# Who here loves Renaissance music?



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I love Renaissance music and it seems like no one seems to discuss it here so I wish to have something about it.

Here is some Renaissance brass music:






Any other fans?


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

You should investigate David Munrow, Albert.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Sure do, mostly choral music though.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Triplets said:


> You should investigate David Munrow, Albert.


Thanks so much. Just added a lot more from iTunes.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Yup. Especially the Franco-Flemish composers.

and if you're investigating David Munrow make sure to check out the Art Of The Netherlands set


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

Well Clavichorder's gotta be around here somewhere


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Gaspard de la Nuit said:


> Well Clavichorder's gotta be around here somewhere


Yeah... we miss him tonight on TinyChat. Maybe catching up on sleep?


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I love Renaissance and Medieval Music.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I enjoy Renaissance music, choral and instrumental, often imagining I am in a medieval cathedral. Serene and peaceful.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I miss that Renaissance brass cassette that I had as a kid. Oh well.

Back to iTunes again .


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Medieval and Renaissance for me, too. They make up a small portion of my listening, but I listen to them and have done so for decades.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

When I listen to whatever I want, I listen to a lot of Renaissance music. The complexity of the structures amazes me, and the harmonies are interesting. 

In particular, Dufay's isorhythmic motets are among my personal favorite compositions of all time.

Palestrina's an interesting case: we all know Missa Papae Marcelli, and we all know we're supposed to include Palestrina among our favorite composers, and a lot of his stuff is appearing on CD lately. 

I believe Medieval and Renaissance music suffer a little bit from an "easy listening" reputation, because the kind of thing ArtMusic wrote in post #9 is not the kind of thing many people who fancy themselves as serious listeners want to admit or say of themselves. But it also suffers from simply not having been considered an important part of the repertoire for so long: if there's no orchestra, there's no interest.

Things obviously have been getting better, and we may be living in the golden age of Renaissance music. All kinds of great groups are out there now, and it's just begun to be impossible to keep up with new recordings. Groups like Blue Heron and Stile Antico and Cinquecento, you can hardly even find their stuff in stores, but they must be finding a market because thirty years ago they were even rarer. For those who do listen to this music, it's become somewhat trendy to hate on the Tallis Scholars and maybe even the Hilliard Ensemble, but I really appreciate them for carrying the torch for so long almost alone. The Huelgas Ensemble hasn't received that kind of attention, and David Munrow has been glorified (he's like the Kurt Cobain of early music), and they were in there too.

There's a lot out there, and it's a fun repertoire to get into. There's still a sense of being off the beaten path, and that's something a lot of us can probably admit we relish. I mean, yesterday I listened to some Stockhausen and Reich, but so did approximately everybody else here. A couple weeks ago I listened to some Brumel and Clemens Non Papa. In that, I am nearly alone.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

science said:


> I mean, yesterday I listened to some Stockhausen and Reich, but so did approximately everybody else here. A couple weeks ago I listened to some Brumel and Clemens Non Papa. In that, I am nearly alone.


I can't see how you can come to this conclusion. Either of these conclusions.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

SimonNZ said:


> I can't see how you can come to this conclusion. Either of these conclusions.


Well, I was aware that they were mild hyperbole.


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## Guest (Feb 27, 2015)

There is actually quite a fan base for Renaissance and Medieval music on here. There is even a group or two dedicated to it. And there have been threads on this very topic in the past. I have been listening to Renaissance and Medieval music for almost as long as I have been listening to Classical, after picking up a random von Bingen recording at the library. I love the Tallis Scholars, in particular, but also greatly enjoy most of the other groups out there, like Stile Antico. One of my favorite works overall still remains Tallis' Spem in alium. I know the search function on here isn't the greatest, but if you look, you will see that there are quite a few dedicated fans of this genre of music.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Okay, I'm going to have to vomit out a generic namedropping, fawning mess before I make more focused posts.

I'm really into the instrumental work of the "Elizabethans", though I think its more accurate to just refer to it as the English Renaissance. They were unique in Britain, because they retained many of the mannerisms of the high renaissance while more baroque things were happening on the continent, for a good 50 years with the work of Tompkins, Lawes and the like. It was probably the most fertile period in music for the English. I like to think of it as a more antique and reverse analog to impressionism, if that works for anyone...sort of like a little pocket of composers that were just doing their own thing.

My current interest mostly begins with Byrd, who wrote lovely music for Viol Consort as well as keyboard(virginal). The Fitzwilliam virginal book is a wonderful collection of music from that period from a variety of composers, including the Dutchman, Sweelinck and some other transcriptions of Italian composers. John Dowland wrote much that was wonderful for the solo lute. John Bull was the Liszt of his day. Orlando Gibbons brought a certain refined intensity to the viol consort that had hitherto not been discovered. William Lawes and Purcell(much later) ventured further into that. Giles Farnaby was a very interesting self taught writer of keyboard fantasias, that possess a certain crude charm. Peter Phillips is another. Tomkins came in later and built on that keyboard tradition. 

