The Franco-Flemish composer Pierre de Manchicourt's six-voice setting of Regina caeli uses canon in a very unusual and ingenious way to create a piece of music of soaring unforgettable beauty.
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Clemens Non Papa's penitential motet 'Heu mihi, Domine' (Alas for me Lord) is an adaptation of the Fifth respond at Matins for the Dead. It's a Lenten motet and in it Clemens uses every single musical device that contemporaneous composers used to express sorrow for their sins. You would think that it's a depressing piece of music but the ethereal beauty of its rising minor sixth and rising fourth at 'Quid faciam …' (What shall I do …) turns it into an austere but very peaceful composition. The beauty of this motet is perfectly caught in the recording below by the Brabant Ensemble conducted by Stephen Rice. Enjoy :-).
markfromireland
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This is one of Phinot's most beautiful double choir motets. It's the Antiphon for Second Vespers at Corpus Christi and Phinot wanted to musically affirm his faith in the sacrament of the Mass. He did it by passing the phrases between the two choirs which then unite in musical affirmation. It's almost as though they were discussing the various aspects of the sacrament. The mood is serenely contemplative — and the effect beautiful.
mfi
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For this week's posting in my series on musical settings of the Lord's Prayer I'm focusing on Gombert's motet. Nicolas Gombert's (±1495-±1560) music is often dismissed as being little more than a link between Josquin and Palestrina, indeed some of his contemporaries believed that he had studied under Josquin. I think it's a pity that he's been dismissed in this way his music which is well worth listening has a pleasing polyphonic style and a vigour all of its own. He seems to have intended his setting of Pater Noster to have been sung together with his setting of the Ave Maria (this wouldn't be unusual for the time) as they appear as a pair in almost all their contemporary sources. Gombert's Pater Noster is a chant-based motet, he takes the chant and makes it his own by making imaginative use of imitative counterpoint. It's sung below by the Brabant Ensemble conducted by Stephen Rice. Enjoy :-).
markfromireland
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Cristóbal de Morales was probably born in Seville around 1500. With the exception of a ten-year period between 1535 and 1545 spent in Rome he spent most of his life in Spain making music ad majorem Dei gloriam in Spanish cathdrals. His five-part of Spem in alium seems rather more French or perhap Flemish to me than Spanish. It's been attributed (on stylistic grounds) to Nicolas Gombert and I can see why someone might think that. It's characterised by many false relations, an unusual use of dissonance and a somewhat odd repetition in which the the first part's ending is reprised con variedad. Whatever about the stylistic points the documentary evidence points to it being one of Morales' compostions. It's sung very well indeed in the performance below the fold by the Brabant Ensemble. Enjoy :-).
markfromireland
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