L.L. Dufay- Mass for St. Anthony of Padua

The first thing I noticed about this piece happened at about 2:40 of the Introitus, and it seemed to be the theme of "O Come, O come Immanuel." Christmas music being on all our minds at the moment, it was especially apt for me to discover this wonderful piece. I wrote earlier about Dufay, but this piece, of which very little has been written as far as I can find, has captivated me to an even greater degree than previous. Upon first hearing, "The Mass for St. Anthony of Padua", seems to demonstrate more of the massive phrase structures of Ockeghem, which seems to explain why Dufay is considered a predecessor to Ockeghem.

St. Anthony is recognized as the patron saint of Marriage in Portugal, but the wider Catholic Church considers him to be the patron saint of Miracles. His canonization was the quickest of any saint in history, as he was made a saint less than a year after his death in 1231 by Pope Gregory IX.

L.L. Giovanni Gabrieli - Canzon Duodecimi Toni

This piece by Gabrieli is written for ten horns. It is the eight selection from a larger work called the Sacrae Symphoniae. The piece begins with a stately theme, and then each part imitates it throughout. The theme is not just echoed, but developed and combined with different instrumentation to create the piece. The piece makes the listener feel as if they were part of a royal procession at court.

Gabrieli was born in 1557 in Venice, and died in 1612. He was a great innovator, especially in notating the use of dynamics, instrumentation, and the effects of spaciousness in sound. His style spread all across Europe, carried by his many students, including Heinrich Schutz.

L.L. Josquin des Prez- Missa Pange Lingua

This mass if considered to be Josquin's last mass. It was not available to Petrucci for the third and final collection of the works of Josquin, probably due to its compositional proximity to his death. It was probably written in 1515

The music is set to the words of Thomas Aquinas' famous "Pange Linqua Gloriosi." The text is quoted directly at the start of each movement, but then the music takes off with a life of its own, using imitation, homophony, and several major contrapuntal techniques of the day for the development.

The theme from the Kyrie movement, which is "do-re-fa-me-re-do," became the most widely quoted theme of the time, and was a very popular fugal subject for composers from that point forward. Mozart used the theme for the last movement of his final Symphony no. 41, as the fugal subject.

The music is absolutely compelling, and creates a sense of unity and solidity between the different sections of the choir, by the sheer mastery of Josquin's choral style.

L.L. John Dunstable Veni Sancte Spiritus

John Dunstable was perhaps the earliest master of contrapuntal technique. This piece sounds as if it were one of the slower fugues out of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. The harmonies are generally modal, however, there are occasional passages in the movement when it is almost possible to hear functional tonality. Landini cadences are abound. The vocal parts are extremely expressive, and criss-cross over one another to create an extremely rich sound. This music seems to be very forward looking considering that Dunstable was one of the earliest composers of the Renaissance.

There are no instruments accompanying the SATB vocals. A very open sort of sound pervades the music. Each voice performs its own function, and no isorhythms are apparent. Areas of chordal structure occur as coincidence of the moving lines.

L.L. El Grillo- Josquin Des Prez

This well known piece is famous for its lightheartedness and satirical nature. Josquin supposedly wrote the piece as a reminder to his master to pay the musicians. The word "Grillo," means cricket, and is supposed to signify a little memory jogger to their lord.

The structure of the piece is that of the Frottola, which was the leading kind of secular song in the 16th century, and was a very important predecessor to the madrigal. The Frottola typically avoids contrapuntal complexity, uses clear and repetitive rhythms, and a narrow melodic range.

It is interesting to see music from its starting point up to here. Previously the only music we could access consisted of religious and sacred music, now it is for musicians to make jokes about money with a few inside friends. The irony is pretty wonderful.

