Christophorus Colombus

A Musical clock is a clock that marks the hours of the day with a musical tune played from a spiked cylinder either on bells, organ pipes, bellows, combs and even dulcimer strings. The earliest ones began in mainly churches and would be used to mark times for the public and for farmers in fields to tell them when it was sunset dawn and lunchtime.

Le Bal: Social Dances in the Early Baroque - I Ciarlatani
Michael Praetorius, Jacques Cordier, Étienne Nau, Jacques Mangeant (ed.) & Anon.
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 381 MB | RS
Recorded: 23-25/7 2007, St. Anna Kapelle, Sinsheim-Weiler, Germany
Released: 2008 | Label: Christophorus CHR 77295 | TT: 73:11
Regina Kabis - soprano, Benoit Haller - tenor, I Ciarlatani, Klaus Winkler (dir.)

In contrast with the familiar, well-researched ballets and dances of the High Baroque as exemplified at Versailles under Louis XIV, very little is known about social dances in France (and Europe) around 1600. […]
This wonderful collection of curiosities is the fruit of an extensive collaboration between I Ciarlatani and early dance expert Nicoline Winkler. It offers fascinating insights into the social dances of the Early Baroque and reveals astonishing musical variety – a veritable cornucopia, not only for aficionados of historical dance …

Alta Danza: 15th century dance music in Italy - Les haulz et les bas
Domenico da Piacenza & Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro
Classical, Renaissance | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 462 MB | RS
Recorded: 30/11-2/12 1997, Musikwerkstatt, Schlosspark Ebnet, Freiburg
Released: 2008 [1998] | Label: Christophorus CHR 77293 | TT: 79:24
Les haulz et les bas, Ian Harrison (dir.)

The CD is something of a mosaic of pieces which were known to be an important part of the dance repertoire of the high society of the Italian Quatrocento.

La démarche est subjective, mais il faut bien avouer que le résultat est fort convaincant. S'éloignant de tout dogme ou de toute considération scolastique pure, les interprètes ont choisi de restituer cette musique de manière plaisante, simple, dansante, sans excès de fioritures, avec des combinaisons instrumentales fort agréables, voire inhabituelles et très belles – l'usage des cuivres mélodiques est fort bien venu. (abeillemusique.com)

Tromba Triumphans: Chamber Music with Baroque Trumpet
Poglietti - Schmelzer - Bertali - Pater F. G. - Clamer
Finger - Vejvanovsky - Biber - Reinhardt
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 354 MB | RS
Recorded: 10-13 May 1998, Praemonstratenserabtei, Schlägl, Austria
Released: 1998 | Label: Winter & Winter 250-910-036-2 | TT: 71:40
Paul Plunkett - trumpet | Bell'Arte Salzburg, Annegret Siedel

Plunkett is one of the few artists on the natural trumpet who understand the concept of uneven articulation, so necessary to the performance of music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. [His] style and articulation are the most elegant and artistic this reviewer has heard. (International Trumpet Guild Journal, 24: 4, June 2000)

These recordings were produced in the 1980s by the Radio of the German Democratic Republic from performances given in the historic Catholic Court Church in Dresden.

Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722), Bach's eternal 'predecessor' as Leipzig's Thomaskantor, has only been rediscovered in recent years and his true greatness has not yet been truly recognised. He was highly respected by his contemporaries, however, and not just as a musician: he had a doctorate, worked as a lawyer, wrote satirical novels - a polymath… His musical oeuvre must have been extensive, much of it is lost. It is therefore all the more pleasing that his magnificent Christmas cantata "Frohlocket, ihr Volker, und jauchzet, ihr Heiden" ['Rejoice, ye nations, and shout for joy, ye heathen'] has been preserved. It opens the programme on this CD and, with its instrumentation and duration of over 25 minutes, surpasses many a great cantata by his famous successor.