# Performances of medieval and renaissance music



## Resurrexit (Apr 1, 2014)

Recently I have become interested in listening to the medieval and renaissance music which I do not have much experience with. So I chose one of the most well known compositions Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli and listened to several different recordings to decide which one I liked best to purchase. My problem became that many of the different performances sounded completely different to me! In other music like a Beethoven symphony I can pick up on differences in multiple interpretations but still understand them as the same symphony. But with this Palestrina they sound like separate works entirely. Now I am not a trained musician and maybe my inexperience with medieval and renaissance music leaves me hearing it differently, I do not know. But does anyone else find something similar?


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## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

I've been listening to a lot of Renaissance music in the last couple of years. There's undoubtedly more room there for profoundly different interpretations - in terms of tempo, balance of voices, how many singers are used per part (leading to greatly different sound), whether to use instruments, acoustics and recording distance (is the polyphony clear or churchy?), and even the actual notes to some extent (how often do you sharpen subdominants to turn them into leading tones? do you avoid only the melodic tritone or also the harmonic tritone? how do you treat mixed key signatures?). 

There are a lot of mysteries regarding Renaissance music performance practices, and even things that should be relatively clear are often ignored because the musicians or the expected audience simply prefer a different sort of approach. Musicological understanding also changes with time, and perfomers can change their interpretations accordingly, so that earlier recordings can be different in some respects from newer ones.

Personally, I generally prefer groups that sing one-voice-per-part and avoid the kind of top-heavy sound you often find in English groups (Brabant Ensemble comes to mind as a particularly egregious offender). I'm also inclinced toward preferring faster tempos, though slower tempos can be effective as well.

Some works and recordings I'd recommend (despite not always being ideal): 

Media vita by Gombert (Henry's Eight)
O Gemma lux by Dufay (Clerks)
Credo - Missa L'homme arme by Dufay (Oxford Camerata)
later volumes of the Byrd Edition (Cardinall's Musick)
Palestrina: Missæ Ex Jacquet de Mantua, Vol. II (Delitiae Musicae)
the Gombert album by Beauty Farm
Josquin: Missa Pange lingua (Ensemble Clement Janequin)
Ockeghem: Missa Mi-mi (Cappella Pratensis)
Victoria: Missa De Beata Maria Virgine (Ensemble Plus Ultra)

Those ensembles aren't necessarily always a reliable choice. Most notably, I try to avoid Oxford Camerata if I can find better alternatives, but their Dufay disc is really rather good, with excellent balance and lovely superius at least (they're maybe too slow outside the credo though).

Of course, there are some ensembles that should be praised that I haven't mentioned. I can mention at least Binchois Consort, Cinquecento, and Sound & the Fury.

Currently, I'm the most pleased by Beauty Farm on the whole, and am looking forward to their Ockeghem album to be released shortly. I hope they go on to record a lot of Renaissance music, because there's not that much available that is like their first album (the Gombert album I mentioned).


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Resurrexit said:


> Recently I have become interested in listening to the medieval and renaissance music which I do not have much experience with. So I chose one of the most well known compositions Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli and listened to several different recordings to decide which one I liked best to purchase. My problem became that many of the different performances sounded completely different to me! In other music like a Beethoven symphony I can pick up on differences in multiple interpretations but still understand them as the same symphony. But with this Palestrina they sound like separate works entirely. Now I am not a trained musician and maybe my inexperience with medieval and renaissance music leaves me hearing it differently, I do not know. But does anyone else find something similar?


I thought this was an interesting paper as a study about how performance paradigms in early music become established and entrenched, and then overthrown, sometimes not really for any good reason.

http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:179363

The whole thing reminds me of Lakatos's work on Karl Popper.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

What recordings were you listening to? I'm curious to see if I can hear what you mean for myself. I listen to quite a bit of this kind of music.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

All you starters should start from early baroque to train the ear for early counterpoint first, some recommended works: "Selva Morale", some Monteverdis Madrigals, "Terpischore", and some motets from that period, and then some early operas by Monteverdi.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Resurrexit said:


> Recently I have become interested in listening to the medieval and renaissance music which I do not have much experience with. So I chose one of the most well known compositions Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli and listened to several different recordings to decide which one I liked best to purchase. My problem became that many of the different performances sounded completely different to me! In other music like a Beethoven symphony I can pick up on differences in multiple interpretations but still understand them as the same symphony. But with this Palestrina they sound like separate works entirely. Now I am not a trained musician and maybe my inexperience with medieval and renaissance music leaves me hearing it differently, I do not know. But does anyone else find something similar?


The further back you go, the wilder it's going to get. Check out Dufay's Missa Se la face ay pale. Listen to a couple versions - perhaps the Binchois Consort, and Diabolus in Musica - and then listen to David Munrow.

Enjoy the ride, friend!


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

It would be fun to hear from someone who's had to direct a performance of this stuff, who's had to take a manuscript and incomplete understanding of performance practice/notations, and somehow make it into music. It must be very different from playing Mozart or even J S Bach. I can imagine it's a really creative and exciting process.

I was prompted to post that because I was looking at the website of Patrick Denecker, a recorder player, who introduces himself by saying "Patrick Denecker is continuously searching for new interpretations of early music." 

I don't think people who play Beethoven or Mahler would say they're constantly searching for new interpretations, would they?


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