Early Music - The Best 1,000 Years of My Life

With regards to sagbutts, brittancia.com makes the claim that it is of French (likely Burgundian) origin and its name comes from saqueboute for "pull-push."
So there. No more giggling in the audience when we bring the sagbutt players out on the stage.

 

Ah, thanks!

 

That Anonymous 4 album is wonderful! Thanks for a great end to the day MoatArt!

 

Here's a lovely animation of the score for Spem in Alium by Tallis. Apparently even better if you have the right kind of Chromatec glasses -- but still pretty great as is.

 

I just picked up a performance of Spem in Alium on the Naxos label. Very nice.

 

I never tire of Tallis, in general, or the Spem in Alium, in particular. Masterful.

And, moving south, another master of this era is Palestrina. Here's his Missa sine nomine
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The Brittanica says of Palestrina, "composer of more than 105 masses and 250 motets, a master of contrapuntal composition." Another source says, alternately, "104 masses, 68 offertories, more than 300 motets, at least 72 hymns, 35 magnificats, 11 litanies, 4 or 5 sets of lamentations etc., at least 140 madrigals and (possibly) 9 organ ricercari "

Bach adapted the Kyrie and Gloria from this Missa sine nomine around 1740, more than 150 years after its composition.

 

Off-topic: I gather, from the sig that MoatsArt must have pulled the plug on himself. Heck, I got flooded out of my house (without the password on my mobile) for a couple of weeks and came back to find MoatsArt banned!

Oh well, whatever happened, I missed it all. But I miss MoatsArt and his enormous range of music tastes. Hope he's enjoying the music!

 

I have no idea what happened. I certainly miss having him around, but like you, I hope he's simply having more time to enjoy the music he loves.

 

Hopping from Palestrina, I'll mention again the wonderful Miserere by Allegri in about 1630. Not actually a student of Palestrina, I think, but you can hear the same polyphonic and celestial fingerprint.

MoatsArt brought up a very nice version by The Sixteen earlier in this thread and, to contrast, here it is again by Ars Nova Copenhagen
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Hanna Kappelin is the amazing soprano... and the director is Paul Hillier!

 

You're back!!!!!!!!!

 

What's the matter with his back?




(But, yes, I'm glad to see him too)

 

Ah yeah - a favorite thread resurrected by the return of its maker! Great to see you back on SBAF MoatsArt

 

Welcome back!

 

Welcome back MoatsArt!

It's Friday night where I'm currently sitting listening to Dufay's Missa L'Homme Armé

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Many composers used L'Homme Armé as cantus firmus for the Mass and Wikipedia advises there are at least 40 such settings. Many are notable and from composers of the likes of Josquin, Ockeghem, Busnois, Pierre de La Rue, and Palestrina.

 

I'm looking for some extremely well-recorded classical albums (and well-performed). I tend to like symphonic and orchestral type stuff the most. Lots of strings, drums, that sort of thing. Not generally a big fan of piano performances unless it's live for whatever reason.

Also any acoustic/classical guitar albums would be more than welcome as recommendations, though perhaps those belongs in a different thread.

I know there aren't necessarily many to the level of Carlos Kleiber/Wiener Philharmoniker Beethoven Symphonies No 5 and 7, but anything close would be awesome to hear!

 

I'm not much qualified to answer, but seeing how this is the wide open internet, I'll step right up.

For me, using the score is a form of study. You can see where the parts come in, helps you follow what is happening with the counterpoint and so forth. Very helpful in being able to hear what's going on and improves your powers of listening. But, when I've done this, I've stopped using the score after a period of initial study.

 

Oh well that would be nice. Especially if you're gathering some of these for your own use anyway, it would be nice to have them available. For my own use, I'd probably only get around to looking at one per month... assuming I already had a recording in hand.

 

I started out reflecting on how and when I've needed to study and analyze music -- in order to understand and enjoy it. From there, I recalled the first time I heard opera and those times I've been introduced to music through the cinema. Of course, I learned a lot by sitting in concert band in high school and the enormous value of repeated attendance at musical events.

And then I recalled when I first heard early music which was during college orientation where the school's Collegium Musicum was performing. Nothing like a host of shawms to create a solid memory. (Shawm players ought to have a special group name, don't you think? Perhaps, a surly of shawms or, in honor of the goose and duck, simply a flock of shawms.) After that, I began turning in to John Renbourne and his lot. And that's when I began buying early music LPs -- I think the very first one was a set of pieces by Josquin des Pres from the Nonesuch label. I played that hundreds of times on my Dual 1215 (it was a "changer"... so I could listen to opera without jumping up after each side) using my brand new Advent speakers. That's the same time I was reading Be Here Now by Ram Dass and about the same time I first voted in elections.

 

This is very nice. I was unaware of La Venexiana, but that oversight is now remedied. Adding to my list!

 

It's great, isn't it, that there is such an abundance on LP? I've got about 6 albums by David Munrow, including 3 big collections with booklets. Thinking back to the Seventies, I'm sure he recorded scores of seesions. Munrow was a very bright star with lamentably brief transit.