# Random Awesome Early Music



## heisenberg (Oct 24, 2021)

I seem to be tripping up and out on Baroque, Early Renaissance music these days. I hit some bloody mindblowing singing and playing tonight. Here's one of them...




I will add more as they come up.

If you have some gems to add, please feel free to contribute.


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## CT (Oct 24, 2021)

Yeah I am primarily interested in stuff that's pretty new, and stuff that's pretty old. Nothing against everything in between but this is what really gets me going. 

There's a ton I'd want to share. Here's the first one that comes to mind, fantastic modern take on Dowland.


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## heisenberg (Oct 24, 2021)

That is devastatingly haunting from the first resonating tone in the piece. Shit that is good. Thanks.

EDIT: fix schpelling


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## heisenberg (Oct 24, 2021)

Yeah, I got a ton to share as well. But I am about to knock off for the nite. Here is another piece put out by Alpha Classics, just like the Monteverdi piece I posted above. This one is a Lully ditty...




I'll have to dig out some killer Bill Christie rockin' the Charpentier.


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## DJiLAND (Oct 24, 2021)

https://www.youtube.com/c/bach/featured



i love this channel


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## CT (Oct 24, 2021)

Yes! That channel is the best argument for the existence of YouTube right now.


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## heisenberg (Oct 26, 2021)

Tonight I found it. Worthy of posting...

Savall's group doin' a Stabat Mater, Charpentier stylin' to all get out...


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## heisenberg (Oct 26, 2021)

Oh and if you need more of that bleeding motet madness, this is a good encore...


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## moon (Oct 26, 2021)

I really always come back to the King's Singers Madrigal History Tour. Il bianco e dolce cigno slaps 100% of the time.


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## Ian Dorsch (Oct 26, 2021)

heisenberg said:


> I seem to be tripping up and out on Baroque, Early Renaissance music these days. I hit some bloody mindblowing singing and playing tonight. Here's one of them...


God, Kate Lindsey is so good. Did you see her in the Met's Agrippina? An absolutely jaw-dropping performance.


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## Marcus Millfield (Oct 26, 2021)

Great thread!

Please do check out the YouTube channel of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Very informative, especially the videos about different players/instruments.

One of my favorites of the Netherlands Bach Society channel:



This is Jean Rondeau (great player!) playing Girolamo Frescobaldi:


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## Pier-V (Oct 26, 2021)

In my humble opinion, the OP contains one of the most incredible duets ever wrote during the renaissance. I still remember my awe when I first heard it, not long ago actually. Many other pieces come to mind, but I'll just post the other two that probably mean the most to me:


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## tmhuud (Oct 26, 2021)

Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus gets me ALL the time. Love the harmony. His CRICUT theme is pretty fun.


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## Pier-V (Oct 26, 2021)

> Many other pieces come to mind, but I'll just post the other two that probably mean the most to me


Oops that's not true. I completely forgot this one. I guess it's time to go to bed huh?


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## re-peat (Oct 27, 2021)

There are some truly heavenly performances of Bach's cantatas to be watched and listened to on YouTube if you check out the work of the *J.S. Bach Stiftung*_, _conducted by Rudolf Lutz. Their *channel* also includes many workshops on the understanding and performing of Bach's music.

Sorry for the blocked video-links. But do click on them and go watch the material.




_


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## Kent (Oct 27, 2021)

_Early_ music?

Aren't all of these composers... _late_?


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## heisenberg (Oct 27, 2021)

Ian Dorsch said:


> God, Kate Lindsey is so good. Did you see her in the Met's Agrippina? An absolutely jaw-dropping performance.


No. Just found a short clip that gives a taste.


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## heisenberg (Oct 27, 2021)

tmhuud said:


> Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus gets me ALL the time. Love the harmony. His CRICUT theme is pretty fun.


Holy shit. That was AMAZING. Like mindblowing! Heard lots of Palestrina but not that one. Shit! Knocks Spem in alium off the pedestal. I'm still shaking from that.




BTW, I take it from your avatar that you are a dedicated Motard guy!


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## heisenberg (Oct 27, 2021)

Pier-V said:


> Oops that's not true. I completely forgot this one. I guess it's time to go to bed huh?



Thanks for that. Monteverdi NEVER ceases to amaze me. I would be remiss if I did not post this work to this thread...


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## szczaw (Oct 27, 2021)

Early epic music:




Awesomeness level: final.


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## szczaw (Oct 27, 2021)

Reactionary splendor. Give me back monarchy.


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## BenG (Oct 27, 2021)

Obligatory Palestrina...


Also, always loved this Josquin Des Prez piece! Hard to find a good performance that isnèt heavy-handed though...


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## CT (Oct 27, 2021)




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## Ifness (Oct 27, 2021)

Great thread! Josquin des Prez is one of my two favorite composers (Bach being the other). Josquin's Ave Maria, in my mind, is one of the most sublime pieces ever written.


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## heisenberg (Oct 27, 2021)

Josquin & Praetorius. Perfect!

Here's one that blew me away when I first stumbled on it twenty years ago. Still floors me when I spin it. A lesson in how to turn it up to 11 every 3 minutes without it getting aurally exhausting. Antoine Brumel's Earthquake Mass...


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## BenG (Oct 28, 2021)

Ifness said:


> Great thread! Josquin des Prez is one of my two favorite composers (Bach being the other). Josquin's Ave Maria, in my mind, is one of the most sublime pieces ever written.


