Renaissance
Sacred Music
Newbie
Corner
For those those of you who
have not experienced the joys of this music, we ask you to be patient.
I remember well the first time that I
really tried to get a grasp of what this music was all about. It was 1970, and I had been
really listening to Bachs Cantatas. They were for me, the end-all of sacred music.
I had a dream one night. I was standing
in the record-listening room of the public library in San Francisco, where I was living at
the time, and I was looking at a record album of music by the renaissance composer
Palestrina. I had read about this composer in a music history class that I had taken in
college, but I had never really listened to his music. A voice in the dream said
"This music composed before the time of Bach is even more powerful and spiritual than
that of Bach."
The dream had a powerful effect on me.
I went to the library and found an LP of Palestrinas Pope Marcellus Mass, and
checked it out on loan. I took it home and listened to it. In fact, I listened to it for
an hour or so each day. The music didnt seem to have any meaning. It
seemed unchanging, boring, but because of the dream, I kept on.
Then one day, all of a sudden, I began
hearing the music for the first time. The music of this mass opened up to me
in a powerful way. I never thought renaissance sacred music boring again.
Don Robertson
MP3s
Renaissance
MP3s are available on the Dovesong Web Site:
-> Renaissance MP3s in the DoveSong
Music Library
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Starter
CD Kit
Josquin des Pres
Missa Pange
Linqua
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell, director
Hyperion CDA66614
Orlando di Lasso
Regina Coeli and seasonal motets
The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, directed by Richard Marlow
Conifer 75606-51230-2
Tomas Luis de Victoria
Music of Tomas
Luis de Victoria
Saint Clement's Choir, Philadelphia, Peter Richard Conte, director
Dorian DIS-80146
Jacobus Gallus
Opus Musicum and
Missa super "Sancta Maria"
Huelgas Ensemble, Paul Van Nevel, director
Sony Classical SK 64305
Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina
Prince of Music
Paraclete Press
Orleans MA 02653
(800) 451-5006 |