Beauty Farm Tinctoris · Barbingant Masses

For a long time Johannes Ockeghem (ca.1420-1497) was one of the most famous Unknown Persons in music history. There is no doubt about his position as the most important representative of the second generation of Franco-Flemish composers.

The music of the Renaissance appears to reflect little of the dangers, horrors and violent conflicts of its time. Music written during the Hundred Years War or the French invasion of Italy gives hardly any impression to todays ears of the precariousness of existence of which its composers, singers and listeners must have continually been aware. Nor do the two masses by Jacob Obrecht (1457/8 1505) on this recording betray anything of the restless spirit of the age, despite them both being based on models referring to suffering and misery. Founded by Markus Muntean and Bernhard Trebuch- out of passion for vocal polyphony and a kind of despair about the break in the interpretation of this music which took place in the 1980s- beauty farm gathers young singers, leaving traditions behind, willing to experiment and exploring new musical territory.

Beauty Farm is a 2014 founded vocal group focused on the Franco-Flemish polyphony of the renaissance. The international ensemble is based in the Carthusian Monastery at Mauerbach (Austria). The singers are members of well known ensembles like Capilla flamenca, Huelgas Ensemble, Vox Luminis, Collegium Vocale Gent and Graindelavoix. On this extensive release, the ever-acclaimed vocal quartet presents four masses of Pierre de la Rue, all composed during the composer's last creative period. Pierre de la Rue is one of the most fascinating and yet most elusive members of the talented generation of composers from around 1500. On the works recorded here he demonstrates his complete polyphonic skills and thus gives the melancholy an intellectual, complex nuance. The necessary lightness is provided by the voices of Bart Uvyn, Hans Jörg Mammel, Hannes Wagner and Joachim Höchbauer.