# Renaissance NON-Sacred Music Recommendations



## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

I've had a couple people recommend that I not limit my listening to sacred music, so if anyone has recommendations for Medieval/Renaissance era compositions that are _non_-liturgical, religious, sacred, etc., I'd appreciate it!

Chansons, secular motets, madrigals, lied, etc. Anything from Perotin to Machaut to Dufay to Josquin.

:tiphat:


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

You said compositions, and so I feel free to recommend instrumental music. Do some research into recordings of late renaissance English virginal music. Byrd, Bull, Gibbons, Philips, Tompkins, G. Farnaby are the names to look out for most in approximately that order, though Bull may indeed be more important than Byrd if we keep our focus excluded to the keyboard, because it was basically his sole medium and his virtuosity and experimental qualities are unparalleled. Give this music time, and try the available modern piano recordings as well as harpsichord and virginal to help diversify your understanding. People do not realize that this is basically the first sizable school of harpsichord composers in history! And one that was not truly matched till the French mid baroque or debatably the various work of the high baroque with Scarlatti, Bach, Handel, Gottlieb Muffat, Buxtehude, Seixas, ect. Note that I said school of composers, and specified harpsichords. Organ masters from Italy and the contemporaneous Dutch work headed by Sweelinck, as well as the Spanish master Antonio de Cabezón, are examples of worthy predecessors and contemporaries.
I have found these pieces to have an enduring interest. You might not readily warm up to them at first, but you are sure to find a few that you really like ad your interest has great potential to grow from there with all the high quality music. 

The other two instrumental fields I recommend are English lute music, of whom Dowland is the model, and English viol consort music, with Gibbons, Byrd, Lawes, and more in approximately that order.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Medieval dance music:

Music from "Le Manuscrit du Roi"








Instrumental music from the boringly titled "MS Add 29987"


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

DiesIraeCX said:


> I've had a couple people recommend that I not limit my listening to sacred music, so if anyone has recommendations for Medieval/Renaissance era compositions that are _non_-liturgical, religious, sacred, etc., I'd appreciate it!
> 
> Chansons, secular motets, madrigals, lied, etc. Anything from Perotin to Machaut to Dufay to Josquin.
> 
> :tiphat:


This is a good place to start





















Another name to explore is Ensemble Clement Janequin.


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