Renaissance Masterpieces

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Cat No: 8550843

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099584326

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: Renaissance Masterpieces

Description
Renaissance Masterpieces It is doubtful whether any of the composers represented on this recording would have had an understanding of the term 'masterpiece' (let alone the term 'Renaissance') when applied to their own music. Similarly, it is unlikely that any of these composers would have considered themselves composers in the sense in which we now understand the word. The Renaissance musician was regarded as more craftsman than artist. Moreover, all of the music recorded here is entirely functional: it was all designed to be used within a living Latin liturgy; it had no other purpose. Any claims to authenticity in modern performance are therefore nullified. Even assuming that these performances sound anything like those given by Renaissance musicians, the idea of listening to this music in versions that remain unchanged from one hearing to the next would have been anathema to Ockeghem, Morales, Byrd, and their contemporaries. Fortunately, our current thirst for the music of the past allows us conveniently to bypass such issues. We are able to attribute 20th-century values to the composition, performance, and reception of Renaissance music. Evidently something is lost in this transition, but what remains is a large corpus of music of undeniable technical competence; and for those who are able to contemplate the ideals of spirituality and liturgical propriety there are further depths to be plumbed. In presenting a survey of Renaissance music there are bound to be unsatisfactory inclusions and omissions. The omission of any setting of the Mass Ordinary in this context is comparable to a survey of Classical music that would omit an example of the symphony; and to reduce over two thousand surviving compositions by Palestrina and Lassus to two short examples is bound to provoke more questions than it provides answers. But all of the music recorded here does have certain features in common: each piece uses specific vocal textures as a direct response to the text; and each has a formal plan that respects the progression of the text and which provides a musically satisfying unity. However, such features are evident in much Renaissance sacred music and their mere presence is not enough to guarantee a work's classification as a masterpiece. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it may also be in the mind of the creator, and when composer and performer seem to perceive beauty within the same gesture (although separated by hundreds of years) we may be tempted to describe a work as masterly. In the Nunc dimiltis, for instance, Josquin's anonymous imitator may lack the technical refinement of his mentor, but the product is sincere and moving. Similarly, Thomas Morley's subsequent adaptation of Rogier's Laboravi in gemitu meo evidently reflects a contemporaneous respect for this beautifully-paced motet. And while King Joao IV may have been a discerning musical patron, he was neither a prolific nor great composer; however, Crux fidelis achieves a depth of em
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