Thursday 15 December 2022

Pedro de Cristo (c. 1550-1618): Quae est ista (SSATB)

A beautiful motet attributed to the Portuguese composer Pedro de Cristo (c. 1550-1618). The source of Quae est ista, copied by Pedro de Cristo himself, has four voices written down and indicates a beginning and an end of a canon in the Cantus, but omits its interval. However, the only possible option is a canon ad unisono, producing a very similar sound to the famous motet Ave virgo sanctissima by Francisco Guerrero. Could Pedro de Cristo have known and been inspired by the motet of Guerrero?

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©2022 Jorge Martín

Tuesday 13 December 2022

Lodovico Agostini (1534-1590): Canones et echo sex vocibus (1572) (5vv-8vv) (Complete Edition)

A collection of five, six and eight-voice motets and echoi by the Italian composer Lodovico Agostini and his uncle (?) Agostino Agostini (†1569). The motets usually have enigmatic canons with their solutions. The Canones et echo finishes with four double-choir motets (two secular, Quae voces and Quis puer hic, and two sacred, Gloria virorum and Omnes gentes).

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Lodovico Agostini (1534-1590) 

Canones et echo sex vocibus (Venice, 1572)

19 motets and echoi for 5vv-8vv  

Canones et echo sex vocibus (Complete)

 

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Alma Dei genitrix

SSAATB

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Ave mundi spes Maria

SSAATB

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Gaude Barbara beata

SSATTB

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Dum clamaremus ad Dominum

SSATTB

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Eleva Domine

SSATTB

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Quae celebrat thermas

SSAATB

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Dic Echo

SSAATB

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Quis colit olim Alcide

SSATTB

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Fili mi Absalon

SSAATB

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Veni sponsa Christi

SSATTB

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Peccantem me quotidie

SSATTB

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Ego sum panis vivus

SAATTB

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Veni Sancte Spiritus

SATTB

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Odi te

SSATTB

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Veni sponsa Christi

SSAATTB

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Quae voces?

SATB+SATB

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Quis puer hic?

SATB+SATB

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Gloria virorum

SATB+SATB

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Omnes gentes

SATB+SATB

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©2022 Jorge Martín



Monday 12 December 2022

Paolo Isnardi (1536-1596): Missa Ego clamavi (SATTB)

A five-voice Mass by the Ferrarese composer Paolo Isnardi. It is based on an unknown motet (by Isnardi himself?). The surprising twist happens in the final six-voice Agnus Dei, when two tenors sing in canon a soggetto cavatto with the words Alfonsus secundus serenissimus Dux Ferrariae vivat felix, dedicated to Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara.

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©2022 Jorge Martín


Wednesday 7 December 2022

Pierre de Manchicourt (c. 1510-1564): Missa de Domina (SATTB)

The Missa de Beata Virgine by the Franco-Flemish composer Pierre de Manchicourt is scored for five voices, with its final Agnus Dei for six voices (SSATTB).

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©2022 Jorge Martín

Thursday 1 December 2022

Hubert Waelrant (c. 1517-1595): Sacrarum cantionum liber sextus (5vv-6vv, 1558?) (Complete Edition)

We are glad to announce that our complete edition of the Sacrarum cantionum liber sextus (Antwerp, 1558?) by the Flemish composer Hubert Waelrant (c. 1517-1595) is finally available.

Although Waelrant contributed to the previous volumes of the Sacrarum cantionum, the sixth volume is the only one composed entirely of his motets. It contains fifteen motets, eleven for five voices and four for six voices. The choice of texts is surprising, as Waelrant focuses specially in texts of the New Testament and an unusual amount of care (as he was a music editor himself) can be seen in the underlay of the texts and the indication of accidentals.

As Robert Lee Weaver (The New Grove) points out "he was an innovator among mid-16th-century Flemish composers, and his style bridges the period between that of Gombert and the mature Lassus. His works are characterized by careful attention to the relationship between text and music, reflecting the current humanistic outlook, and by chromatic harmony and inventiveness in the use of dissonances."

