nice and not quite as bland as
sometimes can be case with the repertory:

Josquin Desprez
Mass "Ave Maris Stella" and Motets/Astrée 8507
A Sei Voci
Missa Pange Lingua & Motets/Astrée "Naïve" 8639
A Sei Voci / Maîtrise des Pays de Loire - Bernard Fabre-Garrus

 

[Shosta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masolino Palestrina's Missa Papae is actually less intricate than most Renaissance a cappella music.

As you probably know, one reason of this is that this Missa was the 'example' of a 'easy music' where you can understand the words in a time where the counterreform thought the texts had to be understandable. But I don't find it simple, poliphonic textures are rich and it's not easy to follow the words. As you say is 'less intricate' not 'simple'.

 

[TMHBAT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masolino team classical and early music

I see a lot of people here are on "teams." I've looked around the site, but I can't figure out what these are.

 

[Masolino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMHBAT I see a lot of people here are on "teams." I've looked around the site, but I can't figure out what these are.

Teams are just for fun...sometimes they are real, and sometimes
they are just imaginary (like in my case

). I can claim to be on
any team and it would still make sense here.

 

[Masolino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shosta As you probably know, one reason of this is that this Missa was the 'example' of a 'easy music' where you can understand the words in a time where the counterreform thought the texts had to be understandable. But I don't find it simple, poliphonic textures are rich and it's not easy to follow the words. As you say is 'less intricate' not 'simple'.

I don't think I ever suggested anywhere that Palestrina is "simple"-- but
his Missa Papae Marcelli, at least, is not typical of what Renaissance
composers could do with just a few voices. I personally can't care less
if I can understand every single word that is being sung when I listen to
Renaissance vocal music, and actually prefer music that is more virtuosic
or impactful but sacrifices no expressiveness whatsoever for this reason--
Josquin Desprez, Johannes Ockeghem, William Byrd, Orlando di Lasso
and so on so forth. It's a bit like that with German Reformation music, too:
if Bach only wrote four-part, harmonized chorales (as Martin Luther
probably insisted them to be) and never composed those dazzling chorale
fantasias (both instrumental and vocal) I don't believe I would ever like
his music that much.

ps. Talking about Bach's "fantasized" chorales, it is ironic that Mozart's
allusion to this form in the Armed Men's Music in "Magic Flute" is actually
intended to sound extremely austere and solemn rather than extravagant
and grand as it would be in Bach's time.

 

[Masolino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMHBAT Other "big hits" of the Renaissance are Josquin Desprez's Missa Pange Lingua, Brumel's Misssa "Et ecce terrae motus," and Ockeghem's Requiem.

There is also Thomas Tallis's 40-part motet "Spem in Allium" that has become famous with modern audiences for similar reasons as Heinrich Biber's "Missa Salisburgensis": as massive sonic blockbusters. A recording called "Utopia Triumphans" (by the Belgian Huelgas Ensemble conducted by Paul van Nevel)includes the Tallis piece and other similarly scaled music from Renaissance and is quite satisfying.

Utopia Triumphans
Huelgas Ensemble
Paul van Nevel
Sony 66261

 

[zumaro]

The big names have to be Josquin, Palestrina, Lassus, Byrd and Victoria, although others of equal stature come to mind such as Tallis, Morales and Guerrero to name but three. So keeping this in mind some recordings I particularly like are:

Josquin: Motets - Orlando Consort
Josquin : Missa Pange Lingua & La Sol Fa Re Mi - Tallis Scholars
Palestrina: Missa Aeterna Christi Munera - Westminster Cathedral Choir - James O'Donnell
Palestrina: Music For Good Friday - Musica Contexta
Lassus: Lamentations De Jeremie - Herreweghe
Lassus: Moduli quinis vocibus - Herreweghe
Victoria: Officium defunctorum (1605) - McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort
Victoria: Missa O Quam Gloriosum & Ave Maris Stella - Westminister Cathedral Choir, Hill
Byrd: 3 masses - Choir of Winchester Cathedral , Hill
Byrd: The Great Service - Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Cleobury
Byrd: Virginals and Consorts - Skip Sempe (not very authentic but sounds great!)

One you might like to try to give a different perspective to all of this is Victoria transcribed for solo voice and accompaniment:
Et Iesum - Carlos Mena & Juan Carlos Rivera.
This is particularly beautiful and more authentic than it sounds as the music was performed this way in Victoria's day. Enables you to hear the tunes better if nothing else!

There is so much great music and so many good performances it is hard to know where to start!