Remember the video on "stretto fuga" from June 14 (how much can a composer do with two intervals)? Here's an entire mass Monteverdi wrote using that idea!
African Diaspora Music Project
Planning concerts, programming a recital, or just want to explore rep beyond the usual "dead white European men" category? Check out (and use!) this incredible resource including music from ~1700-present!
Stretto fuga - a masterpiece of two intervals
How much can you really do with two intervals? If you were a Renaissance composer, quite a bit! Early Music Sources explains the stretto fuga with some fantastic examples from Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610!
Membra Jesu Nostri
Bach didn't exist in a vacuum - check out this fantastic performance of Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri from some friends/colleagues in DC!
Lobet den Herrn
"Lobet den Herrn" was the first of Bach's motets that I learned (with Dr. Steven Zielke and the OSU Chamber Choir) though 21-year-old me would never have believed it could sound like this!
Contrappunto bestiale alla mente
We've listened to madrigals with bird calls, but Banchieri's “Contrappunto bestiale alla mente” includes a cuckoo, an owl, a cat, and a dog!
Weep, weep mine eyes
Thomas Morley may get more attention, but madrigals by John Wilbye are my personal guilty pleasure, including this beauty featured in Tramontana's English program several years ago!
All about Josquin
"And one story has someone saying that you want to employ Isaac because he will write when you want him to — whereas Josquin will only write when he wants to, and costs twice as much." And in which choir loft did Josquin carve his name? Read more here!
The Renaissance's Most Influential Composer, 500 Years Later
Missing something?
This article is violin-focused, but the main point is true for vocal music as well as instrumental - we should all experience the glories of music pre-1700 when we're in school as a central part of the curriculum.
Palestrina's Salve Regina
I sang this gorgeous five-voice Salve Regina by Palestrina for a funeral on Saturday, and it's too beautiful not to share!