# Please recommend older (Renaissance) vocal music recordings



## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

I listened to my 2CD pack of Thomas Tallis today and I absolutely loved it! The vocal harmonies are so gorgeous with the perfectly tuned intervals, and I also love the aesthetic of the vocals, where the emphasis is not on the vibrato or being Wagner tenors who can out-sing a trombone in terms of volume.

Still, for no rational reason, this older vocal music has really been and still is a blind spot of mine.

Could you please recommend your favourite recordings? Thanks!


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Below is an all-too-lengthy cross section of my favorite Mediæval and Renaissance chants, motets & masses (plus a couple of token pop/secular songs thrown in for the hell of it) along with my favorite recording (sometimes two) of each. I’ve tried to pare the list down to something more digestible but have been woefully unsuccessful.

Godefroy de St VICTOIRE: _*Planctus ante nescia*_ (late 1100s)
:: Hilliard Ensemble [Hyperion] ~ 8½ minutes

[anonymous]: *“Sumer is Icumen in”* (c. 1260)
:: Hilliard Ensemble [HM] ~ 2 minutes

Étienne AUBERT (Pope Innocent VI): _*Ave verum corpus*_ (before 1362)
:: Bénédictins de l’Abbaye Saint-Maurice-et-Saint-Maur, Clervaux (Luxembourg) [Philips] ~ 2 minutes

John DUNSTAPLE: _*Veni sancte spiritus*_ (1416)
:: Hilliard Ensemble [EMI] ~ 6½ minutes

Leonel POWER: _*Anima mea liquefacta*_ (after 1425)
:: Stimmwerck [Aeolus] ~ 3½ minutes

Guillaume DUFAY: _*Flos florum*_ (c. 1430)
:: Blue Heron [Blue Heron] ~ 4 minutes

John DUNSTAPLE: _*Quam pulchra es*_ (c. 1430)
:: Stimmwerck [Aeolus] ~ 2 minutes

Guillaume DUFAY: _*Ecclesiae militantis*_ (1431)
:: Orlando Consort [Metronome] ~ 5½ minutes

John PLUMMER: _*Anna mater matris Christi*_ (c. 1440)
:: Hilliard Ensemble [HM] ~ 6 minutes

Guillaume DUFAY: *Missa “Se la face ay pale”* (mid 1450s ?)
:: Munrow/Early Music Consort of London [EMI] ~ 35 minutes

Antoine BUSNOIS: *Missa “L’homme armé”* (early 1460s ?)
:: Cuckston (positive organ), Lumsden (sackbut), Turner/Pro Cantione Antiqua [Archiv] ~ 31 minutes

Johannes OCKEGHEM: _*Permanent vierge*_
:: Blue Heron [Blue Heron] ~ 7½ minutes

Loyset COMPÈRE: _*Omnium bonorum plena*_
:: Kirkman/Binchois Consort [Hyperion] ~ 10½ minutes

Heinrich ISAAC: *“Innsbruck, ich muß dich lassen”* (1484?)
:: Stimmwerck [Christophorus] ~ 3½ minutes

Heinrich ISAAC: _*Angeli, archangeli*_
:: Wickham/The Clerks’ Group [Gaudeamus/ASV] ~ 7 minutes

John BROWNE: _*Stabat Mater*_ (1490s ?)
:: Phillips/Tallis Scholars [Gimell] ~ 16 minutes

William CORNYSH: _*Ave Maria, mater Dei*_
:: Phillips/Tallis Scholars [Gimell] ~ 3 minutes

Heinrich ISAAC: _*Tota pulchra es*_ (c. 1495)
:: Hilliard Ensemble [Hyperion] ~ 8 minutes

JOSQUIN des Prez: *Missa “L’homme armé” super voces musicales* (late 1490s ?)
:: Turner/Pro Cantione Antiqua [Archiv] ~ 34 minutes

JOSQUIN des Prez: _*Inviolata, integra et casta* à 5_ (c. 1500)
:: Orlando Consort [Archiv] ~ 5½ minutes

JOSQUIN des Prez: _*Miserere mei, Deus*_ (1504)
:: Testolin/De labyrintho [Stradivarius] ~ 17 minutes

