# What are your 3 to 5 favorite early (pre-1400) music albums?



## Guest (Jul 29, 2013)

List your favorite albums here if you can, otherwise works.

Hopefully this will be a good resource for those wanting to bulk up their early music collection.

Thanks,
Brian

PS - If this thread works, I'll try renaissance (1400-1600) next.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Trouble is a lot of the early David Munrow \ Musica Reservata stuff that I started with is no longer available. If you can get it, it's the way to go. Goodness alone knows why they stopped it. They went from very early through to about 1600.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

3-5... 

First of all I'll mention Marie Kerouz' "Chant Byzantin" album. Some people would say it's pre-1400. In some sense it must be. Whether the Byzantine tradition has really gone unchanged for 6 centuries is something I won't look too closely into. 

But just in case it has, that doesn't count. So I still get 3-5. 

1. Hildegard: A Feather on the Breath of God - Sequentia. This seems to be the consensus favorite for Hildegard. It is very nice, so I get it, but it seems to me that there are quite a few other very nice Hildegard recordings too. 

2. Perotin - The Hilliard Ensemble. The only thing in direct competition with this that I remember having heard is Ensemble Gilles Binchois' "Le Chant des Cathedrales." I personally wouldn't be able to choose, but the Hilliard Ensemble's is much easier to get and much more popular. 

3. Machaut - Messe de Notre Dame - The Hilliard Ensemble. Again there is competition, and I've heard Ensemble Gilles Binchois, but I'd go with Hilliard Ensemble and it is the more popular choice. 

4. Machaut - Le vray remede d'amour - Ensemble Gilles Binchois. Well, this time I'll risk a little idiosyncrasy. I'm not sure this is a very popular choice, but it was my intro to Machaut and I personally really like it. I see it's now available as part of a 3-cd set that looks good. I have at least 2 of the cds in it so I'll leave it alone. I haven't heard the Gothic Voices disk "The Mirror of Narciuss" or Ensemble P. A. N.'s "Remede de Fortune" which would be good alternatives to this that you might want to check out. 

5. From Byzantium to Andalusia: Medieval Music and Poetry - Ensemble Unicorn. I have my suspicions about the authenticity of this too, but I probably can't get away with skipping it. Regardless, it's fun, interesting music.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'd second the votes for Feather on the Breath of God and the Hilliards' Perotin. 

I like Jerry Summerly's recording of the Mass for Notre Dame personally because it's so "nice." I also think a second version to have is Marcel Peres' version, which is not "nice" - it's more like heavy metal.

Tonus Peregrinus' Mass of Tournai and St. Luke Passion are well done, the mass being the earliest complete polyphonic setting of the mass.


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## Guest (Jul 29, 2013)

What is the sound quality like on a pre-1400 recording?


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Manxfeeder said:


> I'd second the votes for Feather on the Breath of God and the Hilliards' Perotin.
> 
> I like Jerry Summerly's recording of the Mass for Notre Dame personally because it's so "nice." I also think a second version to have is Marcel Peres' version, which is not "nice" - it's more like heavy metal.
> 
> Tonus Peregrinus' Mass of Tournai and St. Luke Passion are well done, the mass being the earliest complete polyphonic setting of the mass.


Have you heard Trio Mediaeval's Tournai Mass? I love that. I have only heard Tonus Peregrinus once or twice, but I do TM's fairly often. (Edit: I didn't mean this to disparage Tonus Peregrinus, just to say I haven't them enough to judge.)


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## Guest (Jul 29, 2013)

But seriously:

von Bingen obviously stands out. Anonymous 4 have some wonderful recordings of her works - 11,000 Virgins, The Origin of Fire. Are there more than one Feather on the Breath of God recordings? Because I have heard one as well, but it was by Emma Kirkby and Gothic Voices.

Beyond that, I had to go look at what constituted pre-1400.

You could try some of the early music recordings of Jordi Savall. He does a lot of work with early Mediterranean music from Europe and the Byzantine Empire, especially. Try the Mare Nostrum album. I'm not sure the timeframe for most of the music.

The Hilliard Ensemble's recording of Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame is also a good one.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

science said:


> Have you heard Trio Mediaeval's Tournai Mass? I love that. I have only heard Tonus Peregrinus once or twice, but I do TM's fairly often.


I'm listening on Youtube. Yes, it is a lovely version - intimate and sensitive. Thanks for the heads-up!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

DrMike said:


> What is the sound quality like on a pre-1400 recording?


It only sounds good in a Gothic cathedral.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I also am a big fan of Gothic Voices' Hildegard "Feather on the Breath of God" and the Hilliard Ensemble's "Perotin". 
In versions of Machaut's Notre Dame mass, I'm inclined towards Ensemble Organum.

On the secular side:
Paul Hillier/Andrew Lawrence-King: "Chansons de Trouveres".
Dufay Collective: "On the Banks of the Seine".
Jordi Savall/Hesperion XXI: "Estampies & Danses Royales", which covers instrumental music of the "Manuscrit du Roi".
Ensemble Unicorn: "Chominciamento di gioia", which is Italian dance music.

There's also a more obscure recording, Ensemble Tre Fontane's "Le Chant des Troubadours vol.1", which has a very idiosyncratic, even apocalyptic, version of Guillaume de Poitier's "Pos de chantar".


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

DrMike said:


> What is the sound quality like on a pre-1400 recording?


Awful. Most sound engineers are still in bed until 1500!


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2013)

Thanks for all these great leads - I hear a gurgling sound coming out of my wallet.

On my wish list:
• From Byzantium to Andalusia - Oni Wytars Ensemble
• Perotin - Hilliard
• Tournai Mass - Trio Mediaeval
• Estampies & Danses Royales - Jordi Savall/Hesperion XXI
• Les Travailleurs la mer ancient - Paul Hillier/Andrew Lawrence-King // couldn't find Chansons de Trouveres

I already have Anonymous 4's Origin of Fire and Oxford Camerata's Machaut Mess de Notre Dame and a couple of samplers. I like some of the suggestions above that fall somewhere between the austere purity of Anonymous 4 and the hard-driving jam sessions of some of Jordi Savall's later music. I.e. mellow but not boring.

No love for Landini? Hmm.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

BPS said:


> Thanks for all these great leads - I hear a gurgling sound coming out of my wallet.
> 
> On my wish list:
> • From Byzantium to Andalusia - Oni Wytars Ensemble
> ...


Hillier and Lawrence-King (along with Stephen Stubbs and Erin Headley) also have an album on ECM called "Proensa" that might be easier to find. "Les Travailleurs de la mer" is a fine album but the music is more trad than medieval.

As for Landini, I suppose I'd suggest Gothic Voices' "A Laurel for Landini".

Oh, also there's the Clemencic Consort's recordings of the "Carmina Burana". I have the recent one on Oehms, which is great.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Oh, wait, I forgot. The reason "Chansons de Trouveres" is so hard to find is that Harmonia Mundi repackaged it with the unfortunate title "French Troubadour Songs". Maybe more sellable but not so accurate!


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2013)

Thinking about this thread for a couple days reminded me of an album that I had always intended to get, but never did. It is called "The Play of Daniel," a 13th century liturgical drama. The recording is by the Dufay Collective on Harmonia Mundi. I had read good things about it, and still plan on getting it at some point.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

View attachment 22063


I don't have the CD with me so I don't remember when these works were written (I thought some of them were from the 1200's but I could be totally wrong) but this was one of the first classical CD's I bought. Anyway, it's some of the only really early music I have.


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