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Josquin's Missa Une Mousse de Biscaye

 Music Divine's FINAL, FAREWELL concert

began at 4:00 Sunday, November 20, 2011 

at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

131 East 10th Street, at Second Avenue, NYC

 

The Featured Work on the program was:  

*Josquin Desprez's Missa Une Mousse de Biscaye**

 

It was preceded by several shorter works:

Palestrina:  Sicut cervus

Monteverdi:  Ecco mormorar l'onde

Isaac:  Agnus Dei from Missa La mi la sol

 And we concluded with an encore of

Thomas Tomkins's MUSIC DIVINE

 

Read Program Notes for Final concert

*Hear the Kyrie, recorded at Music Divine's first concert, November 12, 2005

** "Gosh, I don't think we've ever heard that on Millenium, have we?  Wow! 
I just think it's so great to have this. . . . Let's turn to this extraordinary performance. . . . I wish we had time for the whole thing."   
   
   Robert Aubry Davis, announcing that he is about to play some of Music Divine's performance, at the 2007 New York Early Music Celebration, of Josquin Desprez's Missa Une Mousse de Biscaye on his nationwide radio broadcast of "Millenium of Music."   To all lovers of early music--and especially of Josquin Desprez--Davis says this piece is one of Josquin's works that
"we've never heard and must hear."

Program notes for Music Divine's performance at 2007 New York Early Music Celebration

Recordings of some of our past concerts were on sale at the Final concert.
They will soon be available also by mail order.
Watch this site or Contact us.

 


Boston
Early Music Festival
Fringe Concert

4:30 p.m. Saturday, June 18, 2011

RenaissanceChristmas in June
(Why wait till December?)

Byrd, Morales, PalestrinaO magnum mysterium

Tallis, Eccard, MartiniMagnificat

 works by Bach, Binchois, Finck, Hassler, Mouton & Praetorius    

at

 First Church Boston

66 Marlborough Street
Boston, MA 02166
(Back Bay)

www.firstchurchboston.org/

Admission:  $15 Fully Employed;  $10 All Others, including EMA

For more info: 

201-914-3381

 
steve@nycmusicdivine.org

PROGRAM: 

  •        Magnificat:
    •         Tallis (My soul doth magnify)
    •         Eccard (Übers Gebirg)
    •         Martini
  •         Carol & Chorale
    •         Resonet in laudibus (Eccard)
    •         Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem (J. S. Bach)
    •         Puer natus in Bethlehem (M. Praetorius)
  •         Shepherds
    •         Quaeramus cum pastoribus (Mouton)
    •         Allons gay bergères (Costeley)
    •         Angelus ad pastores (Hassler)
  •         Hymn:  A solis ortus cardine
    •         plainchant
    •         Binchois
    •         [v. 4:] Domus pudici (Finck)
  •         O magnum mysterium
    •         Byrd
    •         Morales 
    •         Palestrina

At the end of April 2011, Music Divine helped to celebrate the 85th birthday of Dr. Isabelle Cazeaux, renowned musicologist and Bryn Mawr College professor, author of French Music in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (Oxford, 1975) and editor of the complete secular works of Claudin de Sermisy. The New York chapter of the American Musicological Society chose to surprise her at its spring meeting, April 30, 2011, held at the Music Department of Columbia University, where Dr. Cazeaux earned her Ph.D. and M.L.S. Having learned that one of her doctoral students (Steve Bonime) directs a local choir that specializes in Renaissance music, the chapter president invited us to sing, just before the lunch break, a dozen 16th-century Parisian chansons, mostly by Claudin, plus one each by Janequin and Passereau.  Unquestionably delighted, the surprised honoree added historical commentary to the performance of many of her favorite pieces by five members of Music Divine.

On Friday, April 15, 2011, Music Divine performed at the New York Public Library, in conjunction with a lecture by Scott Trudell, entitled "Hamlet: Poetry That Doesn't Matter," .

Click here for more info about the lecture/performance.

Following the lecture, members of Music Divine sang sacred and secular works by several of Shakespeare's contemporaries: Byrd, Morley, Gibbons, Tallis, and Tomkins.