Byrd for sure, was a versatile genius of composition, who mastered the genres of his day. Gibbons arguably, as well. Bull was a more narrow genius in his field with keyboards. Dowland was a master of melody. 

We need to get Mandryka in on this.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Triplets said:


> You should investigate David Munrow, Albert.


David Munrow is excellent for an introduction to Renaissance and Medieval music and instruments, and was a force to be reckoned with in his own right.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Big fan of Renaissance and earlier. Even started a group for it - Early Birds.

We moved from folk to classical via David Munrow (he played with the Young Tradition and and Shirley and Dolly Collins). I love all the early stuff plus the British. Clavichorder's mentioned some of them. If you're into the Ftitzwilliam Book, then one thing to look at is The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland. It's got all the tablature for the tunes but also a transcription to bass and treble clef which makes them playabe at the keyboard. Tallis of course deserves a mention and slightly further back, the Eton Choirbook. A group call Les Witches did a set from the Susanne van Soldt Manuscript. Going back to folk, if you're into Purcell have a look at Mr Playford's Dancing Master with a whole range of airs some going back quite a way.

Great stuff.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Taggart said:


> Big fan of Renaissance and earlier. Even started a group for it - Early Birds.
> 
> We moved from folk to classical via David Munrow (he played with the Young Tradition and and Shirley and Dolly Collins). I love all the early stuff plus the British. Clavichorder's mentioned some of them. If you're into the Ftitzwilliam Book, then one thing to look at is The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland. It's got all the tablature for the tunes but also a transcription to bass and treble clef which makes them playabe at the keyboard. Tallis of course deserves a mention and slightly further back, the Eton Choirbook. A group call Les Witches did a set from the Susanne van Soldt Manuscript. Going back to folk, if you're into Purcell have a look at Mr Playford's Dancing Master with a whole range of airs some going back quite a way.
> 
> Great stuff.


Les Witches is on Alpha, a label that does a lot of Renaissance and early Baroque stuff. A very good label. Gustav Leonhardt recorded some good stuff that they have too.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Taggart said:


> Big fan of Renaissance and earlier. Even started a group for it - Early Birds.
> 
> We moved from folk to classical via David Munrow (he played with the Young Tradition and and Shirley and Dolly Collins). I love all the early stuff plus the British. Clavichorder's mentioned some of them. If you're into the Ftitzwilliam Book, then one thing to look at is The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland. It's got all the tablature for the tunes but also a transcription to bass and treble clef which makes them playabe at the keyboard. Tallis of course deserves a mention and slightly further back, the Eton Choirbook. A group call Les Witches did a set from the Susanne van Soldt Manuscript. Going back to folk, if you're into Purcell have a look at Mr Playford's Dancing Master with a whole range of airs some going back quite a way.
> 
> Great stuff.


Thanks Taggart. I just joined forces with you guys.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

I love Medieval and Renaissance Music. 
It's rare from me to go through a day without listening to at least something from that era.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Last Medieval/Renaissance album I got was the excellent Ensemble Leones' "Argentum et Aurum: Musical Treasures from the Early Habsburg Renaissance" (Naxos), which was released in January. Last year they had a fine disc of songs by Oswald von Wolkenstein (on Christophorus).

Medieval music is, I think, sufficiently different from baroque/classical/romantic as to in its own way qualify as "modern" music.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

It's alright. I prefer Baroque though. Monteverdi changed everything.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> I love Renaissance and Medieval Music.


Uncanny - that's exactly what I was going to say! 

Don't forget that on TC we have a Renaissance Music Group - http://www.talkclassical.com/groups/renaissance-music-enthusiasts.html


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I particularly like Biber, the second greatest Composer from Salzburg


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I like Medieval torture methods....not the music.

Wait! Aren't they the same?


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Triplets said:


> I particularly like Biber, the second greatest Composer from Salzburg


I was tempted to mention that Baroque beyond the Olympians is almost as obscure as the Renaissance. One of my favorites sort of on the edge there is Schütz.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

OK - Let me qualify my earlier statement. 
I don't actually have much instrumental Renaissance Music in my collection. It's virtually exclusively Sacred Motets, Polyphonic Masses etc.
The largest part of my collection is made up of the English Guys.
I've several compilations from the Eton Choirbook. The complete masses of Taverner (Christophers). The complete works of Tallis. Other works from Byrd, Weelkes and Dunstable.

I do have a boxset of Dowland but I have yet to listen past the 1st and 2nd Songbookes.

