Early Music

[Ilsa]

Talking about artists we love:

PIERRE DE LA RUE (c.1460 - 1518).La Rue was a Franco-Flemish master of vocal polyphony, and a highly regarded composer in his native Flanders.

La Rue spent some years in Italy, before returning to Flanders in order to begin his main compositional output. He served consecutively as singer in the Imperial Chapel of Maximilian, the Chapel of Philippe le Beau, and finally as court favorite of Margaret of Austria.

La Rue's output consists entirely of vocal music: masses, motets and chansons. Though he was a younger contemporary of Josquin Desprez, his style is more properly a continuation of that of Ockeghem, with its varied technical resources, long finely-spun melodies, and sonorous lines.


La Rue's music also displays an unusual rhythmic vitality. His magnificently dark Requiem and intricate "Missa l'Homme arme" (No. 1) are especially admired today

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mo_8_IGD8_0&feature=related(don't really like the video, but there is the music!)

[Nemonymous]

I enjoy early music - Tallis, Dowland, Palestrina.............

Seems somehow suitable for Ligottish moments.

[Nemonymous]

If you're new to 'Early Music', I suggest just try Allegri's Miserere. Please don't give up until you've got to the bit about 1 minute 30 seconds in.

YouTube - Allegri - Miserere - Part 1 - Tallis Scholars

[Ilsa]

This is truly sublime!

[paeng]

A 12th-century magistra:

YouTube - Hildegard Von Bingen ~*~ O Ecclesia

[Daisy]

Dear Ilsa, Nemonymous, and Paeng,

I recently discovered a sensational recording of the music of Sigismondo d'India: Libro Primo de Madrigali (1606), performed by La Venexiana (pub. Glossa Music, 2001). Influenced by the school of Monteverdi as well as that of Gesualdo, d'India (c. 1582-1629) developed a distinctive, sinuous style. Born in Sicily, he signed his works Nobile Palermitano . . . Fitting, for a composer whose music couldn't be nobler. One of his madrigals, with text by Iacopo Sannazzaro, would be worthy of inclusion in this forum's "Dark Poetry" thread. I've transcribed an excerpt from the original Italian, along with its English translation, below.

Best,

Daisy


Interdette speranze e van desio,
pensier fallace, liev' ingorde voglie,
lagrime triste e voi, sospir' e doglie,
date ormai fin al lasso viver mio.
E se per me non val forza d'oblio,
né per isdegni' il nodo si discioglie,
prenda morte di me l'ultime spoglie,
pur ch' abbia fin mio stato acerbo e rio.

[Forbidden hopes and vain desires,
deceitful thought, trifling and avid appetites,
unhappy tears and you, longings and afflictions,
put an end to my weary life.
And if the power of oblivion sustains me not,
nor will disdain undo the bond,
may the death of all things strip me,
and put an end to my bitter and tormented state.]

[Ilsa]

Hildegarda von Bingen (1098-1179) - La visione di Hildegarda

http://www.dramsam.eu/file%20MP3/o%20frondens%20virga.mp3

[The Silent One]

The fascinating thing about Early and Renaissance Music to me is the embrace of unusual tunings and tonalities. The composer Costeley, for example, wrote choral music in an extended 1/3-comma meantone that all but perfectly divides the octave into 19 equal steps. Many Italian composers pioneered chromatic music centuries before modern atonality. Really, the 1500's were ripe with more interesting musical conventions than, I would argue, much of the 20th century.