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Hubert Waelrant (c. 1517-1595)

Sacrarum cantionum liber sextus (1558?)

15 motets for 5vv and 6vv

 

Sacrarum cantionum (Complete)

5vv-6vv

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Pater Abraham

SSATB

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Cum autem appropinquaret portae

SATTB

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Nihil opertum

SATTB

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Cum descendisset autem

SATTB

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Venite benedicti Patris mei

SATTB

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Facite homines discumbere

SATTB

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Cum transiret Jesus

SATTB

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Pastores erant

SATTB

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Non est vestrum

SATTB

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Nisi conversi fueritis

SATTB

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Cum ingrederetur

SATTB

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Caecus quidam sedebat

SSATTB

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Miserere mei

SSATTB

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Domine si tu sustulisti eum

SSATTB

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Omne quod dat mihi Pater

SSATTB

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©2022 Jorge Martín


Monday 21 November 2022

Sebastián Raval (c. 1550-1604): Motectorum quinque vocum (1593)

Sebastián Raval (c. 1550-1604) was a Spanish composer, friar and soldier, active in Italy. He apparently worked as a musician at the Urbino court of Duke Francesco. He published a book of motets, another of canzonets and one of madrigals in Rome.

Raval was famous for his competitive personality: He challenged Giovanni Maria Nanino, Francesco Soriano and Achille Falcone to musical contests between 1592 and 1600.

The Motectorum quinque vocum is the only printed sacred music by Raval that remains extant nowadays. It is an exhaustive collection of 28 works that includes an extensive range of styles: homophonic, polychoral and canonic motets, from four to sixteen voices.

Some extraordinary works in the Motectorum quinque vocum are the canon for sixteen voices Vivat Alexander (a nod to the dedicatee of the collection, the Cardinal Alessandro Peretti di Montalto) or the outstanding seven-voice Credo quod Redemptor meus with its canonic cantus firmus, the six-voice Salve regina or the polychoral (with two choirs of three voices each) Panis quem ego dabo.

Perhaps the most remarkable work in the Motectorum quinque vocum is the five-voice Iste qui est contempsit. This motet, that has to be performed at a slower tempo than usual (which is suggested by its time signature and the short note values), is based on a mensural canon, producing a very similar effect to the legendary motet by Miserere nostri by Thomas Tallis

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Sebastián Raval (c. 1550-1604)

Motectorum quinque vocum (Rome, 1593)

28 motets for 4vv, 5vv, 6vv, 7vv and 16vv

Motectorum quinque vocum (Complete)

4vv-16vv

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Veni Creator Spiritus

AAAA

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Vivat Alexander

16vv

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Puer qui natus est

SSATB

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Vidi turbam magnam

SATTB

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Ascendit Deus

SSATB

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Intret in conspectu tuo

SATTB

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Iste est qui contempsit

SATTB

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Beata es Virgo Maria

SSSS

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Panis quem ego dabo

SSB+SAT

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Alma redemptoris Mater

SATB

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Credo quod Redemptor

SSAATTB

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Ave regina caelorum

SATB

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Salve regina

SSATTB

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Beatus Laurentius

SATTB

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Ille oculos tollens

SATTB

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Angelus ad pastores ait

SATTB

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Gloriosae virginis Mariae

SSATB

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Franciscus pauper

SSATB

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Crux fidelis

SSATB

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Gloriosus Deus in sanctis

SATTB

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Pueri Hebraeorum

SSSAB

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Dicebat Jesus turbis

SSATB

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Quanti mercenarii

SSATB

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O sacrum convivium

SSAAT

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Venisti tandem caeli

SSATB

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Ego sum panis vivus

SSSAT

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Regina caeli

SATTB

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Cum pervenisset

SATTB

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©2022 Jorge Martín




Thursday 27 October 2022

Sebastián de Vivanco (c. 1551-1622): Missa Crux fidelis (SSATTB)

The only six-voice Mass by the Spanish composer Sebastián de Vivanco (c. 1551-1622) in his Liber Missarum (1608) was based on the homonym motet in the manuscript source E-SAc LP 1 (also available here). As usual, Vivanco writes a tour de force in the Sanctus: the five-voice Benedictus has a Trinitas in unitate canon combined with a 2 in 1 canon (duo sunt in carne una).