This performance was Music Divine's contribution to the festival 

Sing New York!

which is a choral celebration sponsored by the

New York Choral Consortium

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Music Divine's concert   
April 2, 2011


at the "Grotto" Church of Notre Dame,
405 West 114th Street
on Morningside Drive  
                                     


Renaissance 'Pastoral'

A Sheep (Jean Mouton),
a Lamb (Agnus Dei),
and a Mass of Shepherds
(Missa Quaeramus cum Pastoribus)

featuring works by: 

Jean MOUTON

and a mass by Cristóbal de Morales
based on one of Mouton's works;

Walter LAMBE and John SHEPPARD;

and Agnus Dei settings by
Byrd, Fayrfax, Josquin, Isaac, and Palestrina
  


 

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PIECES PERFORMED:  

Jean Mouton: 

  • Quaeramus cum pastoribus
  • Ave Maria
  • Domine salvum fac Regem
  • Nesciens Mater

Walter Lambe:  Nesciens Mater

John Sheppard: Justi in perpetuum

Agnus Dei from:

  • William Byrd's Mass for 5 voices
  • Robert Fayrfax's Missa Tecum principium
  • Josquin Desprez's Missa l'Homme armé sexti toni
  • Heinrich Isaac's Missa La mi la sol
  • Palestrina's Missa Brevis

Cristóbal de Morales:  Missa Quaeramus cum pastoribus

Several of these works will be repeated at our Boston Early Music Festival fringe concert
Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 4:30

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2010, 4:30 PM

"Not Only Noël:  Renaissance Xmas and Other Gems"

Byrd, Morales, Palestrina, Poulenc:  O magnum mysterium

Eccard, Martini, Tallis:  Magnificat

 works by J.S. Bach, Binchois, Costeley, Finck, Hassler, Isaac, Janequin, Mouton, Ockeghem, M. Praetorius       

 St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

131 East 10th Street (at Second Avenue), NYC

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           Renaissance settings of the Magnificat in English, German, and Latin, and four versions of O magnum mysterium (including Poulenc's, but not Victoria's), highlight the Christmas-related portion of the program.
         A work by Mouton celebrates the nativity of the French Princess Renée, born 500 years ago to his employer, Anne de Bretagne, and Louis XII.  For Ockeghem's circa-600th birthday you will hear his classic Alma Redemptoris Mater.
          We have also chosen Isaac's glorious tribute to Maximilian on becoming Holy Roman Emperor; a particularly exquisite song of the lovelorn by Janequin; a wild, treble motet by Tallis;  contrasting settings of a Christmas hymn by Binchois and Finck; a motet and a chanson about the shepherds who hear of the Nativity; and a Bach chorale, with an incredibly chromatic bass line, from one of his cantatas for Epiphany.     
                   
"NOËL":  4 Mysteries,  3 Magnificats,  2 Shepherds,  and a Hymn

Magnificat                                                           

                                                                                   Thomas TALLIS  (c.1505-1585)

            (Übers Gebirg Maria geht)                      Johannes ECCARD  (1553-1611)

                                                                                   Johannes MARTINI (c.1440-1497) 
                                                                                   (Solos by Ada Ng)

Shepherds

            Angelus ad pastores ait         (1591)      Hans Leo HASSLER  (1564-1612)

            Allons gay bergères                (1567)      Guillaume COSTELEY  (1530/31-1606)

Hymn

            A solis ortus cardine /                              Gilles BINCHOIS  (c.1400-1460)

            v. 4: Domus pudici  (posth.prt.1542)    Heinrich FINCK  (c.1444-c.1527)

O magnum mysterium

                                                            (1607)        William BYRD  (1539/40-1623)

                                                                                 Cristóbal de MORALES (c.1500-1553)  

                                                            (1952)        Francis POULENC  (1899-1963)

                                                            (1569)        Giovanni da PALESTRINA (c.1525-1594)

                                                       INTERMISSION

"NOT ONLY"

Non nobis Domine / qui Reginam     (1510)       Jean MOUTON  (c.1459-1522)

Alma redemptoris Mater                                        Jean de OCKEGHEM  (c.1410-1497)

