# Who are your five favorite composers born before Monteverdi?



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

If you select _Other(s)_, please tell me who you had in mind here in the comments section.

You can change your selections later if you wish.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Of the list, the ones I connect with the most are:
Ockegehem. In his masses, he didn't repeat himself. 
Obrecht. He straddled the post-Ockegehem and pre-Josquin eras, a time of changing tastes, and stayed at a high level of inspiration. His Missa Maria Zart could be said to make him the Bruckner of the Renaissance (because it's really big but still unified).
Byrd. He had a gift of lyricism.
Tallis. I'm an insomniac, and his music is so peaceful that he puts me to sleep in a good way.
Victoria. Shucks, it's Victoria. No more words necessary.


----------



## EvaBaron (Jan 3, 2022)

Don’t know enough medieval music for this but just wanted to say that I’ve enjoyed reading these threads a lot. Wether it’s this or the top 5 favourite works of composers


----------



## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

The only one I know is Giulio Caccini. While his _Ave Maria_ is lovely and his new music (Música Nueva) was likely inventive in its time it's hard to think of him as a favorite composer.


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I managed to hook off 6 composers


----------



## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

I went with Machaut, Josquin, Dufay, Ockeghem and Lassus. But Victoria and Gesualdo are on the same level as them. Perhaps I was also a bit rash and should have gone for Gesualdo instead of Machaut.


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I would have added Tallis and Gesualdo to my list had I more votes. I voted for Machaut, Dufay, Josquin, Lassus, and Sweelinck.


----------



## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Other: Orlando Gibbons


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Coach G said:


> Other: Orlando Gibbons


Love what I've heard by Gibbons, but not listened to enough to place him above any of those I voted for.


----------



## Mister Meow (10 mo ago)

Here's an obscure composer to add to the list: Rodrigo Martinez


----------



## Mister Meow (10 mo ago)

One of my favorite early composers is "Anonymous".


----------



## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Gould's favorite composer, Gibbons. The info about the album, and the scores to follow along..









Glenn Gould plays William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons (and Sweelinck)


The scores for most celebrated recordings of European classical piano music are reasonably commonplace. There is nothing programmed by, say, Martha Argerich, Sviatoslav Richter or Artur Rubinstein …




ethaniverson.com


----------



## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Mister Meow said:


> One of my favorite early composers is "Anonymous".


Prolific but uneven.


----------



## Scherzi Cat (8 mo ago)

If I didn’t have 5 must-votes (Hildegard, Perotin, Gesualdo, Josquin, and Palestrina), I would have added Allegri as an “other” just for the Miserere which I adore.


----------



## Mister Meow (10 mo ago)

Scherzi Cat said:


> If I didn’t have 5 must-votes (Hildegard, Perotin, Gesualdo, Josquin, and Palestrina), I would have added Allegri as an “other” just for the Miserere which I adore.


I like Allegri's Miserere as well. I believe he was born after Monteverdi, so technically he wouldn't qualify for this list. There were a few other names I was going to add but I found that they, too, were close but not quite eligible.‍ 😐


----------



## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

larold said:


> The only one I know is Giulio Caccini. While his _Ave Maria_ is lovely and his new music (Música Nueva) was likely inventive in its time it's hard to think of him as a favorite composer.


I'm going to be pedantic and say the Caccini Ave Maria is a complete hoax, written in 1970 by a Russian composer. At least the infamous Abinoni Adagio still had a bit of Albinoni in it...


----------



## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

I definitely have a top four, but the 5th spot is much more difficult to decide upon,

Josquin Desprez, naturally
Guillaume Dufay
Johannes Ockeghem (who gets my vote for being the most underrated giant in music history)
Guillaume Machaut

My 5th pick would be between Gilles Binchois, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Philippe de Vitry, Johannes Ciconia, Jean Mouton, Antoine Busnois, & Orlando Lassus or di Lasso.

John Dunstaple or Dunstable might have been in my top 5 if more of his music had survived. Though I still think a bundle of it will be found someday. The British are very good at misplacing things for centuries, as are the French...

