Egidius

The music, performed by the Egidius Quartet & and College, take you to a time where 'peace and quiet were still very common' It is refreshing for us people to experience that music can lift you to unknown heights and experience that late how healing music can be!

The programming for this, the final double CD in the series, is somewhat different from earlier releases. The first CD presents two complete Masses, the Missa Peccata mea by Lupus Hellinck and the Missa Nisi Dominus by Pierre de Manchicourt; these are complemented by a number of short liturgical works. The second CD demonstrates how a polyphonic Mass would have sounded in the context of a celebration of the Mass in the 16th century.

The survival the Leiden Choirbooks from the iconoclastic fury in 1566 seems to indicate that the manuscripts were carefully kept somewhere under lock and key in the church. Today, these choirbooks provide unique and extremely valuable proof of the rich musical life of 16th century Holland. Even though musical practice flourished greatly in Dutch churches in 16th century, extremely little evidence of this has survived in Dutch archives and libraries. Of the countless music manuscripts that were used by singers of the liturgical hours as well as others, only a fraction of these have survived the ravages of time.

This release continues this successful series. This ensemble has revived the music in one of the greatest collections of polyphonic music in Western Europe.

This two-CD selection from the fifth rediscovered Leiden Choirbook consists of around eighteen items - ranging in time from around 1480 to 1570 - including motets, settings of more substantial works such as Salve regina and Magnificat, and a splendid Mass. Composers include relatively familiar figures such as Isaac, Crecquillon, Willaert, Richafort and Clemens non Papa, and some lesser-known such as the very fine choirmaster of the Pieterskerk in Leiden, Johannes Flamingus, Nicolle des Celliers de Hesdin, Benedictus Appenzeller, and Joachimus de Monte who already made a couple of delightful contributions to Volume I in the series.

Aventure - Totdat de wachter heeft gezongen - Songs from the Gruuthuse Manuscript (ca. 1400) (2018) {Challenge Classics}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 280 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 156 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 33 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2018 Challenge Classics | CC72795
Classical / Medieval / Early Music / 14th Century / 15th Century

The poems and songs of the Gruuthuse Manuscript originated in Bruges around 1400, and the collection is named after the later owner, Lodewijk van Gruuthuse. The songs form the most well-known part of the collection: love songs, bawdy songs and drinking songs. The Gruuthuse Manuscript contains the largest collection of Dutch language songs from the medieval period, and it is the largest collection of songs with music notation. The form of the songs also attests to the fact that these songs were intended for connoisseurs. The poet uses formes fixes, the canonized forms of French songs of the late medieval times: ballades, rondeaus and virelais, and the wide variety of the forms used is remarkable.