Réconfortez le petit coeur de moy    (1528)       Clément JANEQUIN  (c.1485-1558)

Sancte Deus                                                              Thomas TALLIS  (1505-1585)

Resonet in laudibus                                                Johannes ECCARD  (1553-1611)

Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem         (1724)       J.S. BACH  (1685-1750)

    Puer natus in Bethlehem              (1609)        Michael PRAETORIUS  (1571-1621)

Imperii proceres                                 (1507)        Heinrich ISAAC  (c.1450-1517)

 

Josquin's Greatest hit:
Missa de Beata Virgine

Saturday evening, May 15 at 8:00
Church of Notre Dame
114th Street and Morningside Drive
-
Sunday evening, May 16 at 8:00
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
10th Street & Second Avenue

Kyrie from Josquin's Missa de Beata Virgine
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Collection of the Sistine Chapel.

 

This is a brief program, with no intermission, of one of the most celebrated compositions by the most celebrated composer of the Early Renaissance:  Josquin Lebloitte, called Desprez.  In contrast to the more common "cyclical" mass of the period, with every movement based on one sacred or secular melody, Josquin's Missa de Beata Virgine paraphrases the distinct plainchant melodies of each movement of the Roman Liturgy's Mass for the Blessed Virgin Mary. The composer provides contrasting moods and textures as well, from the 4-voice solemn Kyrie and lively Gloria to the 5-voice dark Credo and sunny Sanctus.  Josquin inserts a low-register duet as the middle statement of the Agnus Dei, whose outer 5-voice sections extend the radiance of the Sanctus all the way to the blissful final C-major chord.

Renaissance toward Baroque:

Early 17th-Century Modernism (and Tradition)

in Italy, Germany, and England 

Lower East Side
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
10th Street & 2nd Avenue
Saturday, February 27, at 3:30 p.m

Upper West Side
Grotto Church of Notre Dame
114th Street & Morningside Drive 
Sunday, February 28 at 2:30 p.m.

ITALIAN composers:

ROSSI           
Ps. 128 Shir hamma'alot / Ashrei kol y're Adonai
GESUALDO   Moro lasso
TOMASI     
Tirsi volea morir
MONTEVERDI   Si ch'io vorrei morire
CARISSIMI   Plorate filii Israel (final lament from Jephte)

GERMAN  composers:

SCHÜTZ   Ps. 126 Die mit Tränen säen
SCHEIN   Da Jakob vollendet hatte
HASSLER   Ps. 119 Ad Dominum cum tribularer
SCHEIN   Ps. 126 Die mit Tränen säen

ENGLISH composers:

BYRD      Ave verum corpus
TOMKINS   Too much I once lamented
TOMKINS   See, see the shepherds' queen
TOMKINS   Then David mourned
RAMSEY  
How are the mighty fallen
GIBBONS   Hosanna to the Son of David
 

 

On Sunday evening, November 1, Music Divine joined Asteria, Canby Singers and Renaissance Street Singers in a concert to celebrate the musical life of Harold Brown, one of the founders of New York's Early Music movement that began in the 1950s.  Please learn all about him, and about a weekend of music inspired and written by him, by clicking on the following link:

Harold Brown Centennial

 

 

 

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Botticelli's "Primavera"

O Primavera!

Renaissance Music for Spring, Lent & Easter

 

                                        Barbireau, Brumel, Byrd, 

Cardoso, Dufay, Janequin,

Monteverdi, Morley, Schütz, Victoria

 . . . and a little Bach & Brahms    

Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 4:00

St. Mark's Episcopal Church      118 Chadwick Road, Teaneck, NJ
(201) 836-7275                      5 miles from GW Bridge
&
 Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Grotto Church of Notre Dame   114th Street & Morningside Drive, NYC

 

  • Music for Lent:
    • VICTORIA:  Pueri hebraeorum
    • CARDOSO:  Et egressus est
    • BYRD:  Venite et comedite
    • LECHNER:  St. John Passion, Part V (The 7 Last Words)
  • Music for Easter:
    • BARBIREAU:  Kyrie lux et origo
    • BRUMEL:  Kyrie from Missa Victime paschali
    • DUFAY:  Kyrie lux et origo
    • J.S. BACH:  Cantata 4 (Christ lag), Versus IV

