# Renaissance Masterpieces



## zelenka (Feb 8, 2018)

since this is probably the most underrated style and era, let's just recommend each other some masterpieces and rare findings. I will start with Heinrich Isaac's Missa Paschalis, this is a LITERAL MASTERPIECE, no words can describe how beautiful it is, I deeply recommend anybody who's into polyphony and Renaissance music to listen to Schola Cantorum Stuttgart's interpretation in "O Magnum Mysterium", you can find it in the last 5 tracks in this album in Spotify 



 . I hope I can find similar recommendations to this masterpiece. BTW the entire album is just perfect but I especially adore Heinrich Isaac's Missa Paschalis Agnus Dei, Benedictus, Gloria and Sanctus


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I am too new and finding my way with early music to make recommendations here but I have heard Isaac's Easter Mass a few times with great pleasure. I look forward to seeing what gets recommended in this thread.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Guillaume Dufay - O Gemma Lux
Giovanni Gabrieli ‎– Sacrae Symphoniae
Cristóbal de Morales - Réquiem a 5


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

Looking forward to seeing what science and Mandryka have to say. Renaissance music is something I've wanted to get into for a while but haven't gotten around to yet.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

zelenka said:


> since this is probably the most underrated style and era, let's just recommend each other some masterpieces and rare findings. I will start with Heinrich Isaac's Missa Paschalis, this is a LITERAL MASTERPIECE, no words can describe how beautiful it is, I deeply recommend anybody who's into polyphony and Renaissance music to listen to Schola Cantorum Stuttgart's interpretation in "O Magnum Mysterium", you can find it in the last 5 tracks in this album in Spotify
> 
> 
> 
> . I hope I can find similar recommendations to this masterpiece. BTW the entire album is just perfect but I especially adore Heinrich Isaac's Missa Paschalis Agnus Dei, Benedictus, Gloria and Sanctus


An Isaac CD I'm fond of is this one









If you like Isaac's sacred music maybe you'll also like Ludwig Senfl, who studied with him. He also wrote a Missa Paschalis.

When you come to renaissance music, no one is really sure what the score means as far as performance goes. To show you what I mean, here's a rather different way of making the sense of the score of the Isaac Missa Paschale, or at least the Sanctus


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

Actually, this sounds like a good idea; any other Renaissance gems anyone?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Pah! All this dreary religious stuff. Let's have a love song or two! 

Here is a masterpiece by Dufay. This ensemble cuts the rondeau form by 1/4, leaving off the final reprise of both halves (ABaAab*AB*, the bold part is cut) but the arrangement is good, emphasizing the imitative elements by timbre, especially imitation between the two voices, which makes the text quite effective. Not sure about the ficta though.






Here's another one. Very early Renaissance, like 1422(?) if memory serves, written for the wedding of Carlo Maletesta This is a ballad: aabC (repeated). You get all the music by halfway, although they improvise different ornaments the second time through. Sheer genius:


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

You can find the "Late Night Listener's Chronological Guide to Renaissance Composers" which is updated with a new album length selection every evening in the "Current Listening" section of "Classical Music".

Here are the past selections -

https://www.talkclassical.com/54083-current-listening-vol-v-1631.html?highlight=#post1615392

https://www.talkclassical.com/54083-current-listening-vol-v-1637.html?highlight=#post1615865

https://www.talkclassical.com/54083-current-listening-vol-v-1643.html?highlight=#post1616430

https://www.talkclassical.com/54083-current-listening-vol-v-1648.html?highlight=#post1616959

https://www.talkclassical.com/54083-current-listening-vol-v-1654.html?highlight=#post1617593

https://www.talkclassical.com/54083-current-listening-vol-v-1658.html?highlight=#post1618101

https://www.talkclassical.com/54083-current-listening-vol-v-1664.html?highlight=#post1618649


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

^^^^^^ Each time I attempt to edit the above post it gets blocked by the firewall but all that is needed to be known is that after clicking on the above links you generally have to scroll down several posts to find the actual selection...

The selections linked above are -

*Oswald von Wolkenstein*

*Leonel Power & John Dunstaple*

*Gilles Binchois*

*Guillaume Du Fay*

*Johannes Ockeghem *

*Walter Frye*

*Antoine Busnois*

*Loyset Compère - evening of April 12th... with more to follow..*


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Is this baroque or renaissance?


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

Mandryka said:


> Is this baroque or renaissance?


It's from the Manchester Gamba Book - a manuscript of 17th century solo viol music dating from about 1660 so my vote goes to "Baroque"...


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Mollie John said:


> It's from the Manchester Gamba Book - a manuscript of 17th century solo viol music dating from about 1660 so my vote goes to "Baroque"...


But when was it written? The manuscript is c17 but the music may be earlier.


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

My apologies for not having expressed my thoughts properly and in greater depth - It was merely conjecture on my part based on this statement which is more characteristic of Baroque rather than Renaissance -

"(3) It contains the _most richly and interestingly ornamented lyra-viol piece in the entire literature of the instrument_-a "Paven" in lyra-way tuning by Gervaise Gerrarde."

from this document -

https://vdgsa.org/pgs/manchester/Introduction.pdf

There isn't a word in existence about Gervaise Gerrarde - I've checked for quite some time now - and thus I'm wiling to concede that the difference between late Renaissance and early baroque may be six of one and a half dozen of the other in this particular instance. If one thinks that it's more representative of the Renaissance than Baroque or vice versa is a personal decision that may have a different answer for each person questioned. Chronology at this point in time is more art than science.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Unfortunately the only book I've got on baroque muisic (Manfred Bukofzer) does't mention it, and I don't have any books about gamba. I'm hoping someone will come up with some information -- if not I'll contact Jonathan Dunford and see what he has to say.

More generally, I'm not sure when the fashion for solo gamba music started. It may be a relatively late thing.


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## LudwigVanBodewes (Jan 3, 2019)

Missa sine nomine - Johannes Ockeghem and William Byrd - The Bells. Although dubbing them masterpieces may be a bit much, I personally think these pieces are amazing.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

LudwigVanBodewes said:


> Missa sine nomine - Johannes Ockeghem


Yes, there's a very fluid interpretation of this one, the three voices mass, by René Clemencic. Taken OVPP and rather expressively if a little forcefully, with, I'd say, an unusually slow tactus, maybe too slow given the other aspects of his performance, I'd be interested to know what other people think of that.

On another thread we were talking about using organ alternatim in the kyrie of medieval masses, well Clemencic does it here with the Ockeghem. I believe that in the Kyrie it was common gothic practice, even as late as the first half of the C16, to alternate the polyphonic music with either organ improvisations or with chants, _throughout the mass ordinarium._ Of course most people on record just sing the polyphonic music, and the result in the Kyrie especially is often short and not very impressive or prepossessing.


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