Could not agree more!


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## heisenberg (Oct 28, 2021)

Here's one that I wasn't expecting. Looking for new recordings to pick up which sent me back to my record collection to lookup some stuff by Kronos Quartet. Low and behold...


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## heisenberg (Oct 29, 2021)

Earlier in the thread Frescobaldi's name was intoned. Well no early music fest can't go without throwing oneself into the mosh pit of Scott Ross and his breakneck and breathtaking Scarlatti Sonata readings. This man is legend. Oh the stories one could tell...


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## heisenberg (Oct 29, 2021)

Just going to add a couple of other Scott Ross related vids to give some balance and depth to who he was musically and as a person.

First is one of the Bach Partitas where he doesn't sound like he's juiced with adrenalin. And the second vid is a good section of a documentary on Ross where the camera follows him giving instruction and so on. I hadn't seen this before so others may be interested as well.


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## heisenberg (Oct 29, 2021)

Really should have some Pergolesi in here. Fine performance with great camera work...


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## Pier-V (Oct 30, 2021)

heisenberg said:


> Josquin & Praetorius. Perfect!
> 
> Here's one that blew me away when I first stumbled on it twenty years ago. Still floors me when I spin it. A lesson in how to turn it up to 11 every 3 minutes without it getting aurally exhausting. Antoine Brumel's Earthquake Mass...



That... souldn't be possible. Those are _twelve "true" independent voices_. I have listened to other pieces with an insane amount of intricacy (Ockeghem comes to mind), but they often sounded more like if a modern delay was applied to them. Sorry, I didn't want to turn this into a technical discussion but I'm at a loss of words right now.


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## heisenberg (Oct 30, 2021)

Sorry you lost me Pier (laughing). What isn't possible?! Singing this glorious and dense?!! The first version I heard was in 1990. It was put out by Sony Classical with the Hugelas Ensemble under the direction of Paul van Nevel.

This snippet is from a reissue of that recording I believe. Both the Tallis Scholars version (the one I posted above) and the Hugelas Ensemble versions are worth having. If you are a choral nut it doesn't get much better than this...


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## CT (Oct 30, 2021)

heisenberg said:


> Sorry you lost me Pier (laughing). What isn't possible?! Singing this glorious and dense?!! The first version I heard was in 1990. It was put out by Sony Classical with the Hugelas Ensemble under the direction of Paul van Nevel.
> 
> This snippet is from a reissue of that recording I believe. Both the Tallis Scholars version (the one I posted above) and the Hugelas Ensemble versions are worth having. If you are a choral nut it doesn't get much better than this...



What a fantastic recording.


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## Pier-V (Oct 30, 2021)

> What isn't possible?! Singing this glorious and dense?!!


Touché!! That's a very good point 

I've listened to both the videos, some parts multiple times. 
Thanks, this whole thread is a wonderful idea


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## heisenberg (Oct 30, 2021)

Michaelt said:


> What a fantastic recording.


Indeed it is. You might have to check Discogs or something similar to get a copy unless it has been properly reissued. I knew when I heard it, some thirty years ago that this was a particularly special recording, even in the context of all these amazing choral recordings by the likes of Herreweghe, Christie & The Tallis Scholars.

I found a copy for sale. Reasonably priced...

https://hbdirect.com/album/29796-brumel-missa-sequentia-van-nevel-ensemble-huelgas.html


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## heisenberg (Oct 30, 2021)

Pier-V said:


> In my humble opinion, the OP contains one of the most incredible duets ever wrote during the renaissance. I still remember my awe when I first heard it, not long ago actually. Many other pieces come to mind, but I'll just post the other two that probably mean the most to me:



In all the choral madness of the past week, I forgot to post a rejoinder to these glorious pieces. The first one, the Monteverdi piece holds a special place for me as that was the opening track on a Les Arts Florrisant disc set that set me on a life-long obsessive path with choral music and singing in general.

The second piece, the Scarlatti one, shit that is amazing. I keep returning to it since I listened to this over the past week. Really echoes similar techniques and intent to what Richard Strauss did in "Vier Letzte Lieder" or Four Last Songs by creating this massive throbbing, breathing organism that is Earth.

I know this vid isn't early music but damn it is good. Dropping the needle at a particularly emotional part just before Im Abendrot begins to wind up with the swirling larks and the throbbing geosphere.


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## CT (Oct 30, 2021)

heisenberg said:


> In all the choral madness of the past week, I forgot to post a rejoinder to these glorious pieces. The first one, the Monteverdi piece holds a special place for me as that was the opening track on a Les Arts Florrisant disc set that set me on a life-long obsessive path with choral music and singing in general.
> 
> The second piece, the Scarlatti one, shit that is amazing. I keep returning to it since I listened to this over the past week. Really echoes similar techniques and intent to what Richard Strauss did in "Vier Letzte Lieder" or Four Last Songs by creating this massive throbbing, breathing organism that is Earth.
> 
> I know this vid isn't early music but damn it is good. Dropping the needle at a particularly emotional part just before Im Abendrot begins to wind up with the swirling larks and the throbbing geosphere.



Nice little reminder that what I said earlier in the thread -



> Yeah I am primarily interested in stuff that's pretty new, and stuff that's pretty old. Nothing against everything in between but this is what really gets me going.


- is nonsense, at least speaking purely as a _listener_ rather than a _listening composer_.


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