Nicolaes CRAEN: _*Tota pulchra es*_ (c. 1504)
:: Kirkman/Binchois Consort [Hyperion] ~ 8½ minutes

Heinrich ISAAC: _*Virgo prudentissima*_ (1507)
:: Henry’s Eight [Etcetera] ~ 11½ minutes

Antoine BRUMEL: _*Ave virgo gloriosa*_
:: Hilliard Ensemble [Coro] ~ 10½ minutes

Jean MOUTON: _*Nesciens mater*_
:: Phillips/Tallis Scholars [Gimell] ~ 5 minutes

Clément JANEQUIN: *“Réveillez vous, cueurs endormis”* (“Le chant des oyseaulx”) (c. 1520)
:: Ensemble Clément Janequin [HM] ~ 5½ minutes

Jacobus CLEMENS non Papa: _*Ego flos campi*_ (1550)
:: Turner/Pro Cantione Antiqua [Archiv] ~ 4 minutes

Rodrigo de CEBALLOS: _*Hortus conclusus*_
:: Turner/Pro Cantione Antiqua [Teldec] ~ 6 minutes

Robert PARSONS: _*Ave Maria*_
:: Carwood/Cardinall’s Musick [ASV/Gaudeamus] ~ 4 minutes

Thomas TALLIS: _*Lamentations of Jeremiah*_ (1560s ?)
:: Deller Consort [Vanguard] ~ 21 minutes
:: Brown/Pro Cantione Antiqua [Pickwick] ~ 21½ minutes

Orlande de LASSUS: _*Tristis est anima mea*_ (1565)
:: Singer Pur [Ars Musici] ~ 3 minutes

Francisco GUERRERO: _*Ave virgo sanctissima*_ (1566)
:: Turner/Pro Cantione Antiqua [Teldec] ~ 4 minutes

Thomas TALLIS: _*Spem in alium*_ (1573)
:: Phillips/Tallis Scholars [Gimell] ~ 9½ minutes

Thomas TALLIS: _*Miserere nostri*_ (1575)
:: Skinner/Alamire [Obsidian] ~ 2½ minutes

Tomás Luis de VICTORIA: *Tenebrae Responsories* (from *«Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae»* p. 1585)
:: Malcolm/Westminster Catherdral Choir [Argo] ~ 50 minutes

William BYRD: _*Ne irascaris Domine … Civitas sancti tui*_ (p. 1589)
:: Hilliard Ensemble [Hyperion] ~ 9½ minutes

William BYRD: *Mass for five voices* (1590s?)
:: Hilliard Ensemble [EMI] ~ 26½ minutes
:: Phillips/Tallis Scholars [Gimell] ~ 22 minutes

Giovanni Pierluigi da PALESTRINA: _*Stabat Mater*_ (1590?)
:: Turner/Pro Cantione Antiqua [Enigma/ASV] ~ 9½ minutes


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

go online to YT and check out Voces8...simply stunning...


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I just ordered the 9 CD renaissance madrigal set by La Venexiana. It's on sale at JPC for 20 euros. They have also recorded the complete madrigals of Monteverdi.
L'Arte del Madrigale (1586-1616) (9 CDs) – jpc


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## RandallPeterListens (Feb 9, 2012)

Don't know if it's still available, but...
Guillaume Dufay, Complete Secular Music (5 CDs) by the Medieval Ensemble of London, led by Peter Davies and Timothy Davies

Also, there is simply nothing better than the First, Second and Third Booke of Songes CDs of John Dowland by the Consort of Music under Anthony Rooley. Emma Kirkby at her best. But perhaps you don't wish to consider Elizabethan as strictly Renaissance.


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)




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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Waehnen said:


> I listened to my 2CD pack of Thomas Tallis today and I absolutely loved it! The vocal harmonies are so gorgeous with the perfectly tuned intervals, and I also love the aesthetic of the vocals, where the emphasis is not on the vibrato or being Wagner tenors who can out-sing a trombone in terms of volume.
> 
> Still, for no rational reason, this older vocal music has really been and still is a blind spot of mine.
> 
> Could you please recommend your favourite recordings? Thanks!


