Cliffsnotes on Faulkner's The Sound And The Fury

For the upcoming 500th anniversary of the death of the great Franco-Flemish composer Pierre de la Rue (around 1460-1518), the vocal ensemble The Sound and the Fury, which specializes in early music, has recorded a selection of the composer’s artistic masses for the label FRA BERNARDO, which impressively reflect the high standard at the court of the music-loving and music-savvy Margaret of Austria. The Pierre de la Rue masses on this recording have one thing in common: they are all based on monadic models, thus in keeping with the most traditional of cyclic mass composition models, the cantus firmus mass.

Some years ago Austrian radio ORF started a series of recordings with polyphony from the renaissance on its own label. The ensemble The Sound and the Fury has recorded music by well-known masters like Nicolas Gombert, Pierre de la Rue and Johannes Ockeghem. But they have also paid attention to some forgotten composers of the 15th century. One of them is Guillaume Faugues. As so often there is quite a difference between his reputation in his own time and in modern times. It is very likely nothing of his oeuvre has ever been recorded before.

Some years ago Austrian radio ORF started a series of recordings with polyphony from the renaissance on its own label. The ensemble The Sound and the Fury has recorded music by well-known masters like Nicolas Gombert, Pierre de la Rue and Johannes Ockeghem. But they have also paid attention to some forgotten composers of the 15th century. One of them is Guillaume Faugues. As so often there is quite a difference between his reputation in his own time and in modern times. It is very likely nothing of his oeuvre has ever been recorded before.

Only a few reliable biographical data have been preserved on Johannes Ockeghem: at the beginning of the 1450s, presumably between the ages of 30 and 35, he was appointed as a singer to the French royal court, where he remained until his death in 1497.

Pierre de la Rue wurde möglicherweise um 1452 in Doornik/Tournai im heutigen Belgien geboren. Dort arbeitete sein Vater Jehan als Illuminator (Buchmaler), seine Mutter, Gertrude de la Haye, stammte ebenfalls aus Tournai. Im 15. Jahrhundert waren dort beide Familiennamen geläufig. Wir nehmen an, dass Pierres Ausbildung, besonders als Musiker, mit einer Verbindung als Chorsänger an der berühmten Kathedrale der Stadt anfing. Als solcher bekam er dann, wie dort alle Chorsänger, die Tonsur. Wenn so, dann war das die erste entscheidende Situation seines Lebenslaufs, den er letztlich als Diaconus beschließen sollte. Zum Priester wurde de la Rue anscheinend nie geweiht.

Matthæus Pipelare (ca. 1450 – ca. 1515) - Paradise Regained - The Sound and the Fury (2014) {fra bernardo Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 822 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 324 Mb
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Classical / Renaissance / Polyphony / Sacred / Vocal / Masses

In short, Pipelare’s striking personality becomes apparent through hearing and analysing his masses rather than from the meagre details of his life. It is as if he redefines polyphonic composition with each work, rather than reverting to the tried and tested as say Jakob Obrecht did. There is nothing immediately recognisable, nothing that sounds even vaguely familiar, nothing can be categorised, rather everything sounds new, fresh, lively – wilfully individual!

Marbrianus de Orto (ca. 1460 – 1529) - Paradise Regained - The Sound and The Fury (2014) {fra bernardo Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 390 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 179 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 6 Mb | 5% repair rar
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Classical / Renaissance / Polyphony / Sacred / Vocal / Masses

We know nothing of the origins, youth and education of Marbriano de Orto (c. 1460-1529) other than that he was the illegitimate son of a priest. His surname is probably that of his mother, Dujardin, and he was trained as a chorister somewhere in the diocese of Doornik/Tournai, in present-day Belgium. The fact that the Pope granted de Orto a benefice in 1486 which secured him a lifelong income from the diocese seems to confirm his close relationship to it from the outset of his career.