Motets c.1500

The Brightest Heaven of Invention
Flemish Polyphony of the High Renaissance
New London Chamber Choir - James Wood
Amon Ra 56

Contents:

  1. Regis: O admirabile commercium
  2. Obrecht: Factor orbis
  3. Josquin: Preter rerum serium
  4. Brumel: Nato canunt omnia
  5. Obrecht: Salve crux
  6. Busnois: In hydraulis
  7. Dufay: Ave regina celorum
  8. Busnois: Anthoni usque limina

Playing time: 60'

Recording date: November 1991

This performance is by a small, mixed chamber choir. The selection is quite admirable.

This repertory remains the heart of Franco-Flemish polyphony, and by extension, of Renaissance music.

Other broadly-based motet collections featuring music of this stylistic era:

Passion
Orlando Consort
Metronome 1015
Musical Book of Hours
Pomerium - Alexander Blachly
Archiv Produktion 457 586
The A-La-Mi-Re Manuscripts
Flemish Polyphonic Treasures for Charles V
Josquin / De la Rue / Willaert
Capilla Flamenca
Naxos 8.554744
I Fiamminghi - IV
O admirabile commercium
Brumel, Regis, Mouton, Josquin
Cappella Pratensis - Rebecca Stewart
Ricercar 207572
Josquin Desprez - De Passione
Motets de Josquin, Obrecht, Compère et Weerbecke
Odhecaton - Paolo Da Col
Assai 222 222
Motets by Busnoys, Josquin, and Gombert
Capella Alamire - Peter Urquhart
Titanic 202

A very fine selection of music from a slightly later generation:

Musica Vaticana
Music from the Vatican Manuscripts (1503-1534)
Pomerium - Alexander Blachly
Glissando 001

Selected recordings featuring significant individual composers in the mid-to-late fifteenth century Franco-Flemish style:

Obrecht: Sacred Music
Missa O lumen ecclesiæ / Missa Malheur me bat
Ars Nova Secunda Chorus - János Bali
Hungaroton 31772
Isaac: Virgo prudentissima
Müncher Dommusik - Karl-Ludwig Nies
Christophorus 77218
Busnois: Missa "O crux lignum" / Motets / Chansons
Orlando Consort
Harmonia Mundi USA 907333

Other items for these composers are listed under the links above.

Selected programs featuring somewhat more obscure composers from this era:

Compère: Mass, Motets, Songs
Orlando Consort
Metronome 1002
Agricola: A Secret Labyrinth
Huelgas Ensemble - Paul Van Nevel
Sony "Vivarte" 60760
Tinctoris: Missa Sine Nomine / Missa L'Homme Armé
The Clerks' Group - Edward Wickham
Cyprès "Musique en Wallonie" 3608
Walter Frye
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM New Series 1476
Regis: Missa Ecce Ancilla Domini / Missa Dum Sacrum Mysterium
Schola Discantus - Kevin Moll
Lyrichord 8044
Nesciens Mater
Choral works of Jean Mouton
The Gentlemen of St. John's - Graham Walker
Quilisma 402

Finally, a couple of more general compilations from the period:

La Chapelle des chantres des Ducs de Lorraine
Thérache / Lasson / Motets de Lorraine
Ensemble Cantus Figuratus / La Traditora - Dominique Vellard
K617 056 (Collection Mémoire Musicale de la Lorraine)
Codex Speciálník
Hilliard Ensemble
ECM New Series 1504

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Todd M. McComb