If you liked Tallis then I’d use that as a clue about where to explore - more 16th century English sacred polyphony. Maybe try Taverner’s Missa Corona Spinea - there’s a recording by David Trendel and another by Duncan Ferguson.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

Mandryka said:


> If you liked Tallis then I’d use that as a clue about where to explore - more 16th century English sacred polyphony. Maybe try Taverner’s Missa Corona Spinea - there’s a recording by David Trendel and another by Duncan Ferguson.


Yeah, we actually listened to Tallis the whole evening together in the livingroom as well. Just wonderful music! Jeremiah lamentations, beautiful…

Thanks for the recommendations, everyone!


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## LKB (Jul 27, 2021)

RandallPeterListens said:


> Don't know if it's still available, but...
> Guillaume Dufay, Complete Secular Music (5 CDs) by the Medieval Ensemble of London, led by Peter Davies and Timothy Davies
> 
> Also, there is simply nothing better than the First, Second and Third Booke of Songes CDs of John Dowland by the Consort of Music under Anthony Rooley. Emma Kirkby at her best. But perhaps you don't wish to consider Elizabethan as strictly Renaissance.


Also Dowland's " Fourth Booke of Songes ", _A Pilgrim's Solace_ by Rooley & company.


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## Doublestring (Sep 3, 2014)

*Oxford Camerata:*

Machaut - Messe de Nostre Dame
Des Prés - Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales
Lassus - Masses for Five Voices (Missa Entre vous filles; Missa Susanne un jour)
Palestrina - Missa Papae Marcelli

*Ensemble Gilles Binchois:*

Dufay - Le prince d'amours (chansons)

*The Hilliard Ensemble: *

Ockeghem - Missa Prolationum

*Amarcord:*

The Book of Madrigals (secular music by Des Prés, Isaac, Lassus, Dowland...)

*Pomerium: *

Lassus - Motets & Magnificat

*Delitiæ Musicæ:*

Gesualdo - Madrigals Books 5 and 6

*Concerto Italiano:*

Monteverdi - Il sesto libro de madrigali


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Waehnen said:


> Yeah, we actually listened to Tallis the whole evening together in the livingroom as well. Just wonderful music! Jeremiah lamentations, beautiful…
> 
> Thanks for the recommendations, everyone!



Cinquecento - Live at Wigmore Hall - YouTube

I was at this concert. My notes say

_ The high point for me was the Tallis lamentation and a piece by Byrd which was very contrapuntal. The Tye mass was certainly interesting in the Gloria and Sanctus. Cinquecento are the sort of singers who've thought hard about how to present their music, the focus is on sound and not on meaning. They are Bildungsbuergertum._

I certainly remember feeling the hairs at the back of my neck tingle in the Tallis lamentation - in truth, that's the only bit of the concert I do remember!


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Missa Corona Spinea, Taverner. Such an energetic and harmonically challenging piece of music. If I didn’t know and someone told me it had been written by Rihm at the time of Jagden und Formen, well I’d have been surprised but not totally incredulous. I don’t think there’s else anything like it in renaissance music. 

This performance is aware of the polyphonic nature of the music (i.e. doesn’t let the top voices dominate) It uses a boys choir, which I think is fine. It was made in a cathedral and the engineers decided to leave the cathedral reverberation. It benefits, IMO, from a forgiving hifi, rather than studio monitors. I’m using Spendor SC1s.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Tessa Bonner was such an asset to Peter Philips’s group - she’s just jaw droppingly good in the Taverner Western Wind mass. She steals the show, I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing, Taverner may well have been writing music for virtuoso high voices, a more equally balanced performance may be less effective, I don’t know. To some extent, these sort of reflections are overridden by the sheer quality of Bonner’s singing. Peter Phillips’s recording needs to be heard.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

There´s a lot to catch up for me in the 'basic repertoire', so I had to get Missa Pange Lingua recording first. I listened to this yesterday while walking through the snow to the Christmas Eve celebration. I found it very beautiful indeed!










Not doubt that I will visit this thread quite often in the following months. That Taverner recording posted by @Mandryka is very tempting, amongst others!

It will be interesting to see what I will eventually end up liking the most. The Tallis recording of mine is very different from the Josquin recording, for sure!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I just bought the Monteverdi Complete Madrigals box on Naxos and I'm enjoying this music very much. It's 15 CDs and fairly exhaustive. Conductor Marco Longhini did extensive research on this music and has written excellent notes for the entire series included in the box.


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