December 2003

Millennium of Music Christmas

Again, all in sound, almost no words—we hear music for the season newly recorded by Anonymous 4, Lionheart, and the Westminster Cathedral choir.

Composer: PALESTRINA (1525/6-1594)

CD Info: CD HMU 907325, CDA67396, KIC CD 7562.

Christmas in the Lowlands

For 150 years composers of the Lowlands defined European music--we'll hear some of the greatest Christmas motets from Dufay to Lassus.

Composer: JEAN PULLOIS (?early 1400s--1478), CIPRIANO de RORE (1516-1565), JOSQUIN DESPREZ (c. 1440-1521), ANTOINE BUSNOIS (c.1430-1492), ROLAND de LASSUS (1532-1594),

CD Info: CD 449 819, CD CDC 7 49157, CDA67129, CD GAU 186, CD 999 506, CD 75606-51230.

A Half-Millennium of Swiss Christmas

From the early Medieval city of Sion, chant for the season; and from the high Renaissance, a performance by the Ensemble Lucidarium of popular devotions of the Reformation, when pop songs of the day were given sacred texts.

Composer: MATHIEU MALINGRE, THOINOT ARBEAU, BARTHELEMY ANEAU,

CD Info: CD ED 13126, CD VEL 3019.

Chant from Trondheim– Fingergullofficiet: The Relic of the Holy Blood

Soon after the founding of the first Christian center in Norway at Trondheim, the Cathedral became a center for chant services celebrating everything from St. Olav to a vial of the Holy Blood of Christ brought to Trondheim in the 1100s--this week, chant from this cathedral.

Composer:

CD Info: FXCD 179.