Antoine Gosswin: Selected Works

Featuring

Baptiste Romain
Le Miroir de Musique
Anton Gosswin

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Composer Biography

Massimo Troiano, a singer, composer, and chronicler at the Munich court, praised Anthonius Gosswin's exceptional sense of composition and his ability to sing the contralto part with 'infinite lightness and grace'.

Recording & Production

The instrumental ensemble for this recording, including citterns, harps, violins, cornets, shawms, and trombones, was inspired by sculptures of cherubs playing instruments in Freiberg Cathedral in Saxony.

Compositional Technique

Anthonius Gosswin's motets Ad te levavi and Laetatus sum break from the traditional contrapuntal style of Franco-Flemish composers by using homorhythmic vertical textures and dividing voices into groups, imitating the Venetian technique of cori spezzati (divided choir).

Composition History

Most of Anthonius Gosswin's masses are 'parody masses', meaning they reuse material from pre-existing works, such as his Missa Cognovi Domine which is based on a motet by Orlando di Lasso.

Composer Biography

Anthonius Gosswin, a composer from Liège, was recruited to the Bavarian court between 1556 and 1558, where he sang alto in the ducal chapel.

Instruments

The recording features a cittern, a pear-shaped instrument with metal strings played with a goose feather, which was popular in German-speaking countries and delighted the Duke of Bavaria and Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol.