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Sing We Christmas
(more) »rank: 2541by: Chanticleer
: :Christmas is the season for whipping out those holiday-specific standard recordings. This splendid gift by Chanticleer should top the list, for one will never tire of this a cappella choir's interpretations. With selections spanning the last five centuries of Latin, German, English, Spanish, and French festive fare, this recording exemplifies the sacrifice of the ego to the higher form of choral sound. Jacob Handl's 'Mirabile Mysterium' takes you on a trip into the chromatic wonderlands, where you temporarily lose tonal balance. Victoria's eerie and dissonant 'O Magnum Mysterium' treats us to rich voices swelling out of one organic whole. The phenomenal ...
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The Tabulature of Johannes von Lublin
(more) »rank: 21297from: Arte Nova Classics
:Album Description:The clavicytherium is a harpsichord with an upright case. Because it saved space, and because the sound issued directly into the room, it enjoyed a wide popularity until the late 18th century. It was first mentioned by Paulus Paulirinus of Prague in a treatise circa 1460, and the first drawing of the instrument can be found in a fresco in the Pfarrkirche St. Leonhard in Dornbach (Kärnten, Austria). Like all early keyboard instruments, the clavicytherium was not only an aesthetical-musical sound-producer, but also a cosmological instrumentum--a manifestation of harmonious world numerology in sound. For the then-receding Middle Ages and the ...
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Christmas With the Tallis Scholars
(more) »rank: 10884from: Gimell UK
:Album Description:The clavicytherium is a harpsichord with an upright case. Because it saved space, and because the sound issued directly into the room, it enjoyed a wide popularity until the late 18th century. It was first mentioned by Paulus Paulirinus of Prague in a treatise circa 1460, and the first drawing of the instrument can be found in a fresco in the Pfarrkirche St. Leonhard in Dornbach (Kärnten, Austria). Like all early keyboard instruments, the clavicytherium was not only an aesthetical-musical sound-producer, but also a cosmological instrumentum--a manifestation of harmonious world numerology in sound. For the then-receding Middle Ages and the ...
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Josquin Desprez: Motets & Chansons
(more) »rank: 46459by: Josquin Desprez, Paul Hillier, The Hilliard Ensemble
: essential recording:The Hilliard Ensemble bathes these vital vocal works by Josquin in a Mediterranean light: clear, warm, and brilliant. Josquin was a northerner who, like so many other composers of the Renaissance, descended to Italy to pursue his career. The singers bring to life the composer's marriage of the Flemish preoccupation with technique and the southern instinct toward lyricism. This is an extraordinary disc. --Joshua Cody
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The Essential Tallis Scholars
(more) »rank: 32311from: Gimell UK
: essential recording:The Hilliard Ensemble bathes these vital vocal works by Josquin in a Mediterranean light: clear, warm, and brilliant. Josquin was a northerner who, like so many other composers of the Renaissance, descended to Italy to pursue his career. The singers bring to life the composer's marriage of the Flemish preoccupation with technique and the southern instinct toward lyricism. This is an extraordinary disc. --Joshua Cody
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Renaissance: Music For Inner Peace
(more) »rank: 9154by: The Sixteen
: :This new release is somewhat mistitled: while most of the pieces are, in fact, from the Renaissance (or early Baroque), there are works here also by Samuel Barber, Poulenc, John Tavener, Bruckne,r and Gorecki. What they all have in common is their beauty and serenity. Perhaps the CDs subtitle, 'Music for Inner Peace,' also refers to a type of renaissance, i.e., spiritual re-birth: in which case, they're right on the money. The Sixteen, led by Harry Christophers, is one of the greatest proponents of this sort of choral music in the world, and they don't disappoint here: The Allegri 'Miserere,' with ...
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The Recorder: 4 Centuries of Recorder Music
(more) »rank: 70637from: Lyrichord Discs Inc.
: :This new release is somewhat mistitled: while most of the pieces are, in fact, from the Renaissance (or early Baroque), there are works here also by Samuel Barber, Poulenc, John Tavener, Bruckne,r and Gorecki. What they all have in common is their beauty and serenity. Perhaps the CDs subtitle, 'Music for Inner Peace,' also refers to a type of renaissance, i.e., spiritual re-birth: in which case, they're right on the money. The Sixteen, led by Harry Christophers, is one of the greatest proponents of this sort of choral music in the world, and they don't disappoint here: The Allegri 'Miserere,' with ...
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Utopia Triumphans
(more) »rank: 61012by: Huelgas Ensemble, Paul Van Nevel, Thomas Tallis, Costanzo Porta, Josquin Desprez, Johannes Ockeghem, Pierre de Manchicourt, Giovanni Gabrieli, Allesandro Striggio
: :A greatly expanded Huelgas Ensemble performs here a collection of multivoice works--pieces that are often referred to but, for logistical reasons, rarely performed. Tallis's famous Spem in alium non habui for 40 voices is here, of course; so is the piece that inspired it, Striggio's 40-voice Ecce beatam lucem. Also included are two extraordinary canons: Ockeghem's 36-voice Deo gratias and Josquin's 24-voice Qui habitat--as well as relatively modest pieces for 13 to 16 voices by Porta and Gabrieli. Spem has had livelier performances (try the Tallis Scholars on Gimell), but none of the others have been recorded elsewhere at all, let ...
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Harmonie Universelle
(more) »rank: 96825by: Anonymous, Sephardic Traditional, Cancionero de Montecassino, Clement Woodcock, Mallorcan Anonymous, Josquin Desprez, Antony Holborne, Jose Marin, Marin Marais, Nicolo Fontei, Johann Sebastian Bach, Juan Bautista Jose Cabanilles, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jordi Savall, Montserrat Figueras, Pedro Estevan, Adela Gonzalez-Campa, Rolf Lislevand, Ton Koopman
: :A greatly expanded Huelgas Ensemble performs here a collection of multivoice works--pieces that are often referred to but, for logistical reasons, rarely performed. Tallis's famous Spem in alium non habui for 40 voices is here, of course; so is the piece that inspired it, Striggio's 40-voice Ecce beatam lucem. Also included are two extraordinary canons: Ockeghem's 36-voice Deo gratias and Josquin's 24-voice Qui habitat--as well as relatively modest pieces for 13 to 16 voices by Porta and Gabrieli. Spem has had livelier performances (try the Tallis Scholars on Gimell), but none of the others have been recorded elsewhere at all, let ...
![40 Voices [Hybrid SACD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dcJOei4aL._SL160_.jpg)
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40 Voices [Hybrid SACD]
(more) »rank: 78920from: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
: : This dazzling CD offers huge Renaissance pieces performed by the always spectacular Huelgas Ensemble under Paul van Nevel. The taste for complex polyphony was at its peak in the late 16th century. The Italian composer Alessandro Striggio amazed the civilized world with a motet in 40 parts, driving the Englishman Thomas Tallis to compose one even more complex in the same number of parts to honor Queen Elizabeth. It still hasn't been surpassed in formality and stringent creativity. Other works on this CD are a Gloria by Gomez in 12 parts, a Qui habitat by Desprez in 24 voices, and ...
