Compère: Missa Galeazescha, Music for the Duke of Milan

Featuring

Liuwe Tamminga
Paolo da Col
Raoul Le Chenadec
Paolo Fanciullacci
Giovanni Dagnino
Alessandro Carmignani

Fabio Fùrnari
Vincenzo Di Donato
Sergio Foresti
Ensemble Pian and Forte
LaReverdie
La Pifarescha
Odhecaton
Heinrich Lübeck
Gaspar van Weerbeke
Alexander Agricola
Loyset Compère
Johannes Martini

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Historical Context

Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza, for whom this music is named, was considered a tyrant who squandered state resources and attracted widespread disapproval in Milan.

Composition History

The Missa Galeazescha, a cycle of motets by Loyset Compère, is named after Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza, who was murdered in 1476.

Compositional Technique

The melodic foundation of the Missa Galeazescha consists of a 'patchwork' of pre-existing melodies, including Marian rewritings of well-known sequences and hymns.

Compositional Technique

Loyset Compère's Missa Galeazescha uses a unique five-voice notation where two tenors continuously alternate, often singing in unison when they briefly overlap.

Instruments

The organ used in this recording is a historic Lorenzo da Prato instrument from 1471-1475, located in the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna.

Composition History

The Missa Galeazescha is a cycle of eight motets preserved in a unique manuscript, Librone 3, from the Milan Duomo.

Historical Context

The motet cycles, like the Missa Galeazescha, were performed during 'low mass' in Milan, with the priest continuing the liturgy independently of the music, a custom noted as unusual by a papal master of ceremonies in 1496.