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Other works by Sebastián de Vivanco (c. 1551-1622)

©2022 Jorge Martín



Monday 24 October 2022

Maistre Jhan (c. 1485-1538): Pater noster/Ave Maria (SAATB) [Treviso Cathedral Codice 36, no. 1] (2022 Edition)

To celebrate our tenth anniversary we are re-editing one of our very first publications, the complete edition of the Treviso Cathedral Codice 36 (I-TVd 36). 

Pater noster/Ave Maria (SAATB) could be an intended homage paid to Josquin. The tradition of combining the two texts and plainchants as parts of a motet had a great relevance on Northern Italy: Adrian Willaert.  Gioseffo Zarlino or Jacquet de Mantua followed this tradition after Maistre Jhan.

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(This is the foreword for the complete edition of the Treviso Cathedral Codice 36 we published back in 2012:)

The Treviso Cathedral Codice 36 (henceforth, I-TVd 36) is the oldest polyphonic manuscript extant in this Cathedral (c. 1530). It is one of the most valuable musical manuscripts of the 16th century in Northern Italy and also an essential source for the motets (most of them unica) of Maistre Jhan (c. 1485-1538).

Although the I-TVd 36 is now kept in the Treviso Cathedral Archive, this was not its original place, as it was probably copied and kept in Ferrara until the end of the 16th century. This certainty is due to two reasons: 1) the majority of works by Maistre Jhan (more than a half of I-TVd 36), who served the Dukedom of Ferrara until his death, and 2) the presence of the circumstance motet Hebe potens cithara by Magister Symon [Simon of Ferrara], dedicated to the death of one of Ercole I d’Este’s children, Sigismondo, who died in 1524.

The I-TVd 36 is formed by five partbooks, Cantus, Altus, Quinta pars, Tenor and Bassus. The real voice in each partbook varies from one work to another, specially the Quinta pars, which is usually a Tenor or an Altus. The manuscript was mainly copied around 1530 (perhaps around 1524, year of Sigismondo’s death) and has two later additions, the short motet Sancta Maria at the end of the manuscript (the only unnumbered work in I-TVd 36) and an anonymous Mass. A more detailed codicological description of I-TVd 36 can be found at DIAMM.

The manuscript contains 30 works, 29 motets and the anonymous Mass, all for five voices. The most representative composer in I-TVd 36 is Maistre Jhan (18 motets), followed by Jacquet de Mantua and Adrian Willaert (3 motets each), Jean Lhéritier (2), Magister Symon and Costanzo Festa (1 motet each) plus 3 anonymous works, two motets and a Mass.

Even though the I-TVd 36 contains manuscript versions of works found in other sources (8 motets by Jacquet de Mantua, Jean Lhéritier and Adrian Willaert), several motets are unica, mainly those by Maistre Jhan. George Nugent and James Haar in the New Grove (2001) list nine unica motets in this source. Furthermore, only one edition of Maistre Jhan’s motets in I-TVd 36, Pater noster/Ave Maria, appears listed on the New Grove article, and it was published on 1897.

As a result, this premiere world edition of I-TVd 36 sheds light on the music in the Dukedom of Ferrara on c. 1530, and especially on Maistre Jhan, a long neglected composer linked with the Dukedom for more than 20 years. His motets show an experienced skill with canons, cantus firmus ostinato, harsh armonies and even chromatism.

©2022 Jorge Martín