                                   INTERMISSION

 

  • Music for Springtime:
    • MONTEVERDI:  O primavera
    • JANEQUIN:  Ce moys de may
    • MORLEY:  Now is the gentle season
    • BRUMEL:  Vray dieu d’amours
    • BRAHMS:  O süsser Mai
    • SCHÜTZ:  Ride la primavera

  

Our first concert, in November 2005, paired masses by Josquin and Isaac based on the chanson Une mousse de Biscaye. In April 2006 we performed Lamentations by Lassus; the St. John Passion by his best student, Leonhard Lechner; Holy Week motets by Victoria; and Lotti’s 8-voice CrucifixusIn October 2006 we presented some of Heinrich Isaac’s greatest work, including motets for his two most important patrons, Lorenzo de Medici and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I.  In December we performed two concerts of Christmas music centered around Josquin’s motet Praeter rerum seriem, and works inspired by it: Rore’s 7-voice mass, and a Magnificat by Lassus. 

We presented “War and Peace,” first in May 2007 in NYC, then at the Boston Early Music Festival in June. It featured works by Josquin, La Rue and Ramsey based on the biblical quote “How the mighty are fallen”; Janequin’s La Guerre and a chanson celebrating peace; several versions of Da Pacem; settings by Isaac and Palestrina of the liturgy for the Votive Mass for Peace, and J.S. Bach’s ‘motet’ “Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg” from the middle of his Cantata #4.
  In June, 2008, we repeated the shorter, Boston version of the "War & Peace" program in New York City.


  

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Da pacem (Give peace): Plainchant Antiphon for Peace

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The Battle of Marignano, scene of Janequin's La Guerre

In October, for the 2007 New York Early Music Celebration, we performed music of Heinrich Isaac and Josquin Desprez, dividing a mass between them, framed by a 6-voice motet by each.  We repeated the concert in Teaneck, NJ, to benefit the Teaneck Peace & Justice Coalition. 

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Publicity postcard from October 2007 concert

In March 2008 we presented Renaissance settings of Salve Regina by OBRECHT, MARTINI, MORALES, & VICTORIA--interspersed with other Marian motets by OCKEGHEM.

In December 2008 we presented "Jakob OBRECHT (1457-1505), 'Beethoven' of the Early Renaissance; plus 16th-century Christmas motets by Lassus, Marenzio, Walter, and Jakob Handl" 

By the last quarter of the 15th century, a "new art" of music had been established, already embodying many classical elements of harmony and counterpoint that lasted into the 19th century.  This early Renaissance style, perfected by Dufay, Ockeghem, Josquin, Isaac, Obrecht, and many others, imposed restrictions Obrecht was not always willing to follow.  In the manner of Beethoven, who would not bind himself by all the conventions of classical music around 1800, Obrecht did things no other did, even breaking newly established rules, in order to achieve extraordinarily beautiful and exciting musical effects.  His Missa Salve diva parens exemplifies this daring originality perhaps better than any other composition of the period.  Who knows how differently the history of classical music might have developed if Obrecht hadn't been struck down by the plague in 1505, over a decade before the death of his most famous contemporaries?

 We brought this extraordinay mass to the 2009 Boston Early Music Festival, presenting it as a "fringe" concert at the First Lutheran Church, at 299 Berkeley Street, on Saturday, June 13, at 4:30 p.m.

Jacob OBRECHT (1457 - 1505)
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"Beethoven" of the Early Renaissance

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View programs from our previous concerts:

Not Only Noël (December 2010)

Missa Salve diva parens, by Jakob OBRECHT (1457-1505), "Beethoven" of the Early Renaissance

War & Peace (2007 Boston Early Music Festival)

Josquin & Isaac: The Dawn of Classical Music (Benefit for Teaneck Peace & Justice Coalition)

Josquin & Isaac: The Dawn of Classical Music (2007 NY Early Music Celebration)

Music of Johannes Ockeghem: the Bright side and the Dark side / Salve Regina settings by Obrecht, Martini, Morales, Victoria