I've a lovely boxset of Victoria - Ensemble Plus Ultra.
A great box of Franco-Flemish works courtesy of the Hilliard.
A smattering of CDs from the Huelgas Ensemble which I am in the process of increasing.

So although I think I'm quite well set up with representative music from the era - I have some large gaps still.

Perhaps some of you kind people could recommend some of your favourite instrumental based Renaissance CDs for me to listen to.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> It's alright. I prefer Baroque though. Monteverdi changed everything.


In the process of changing, he was apparently forced to compose some approximately Renaissance church music approximately as good as Josquin's.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

MagneticGhost said:


> OK - Let me qualify my earlier statement.
> I don't actually have much instrumental Renaissance Music in my collection. It's virtually exclusively Sacred Motets, Polyphonic Masses etc.
> The largest part of my collection is made up of the English Guys.
> I've several compilations from the Eton Choirbook. The complete masses of Taverner (Christophers). The complete works of Tallis. Other works from Byrd, Weelkes and Dunstable.
> ...


I'm more about the vocal works myself, though I have a couple disks of Janequin that I enjoy.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

science said:


> I was tempted to mention that Baroque beyond the Olympians is almost as obscure as the Renaissance. One of my favorites sort of on the edge there is Schütz.


Depends on what concerts you go to. Our local mob - Norwich Baroque - run the gamut from Avison to Zipoli via Benda, Thomas Erskine (Lord Kellie),Hellendal, Locatelli, Locke, Mudge, Torelli and quite a few more. Anybody with access to a Baroque group soon becomes acquainted with the full depth of the repertoire.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

I quite love Renaissance music, but it really didn't hit until I devoted myself exclusively to the era. Well, actually, I started as far back as I could find in Western music and listened more or less chronologically by composer. After a period of listening to anonymous early Gregorian chants Hildegard von Bingen's attention to text and tone was refreshing. Reaching Léonin and Pérotin and polyphonic music was stunning.

Anyway eventually I got the Renaissance and found so much lovely music that I would not have heard or given enough of a chance. I really loved the music of Guillaume Dufay, Josquin des Prez, Adrian Willaert, William Byrd, John Dowland, and many others. I made a Spotify playlist at the time of my Renaissance favorites, if anyone is interested. URI:

```
spotify:user:1236893927:playlist:3JzTlmTW1N5YI3X3fbUcB0
```
I look forward to hearing some of the pieces and composers mentioned in this thread!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OP: Don't look at me!!!


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

mountmccabe said:


> Renaissance favorites


Great playlist. Thanks for sharing


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

mountmccabe said:


> I quite love Renaissance music, but it really didn't hit until I devoted myself exclusively to the era. Well, actually, I started as far back as I could find in Western music and listened more or less chronologically by composer. After a period of listening to anonymous early Gregorian chants Hildegard von Bingen's attention to text and tone was refreshing. Reaching Léonin and Pérotin and polyphonic music was stunning.
> 
> Anyway eventually I got the Renaissance and found so much lovely music that I would not have heard or given enough of a chance. I really loved the music of Guillaume Dufay, Josquin des Prez, Adrian Willaert, William Byrd, John Dowland, and many others. I made a Spotify playlist at the time of my Renaissance favorites, if anyone is interested. URI:
> 
> ...


Did you listen to Ambrosian chants along the way? There were a few LPs of them made back in the day, dunno what is on CD or YouTube. Their design, intentionally or no, appeals to the rube in me (which approaches 100%).


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Ukko said:


> Did you listen to Ambrosian chants along the way? There were a few LPs of them made back in the day, dunno what is on CD or YouTube. Their design, intentionally or no, appeals to the rube in me (which approaches 100%).


Sadly, I did not. Listening to all this Medieval and Renaissance music eventually lead me to talkclassical as I was looking for more information. I added some Ambrosian chants to my Medieval playlist but this was after I had moved on.

I eventually listened, of course! I quite liked this album of Ambrosian chants by Alberto Turco put out by Naxos.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

science said:


> Things obviously have been getting better, and we may be living in the golden age of Renaissance music. All kinds of great groups are out there now, and it's just begun to be impossible to keep up with new recordings.


Agreed. I think the best recordings of this repertoire are being made now and are continually getting better.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

MagneticGhost said:


> Great playlist. Thanks for sharing


Awesome I just followed you on this too!


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## Giordano (Aug 10, 2014)

I am enjoying this album right now:











```
spotify:album:4Q6IRMv9SpFY7OYYOg3gv4
```


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## Questi (Feb 28, 2015)

Thank you for sharing this great List!


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## mateuszlaw (Jun 13, 2014)

Well I do. For example the songs of Henry VIII


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