Thread: Renaissance music

Hey, does anyone know music from the renaissance period they can suggest, specifically Palestrina and Monteverdi, or any other composers you think fit? Thanks! I appreciate it.

Ahem: Most of the composers mentioned in the 'William Lawes' thread were Renaissance composers (not including Lawes).

If you like Palestrina, you'd like Josquin for his clarity of line and imitative counterpoint, also William Byrd's three masses. Byrd is interesting in how he delays his entrances.

Well, I would put Monteverdi a little later than renaissance - he was true transitional innovator.

You certainly need to hear his Vespers, 1610, and there is a huge collection of sacred music published in 1641, the Selva morale e spirituale - all essential listening.

Then there are nine books of madrigals – impossible to recommend one over any of the others – to say nothing of his operas.

This a gorgeous introduction - the recording of Duo seraphim is to die for:

393426.JPG

I agree that, of earlier composers, Josquin, is a must. And I’d go back to the start of the period and listen to Dufay and Dunstable, if only to get your bearings and a sense of the wide sweep form these composers to, say, Palestrina. If these early composers are a bit too early, try the Spanish composer, Victoria.

With all these composers, it is superfluous to single out individual works, they are all great masterpieces. and, it seems that may of the recorded performances are fine – occasionally you get a wacky interpretation of HIP, but on the whole recordings are a safe bet. The Hilliard Ensemble and the Tallis Scholars are reliable and Konrad Junghänel, René Jacobs and Rinaldo Alessandrini are all conductors who are ‘safe pairs of hands’.

For Monteverdi the Vespers and the Selva really are the places to start as Jeremy Marchant said. I'd get yourself a copy of the 1610 Vespers to begin with. The version by the Taverner Consort with both Emma Kirkby and Tessa Bonner is a classic rendition. If you'd prefer something more up to date with current performance practice then I'd say that the Concerto Italiano's recording is a good bet.

For Palestrina there are good versions of Canticum Canticorum by The Hilliard Ensemble and by Magnificat. There's also a decent madrigal collection by Concerto Italiano.

00167f7a_medium.jpeg174-sleeve280.png51rD-MqmrdL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

The Cardinall's Musick have recorded a fine collection named after the Stabat Mater (their recordings of Byrd are unrivalled IMO if you decide to pursue that avenue).

51O--cYZ6AL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Missae Ex Cipriano de Rore by Delictiae Musicae is also worth checking out.

3150493.jpg

Although they don't employ the performance practices I favour for Palestrina, I think that The Sixteen's recent collections make excellent introductory recordings.

For other stuff there's an awful lot but Josquin is pretty essential. I'd strongly recommend The Orlando Consort's collection of his motets or either of the Hilliard Ensemble's collections.

Thomas Tallis's Spem in Alium has become something of a spearhead for Renaissance vocal polyphony, although it has recently suffered the misfortune of featuring in '50 Shades of Grey' and being used as a sado-masochistic sex aid (!). The Taverner Consort's Tallis collection is the ideal introduction IMO (to the music that is...).

Carlo Gesualdo!!!






Don Carlo Gesualdo (1560 - 1613) was an aristocrat rich, artistic, and - as the second son of a noble Neapolitan family - free to indulge his passion for music. But when his eldest brother died, it was decreed that Don Carlo should carry on the line. The bride found for him - Donna Maria d'Avalos - was the greatest beauty in town. Don Carlo fathered a son, after which he lost interest in sex. But it still interested his wife. One day his uncle confided to him that she was involved in a torrent affair with the handsome Duke of Andria, in which they would "invite each other to battle on the fields of love". Alerted to the fact that Don Carlo now knew of their liaisons, the Duke tried to persuade Donna Maria to end the affair, but she proclaimed she would sooner die. Thus was the scene set for Don Carlo's historic act.

One day in October of 1590 he secretly disabled his locks, then set out to hunt only to sneek back with a gang of henchmen in the still of night. The chronicles detail what happened next: about the night-dress Donna Maria asked to be put out on the bed, about the maid posted as sentinel, and the commotion as Don Carlo and his men kicked in the door to find the pair "in flagrante delicto di fragrante peccato". About the shots and multiple sword-thrusts, and the way Don Carlo personally skewered his wife to the floor all the while repeating to himself "I do not believe she is dead". He dragged their bodies onto the stairs, for all the horrifed towns peope to gape at next morning, posting a notice explaining why he had killed them. The Duke was still clad in a woman's night-gown, while Donna Maria's "wounds were all in her belly, and especially in those parts which ought to be kept honest".

Don Carlo withdrew to his residence in Ferrra where his nobility ensured he escaped trial, only to find himself "afflicted by a vast horde of demons which gave him no peace unless twelve young men, whom he kept specially for the purpose, were to beat him violently three times a day, during which operation he was wont to smile joyfully."

Don Carlo built a private chapel, completed in 1592. Inside hung a painting depicting the Virgin Mary and saints all pointing to the sinner, Don Carlo, while the fires of purgatory burnt below - out of which angels pull the figures of a man and a woman. Could these be the murdered lovers before which Don Carlo implored forgiveness? His music became filled with an obession with themes of guilt, sin, pity, and death - even the joy of love being mixed with a fascination with pain: 'dolorosa gioia', such 'joyous pain' being a typical musical outburst.

Never has there been a composer with a more macabre background than this, nor yet so muscially so obsessionally fascinating.

First time posting so as a disclaimer - ignore all ignorance and bad advice on my part.

But for this I have to go with Victoria - Tenebrae Responsories. I have a recording by The Sixteen and I can listen to it over and over. Great to close your eyes on the couch with and be taken away.

Cheers all.

The following 3 albums are really excellent examples of renaissance music from Dufay, Josquin and Victoria.

41HJY9HZW9L._SL500_AA300_.jpgJosquin-Desprez-Motets-And-Chansons-Hilliard-Ensemble.jpg51zlX1LN9SL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

(Dufay) (Josquin) (Victoria) links

And by all means get Gesualdo too, but he is a bit weird

Orlando di Lasso is a popular one to perform by choirs. He writes very nice Villanellas. Tends to be less independent rhythmically with his voices from what I've heard. Less of a madrigal style writer, maybe, though I don't know for sure. Catchy melodies, and there is something very elemental about how rhythmically unified yet varied in chords his writing is.

Clavichorder, do you know the actual recording/cd of the Orlando di Lasso 'Sto core mio' track?

Pierre Passerau: Il est bel et bon

Cipriano de Rore is a must hear. You may dislike him but you must not ignore him.

I particularly like the madrigals. This is a good album to start, with a mass (based on Josquins motet) and a couple of secular pieces.