L.L. George Frederick Handel - Suite in F

This piece has served the purpose of concentrating all of the aspects of High Baroque. The sense of controlled harmonic flow, both vertical and horizontal, are astoundingly apparent. The harpsichord sound alone almost immediately puts one into the proper mindset to understand Baroque music. The rhythms in dance sections are very energetic and syncopated. Whereas, the slower movements exemplify an improvised treatment of the themes, with pitches circulating in ornamentation around the central melody. The elegance of the piece (not to mention the playing of none other than Glenn Gould) as well as its emotional poignance makes it one of my favorites from the Handel literature.

Handel was born in 1685, the same year as Bach, and died in 1759. He wrote 42 operas alone is his lifetime, not to mention all of his cantatas, solo keyboard works, and oratorios. Handel was honored by being included in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran church. Arnold Schonberg's Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra is based on Handel's Concerto Grosso.

L.L. Guilio Caccini - Amor, io parto

The piece is a madgrigal for the soprano voice from Caccini's, "Le Nuove Musiche." The title means, "Love, I depart." The singer tells of trying to forget a past lover, the difficulty of allowing the past to remain buried, and of the old lover's indifference. The most painful thing about forgetting the past, the poem says, is that those whom we try to forget have already forgotten us, and our trials are only for us to work through. It is very easy for everyone to relate to the sense of pain the music reveals, and of a desire to live free of bitterness, though that can be the most difficult part of all.

Caccini was born is Rome in 1551 and died in Florence in 1618. His compositions were very influential in the early part of his life, and "Le Nuove Musiche," is considered a great masterpiece of the time.

Caccini's most popular work, the "Ave Maria," was actually composed by a Russian lute player named Vladimir Vavilov, who was prone to attaching the names of famous composers to his own works. From that time on, this piece was erroneously associated with Caccini.

L.L. Jan Sweelink - Organ Fantasy

Sweelink is a Dutch composer born in 1562 and died in 1621. In his lifetime he was considered the organist against which all other organists were measured. His styles seemed to straddle that of the High Renaissance and the Early Baroque, and his uses of counterpoint, stretto, and organ pedal technique undoubtedly look ahead to the music of J.S. Bach.

The organ fantasy is a series of dramatic episodes ranging from the very profound to the pastoral. The opening section seems almost rather like a tone poem than anything too rigorously organized. Then follows a very fast and virtuosic contrapuntal, though not fugal area. This is succeeded yet again by a very profound and uplifting fughetta. The piece closes with an improvisatory and rigorously contrapuntal toccata-like section.

The performer I of the recording I heard was none other than Glenn Gould. Gould commands what could seem to be a set of unrelated passages within the guise of a fantasy into a fantastic sense of unity.

L.L. Leonin - Dulce Lignum

Its been a long time, several months, since we've spent time on this kind of music in class. Returning to it and listening to it makes me able to see the progression of music as it went up to the Renaissance and into the Baroque. Its almost possible to trace the lineage directly in the sound.

The rhythms are very irregular, and the melody is extremely melismatic, creating arches around the main main themes, but with very few leaps. The singing style contains the nasal quality characteristic of the chant music of the period. It is very difficult to pinpoint an exact form amidst the rest of the activity. The chorus enters at rare intervals after the two solo voices have completed major sections.

L.L. Ockegem- Gloria from the Missa Mi-mi

I found this fantastic work on youtube, and was blown away by it. The pictures which drift in and out of focus depict galaxies and universal phenomena, all too fitting with the sense of awe the music conveys.

Ockegem is considered to be the most important composer in the time between Dufay and Josquin des Prez.

The "Missa Mi-mi," is also referred to as the "Missa Quarti Toni." The work is very extensive and melismatic, and the typical performance time generally reaching an hour. Most of his early masses use the cantus firmus technique for thematic material, however, the Missa Mi-mi, along with some of his later works, shows an extreme amount of freedom, with all new material.

The performers are the Cappella Pratensis, with Rebecca Stewart.

It's unfortunate, but I could not find any more information online that explores this work in greater detail, so I have downloaded the entire mass, and hope to get some better understanding of Ockegem's personality and style.