I'd also be curious to hear more music by Guillaume Faugues, who may be another underrated giant judging from what little I've heard...


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Monteverdi was born in 1567

Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) (among my top five composers)
Guillaume Du Fay (1397-1454)
Johannes Ockeghem ( 1410-1497)
Josquin Des Prez (1450-1521)
Nicolas Gombert (1495-1560)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)
Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594)
Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)
Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613)

Early music makes up a major percentage of my overall classical music listening, and these are among my favorites.


----------



## josquindesprez (Aug 20, 2017)

Josquin13 said:


> I'd also be curious to hear more music by Guillaume Faugues, who may be another underrated giant judging from what little I've heard...


Do you have any recommended recordings or works by Faugues?

Any recs for Thomas Byrd would be great too. I know the Tallis Scholars recordings but they've made me feel like Byrd is incredibly boring.


----------



## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

josquindesprez said:


> Do you have any recommended recordings or works by Faugues?
> 
> 
> Any recs for Thomas Byrd would be great too. I know the Tallis Scholars recordings but they've made me feel like Byrd is incredibly boring.


Hello twin,

In regards to the music of Guillaume Faugues, unfortunately there is very little recording-wise. Despite that he was greatly esteemed in his own time (like Firminus Caron). The Sound and the Fury have recorded four of Faugues' masses over two CDs (volumes 1 & 2), as part of their "Paradise Regained" series for the Austrian ORF label. They're very good performances, especially if you respond favorably to a more 'continental' style of singing, as I do (despite that John Potter is English). But that's about it, & these recordings may be difficult to track down now, I'm not sure (I ordered mine directly from ORF years ago):

*Guillaume Faugues:

--Missa "Le Serviteur":





--Missa "Je suis en la mer"

--Missa "L'homme armé"








FAUGUES,G. - Missa L'homme Arme-Missa - Amazon.com Music


FAUGUES,G. - Missa L'homme Arme-Missa - Amazon.com Music



www.amazon.com





--Missa "Vinus vina vinum"*

I only know one other recording of Faugues' music, his Missa La basse banse, sung by Ensemble Obsidienne, led by Emmanuel Bonnardot. Which is good, but I can imagine an even better performance,






If you find anything else, please let me know...

In regards to William Byrd? or do you mean Thomas Tallis? Funnily, you wrote "Thomas Byrd". I'll assume you mean William Byrd since I agree that The Tallis Scholars's recording of Byrd's 3 Masses can be "boring" (unlike their Tallis recordings, which fared better)

After all these years, I still most prefer the old Hilliard Ensemble EMI recordings, but they likely need a fresh remastering, since to my knowledge none of the early Hilliard recordings have been remastered since they first came out on CD. Which might be a drawback--unless they've been remastered in Japan recently?: The following clip sounds excellent, so maybe they have been remastered...






While The Cardinall's Musick, led by Anthony Carwood & David Skinner, have recorded the complete Byrd vocal works in a project that was started on ASV & finished on Hyperion (so we'll not likely ever see it boxed). I haven't heard every issue in Cardinall's' series, but what I have heard has been good.






However, I tend to prefer Phillip Cave & the Magnificat choir myself, but frustratingly, they've only recorded Byrd's music via compilation discs,





Christe qui lux es et dies
Domine, quis habitabit I
Quomodo cantabimus

In addition, I'd strongly recommend Fretwork's recording of Byrd's Consort Songs, with counter tenor Michael Chance, which are some of my favorite works by Byrd. Though I've also liked the recording, "Songs of Sundrie Natures" by the Hilliard Ensemble, and Gerard Lesne & Ensemble Orlando Gibbons in this repertory, too (if you don't mind Lesne's French accent when singing English texts).

