Dufay

Guillaume Du Fay - The Tenor Masses (Les messes à teneur) - Cut Circle, Jesse Rodin (2016) {2CD Musiques en Wallonie Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 44kHz/16 bit - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 673 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 325 Mb | Artwork (pdf+jpg) | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Musiques en Wallonie | MEW1577-1578
Classical / Renaissance / Choral / Chamber Music / Sacred Vocal Music / Masses / Passions / Requiems

What did it mean for Guillaume Du Fay (ca. 1397-1474), chameleon-like expert in every musical genre of his day, to compose four settings of the Mass Ordinary toward the end of his life? Looking back from the vantage point of the next generation, when the polyphonic mass reigned supreme, it might be tempting to interpret these works as a self-conscious summa of Du Fay’s career – an achievement akin to Haydn’s London Symphonies or Beethoven’s late string quartets. On a purely musical level these comparisons are apt. Each mass stakes out unique musical terrain; they are often strikingly experimental; and the entire set is shimmeringly beautiful from beginning to end, revealing a composer at the height of his powers.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Dinastia Borgia - Chiesa e potere nel Rinascimento (2010) [3CD+DVD] {Alia Vox}
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DVD5 -> 3.73 Gb | All Regions | PAL 4:3 | Dolby AC3, 2 ch | ~ 81m | ISO Image | Subs: Catala, French, English
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© 2010 Alia Vox | AVSA 9875
Classical / Renaissance

Coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Francis Borgia, Fourth Duke of Gandia, Jordi Savall and Alia Vox offer a visually lavish and artistically comprehensive new release entitled Dinastia Borgia. Savall’s latest musicological/historical quest focuses on music from the time of the Borgia dynasty, including works by composers such as Isaac, Dufay and Morales, from Pope Alexander VI/6 and two of his children, Cesare and Lucrezia, through to Francis Borgia, Jesuit priest and, perhaps, composer. For five centuries, scholars have studied and debated the role of the Borgias in Renaissance history. Although their name is synonymous with Papal corruption and they were undoubtedly malevolent and immoral, as patrons of the arts, the Borgias were also instrumental in the period’s explosive growth of culture.

Various Artists - Guide des Instruments Anciens (A Guide to Period Instruments) (2009) {8CD Box Set Ricercar RIC100}
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© 2009 Ricercar / Outhere Music | RIC100
Classical / Early Music / Medieval / Renaissance / Baroque

A Guide to Period Instruments: 200 pages full colour book + 8 CDs. Languages: French/English/German. This Guide to Period Instruments endeavours to answer the questions that every lover of early music has about the instruments used in these periods of music history. Text and recorded excerpts describe the origin and the development of every musical instrument from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century and place them in their historical context. There is a completely new presentation booklet, over 200 pages long and abundantly illustrated, as well as eight CDs of recorded examples of the instruments that shed new light upon major periods of music history.

Jordi Savall - Alfons V El Magnanim (1396- 1458) - El Cancionero De Montecassino (2001) {2CD, Alia Vox AV9816 A+B}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 650 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 350 Mb
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© 2001 Alia Vox | AV9816 A+B
Classical / Medieval / Renaissance / Choral / Instrumental Music

The works on this 2-CD set all come from a single source: a document called "Cancionero de Montecassino" which is believed to contain works composed between 1430 and 1480. Somehow the document has survived down through the centuries; it was almost lost when the Abbey where it was stored was bombed in 1944. Luckily the document survived so that this amazing CD set could be recorded by the - also amazing - Le Capella Reial de Catalunya. This CD is the second in a series entitled "Musicas Reales", the first of which being "Carlos V" containing works mainly from the 16th century. If you enjoyed that one, then "Alfons V el Magnanim" will be a welcome addition to your CD spinner.

The Umbra Lucis Ensemble present an intriguing disc portraying the Anghiari Battle in works by Byrd, Dowland, Andreuccetti, Dufay, de Victoria, Hume and others. The relationship between music and war bears witness to the ethical dimension of music and its impact on the human. But warfare is also a metaphor and sign of the battles to which the existence is voted: amorous disputes, moral duels … In a word: the dialectic between shadow and light that which incessantly beats life. Shadow and light that has marked, according to the contemporary chronicle, also one of the symbolic events of the Italian Renaissance: he Battle of Anghiari.

The Torino Ms J.II.9 codex, kept in the National University Library of Turin, is a sumptuous manuscript consisting of 159 sheets, each measuring 377x270 mm. We may safely assume that the person responsible for putting together the musical works of this codex was a Frenchman resident at the Court of the Lusignan family long enough for the codex to be completed; the period in question must have been sometime between 1413 and 1430 CE.

This four-disc set celebrates Flemish vocal polyphony of the renaissance era. Recorded at various times in the 1970s and 1980s by the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, this is a fascinating collection in a well presented box-set, with the liner-notes provided on CD ROM. Practical tip: if you are listening to the CDs through a computer, load the CD-ROM first so that you can access the sleeve notes while listening.

Good occasion to listen to diverses masters of the renaissance (Dunstable, Palestrina, Dufay, Desprez, Dowland, Byrd), with various pieces anonymous.