While Italian composers Felice Anerio and Gregorio Allegri were influenced by Palestrina, Josquin Desprez and Tomás Luis de Victoria maintained unique voices in sacred music, achieving brilliance through economical means.
Performer Biography
Harry Christophers, founder of The Sixteen, has set benchmark standards for choral music performance and has an international influence supported by over 150 recordings.
Cultural Impact
Music, especially singing, played an important part in early human development, social interaction, and ritual practice, pre-dating speech and language itself.
Compositional Technique
Josquin Desprez's Marian motet Illibata Dei virgo features an acrostic spelling out 'Josquin Desprez' in the text and a recurring three-note motif 'la-mi-la' (A-E-A) representing 'Mari-a'.
Historical Context
During the Renaissance, Rome's papacy attracted the greatest composers from across Europe, including Josquin and Victoria, while Felice Anerio and Gregorio Allegri spent their entire careers there.
Composition History
Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, one of the most famous pieces of sacred music, is surrounded by mythology; its modern form is the result of centuries of scribal errors and interpretations.
Recording & Production
This recording of Allegri's Miserere presents its historical evolution, starting with the simple original and adding layers of ornamentation from surviving sources or imitating their style.
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