For example, I find Byrd's song "Ye Sacred Muses"--an elegy on the death of his teacher, Thomas Tallis, to be deeply moving,

Elegy on the death of Thomas Tallis (Ye sacred muses)








Dowland, John, Byrd, William [Composer], Michael Chance, Fretwork - Goe Nightly cares Dowland Byrd - Amazon.com Music


Dowland, John, Byrd, William [Composer], Michael Chance, Fretwork - Goe Nightly cares Dowland Byrd - Amazon.com Music



www.amazon.com





I like the Hilliard's version too:
Ye Sacred Muses








Dowland, Byrd: Songs of Sundrie Natures - The Hilliard Ensemble | Credits | AllMusic


Find album credit information for Dowland, Byrd: Songs of Sundrie Natures by The Hilliard Ensemble on AllMusic




www.allmusic.com





William Byrd Consort Songs & Music for Viols, Gerard Lesne

Michael Noone & Ensemble Plus Ultra have also made a good recording of Byrd's 1607 Gradualia, though I've liked Noone best in the Spanish repertory (such as Guerrero's Requiem--which is fantastic, & his Victoria box set, etc.) But his Byrd recording was well reviewed:

Circumspice Hierusalem, 6vv

Btw, Byrd's keyboard music is first rate, too, if you don't know it. Aapo Häkkinen, Bertrand Cuiller, Gustav Leonhardt, & Davitt Moroney (who recorded a complete box set) are all excellent in this music,

Praeludium in G Minor
Fantasia, MB 46

While Phantasm & Fretwork have each recorded Byrd's complete chamber music (if you continue to find Byrd's vocal works "boring", which is a possibility).

Fantasia a 3 (III)
Byrd: Fretwork

On the other hand, if you meant Tallis, I'd most strongly recommend the Magnificat choir's recording on Linn (either on CD or Hybrid SACD), which offers a very good "Spem in Alium" (though they have a lot of competition here), and what I'd consider to be the finest performance of the Miserere Nostri on record,

Miserere
Spem in alium

In addition, I'd also strongly recommend Alastair Dixon & Chapelle du Roi's terrific box set of the complete vocal works by Tallis,

Tallis: Spem in Alium
Christ Rising Again from the Dead

Finally, I still have a soft spot for the pioneering recordings by The Clerkes of Oxenford, whose leader David Wulstan (Peter Phillips' mentor) transposes "Spem in Alium" up into the stratosphere,

Mass, "Puer natus est nobis": Introit

Hope that helps.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Dufay, Josquin, Tallis, Lassus, Gesualdo. I might have tried to fit Brumel in there somewhere.


----------



## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

Ockeghem
Josquin 
De Morales
De Victoria
Gesualdo


----------



## josquindesprez (Aug 20, 2017)

Josquin13 said:


> Hope that helps.


Thanks very much 🙂 (And yes, it was William Byrd, my brain seems to have switched off for a moment. Tallis has long been a favorite.)


----------



## Artran (Sep 16, 2016)

Damn, that was hard... My heart bleeds that I have to omit G. Gabrielli, Willaert, Morales, de Rore and Gombert. Anyway, my five:

Ockeghem
Victoria
Josquin
Dufay
Lassus


----------



## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Hildegard von Bingham, but that's about it. I am not into medieval or renaissance music.

About the only composer I have listened to from the 17th century is Henry Purcell, and I do know he is AFTER Monteverdi.


----------



## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I've listened to a number of shaman but I don't recognize most in this list, except for Dufay the wildman, who took after some of the flight-based shamans, such as _The Phoenix, _and_ The Rubics Cube_.


----------



## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

To Pérotin, Josquin, Dufay, Byrd and Vittoria I would have added madrigalists Cipriano de Rore and Luca Marenzio as additional picks.


----------



## Artran (Sep 16, 2016)

Roger Knox said:


> To Pérotin, Josquin, Dufay, Byrd and Vittoria I would have added madrigalists Cipriano de Rore and Luca Marenzio as additional picks.


Luca Marenzio is fantastic and should be more recognized. Otherwise, he was born only 14 years before Monteverdi, so I would say he is more of a contemporary.


----------



## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

Ockeghem, Josquin, Gombert, Lassus and Byrd. 

To be honest I'm kind of shocked Gombert isn't named in the poll. He was one of the most influential musicians of the 16th century who represents Renaissance polyphony at its highest and most complex point, astonishing in textural depth. A composer unique in all of music.


----------

