de Rore and Lassus & York EMF Young Artists Competition

[doversoul1]

Saturday
Josquin's motet - Praeter rerum seriem - proved to be very popular with younger composers of 16th century and in this programme Lucie Skeaping takes a look at how two of them - Cipriano de Rore and Roland de Lassus - paid a compliment to Josquin by using material from the motet in their own music. Nowadays song writers and composers "sample" music from elsewhere all the time but the idea is not a new one. "Parody" masses were very popular in the 16th century, sometimes being controversial in the choice of material if it was not sacred. De Rore's mass and a Magnificat by Lassus, along with the original Josquin motet, have been specially recorded for the Early Music Show by the BBC Singers conducted by Peter Phillips, who talks to Lucie Skeaping about why this music fascinates him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03851db

There was a programme in which Peter Philips conducted BBC Singers. I don’t remember the result.

Sunday
Catherine Bott introduces highlights from this year's York Early Music International Young Artists' Competition which has proved an inspirational launchpad for early music performers across the world.
Past winners have included Florilegium; Paul Goodwin and Nicholas Parle; The Locke Consort; I Fagiolini; The Palladian Ensemble; Mhairi Lawson and Olga Tverskaya; Savadi; and Le Jardin Secret.
This year's competition drew on ensembles from America and Europe. Catherine offers a chance to hear from all ten finalists including the announcement of this year's winners

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038542w

CD Review
sometime between 9.05 and 10.00
Jean Mouton: Missa Dictes moy toutes voz pensees (excs)
Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03851cf

[ed.] Please, Host, can you correct the title? It should be EMF.

[Black Swan]

This years York Early Music Festival International Young Artists' Competition was fantastic. I look forward to revisiting it on Sunday with Catharine B.

[Bamig]

Praeter Rerum Serium is a wonderful motet. The De Rore mass based on it also a favourite - the Huelgas Ensemble recording of it may well be a Desert Island Disc.

[Roehre]

Praeter Rerum Serium is a wonderful motet. The De Rore mass based on it also a favourite - the Huelgas Ensemble recording of it may well be a Desert Island Disc.

Cannot agree more .

But

"Parody" masses were very popular in the 16th century, sometimes being controversial in the choice of material if it was not sacred.

needs to taken with a pinch of salt. Many parody-works (the vast majority Masses, but not exclusively so) were based on well-known material and whether the source was sacred or profane actually didn't make much difference. One of the most used being the popular song L'Homme armé: a couple of anonymous Masses, and further Masses by Busnois, Desprez (at least 2), Dufay, Ockeghem, Palestrina (at least 2), Pipelare and de la Rue, just to mention some of the "users".

Composers not only used other composers' material. Dufay used his own chanson Se la face ay pale for the mass with that name Missa Se la face ay pale e.g., not exactly the most sacred text imaginable btw.
Heinrich Isaac based a Mass on dance music (Missa La Bassadanza), Jannequin on a battlesong (Missa La Batallia), both highly regarded and appreciated works, despite dancing and fighting not being activities particularly favoured during a mass .

In Munrow's set The Art of the Netherlands one finds an excellent exposé re this compositional vehicle.

[ardcarp]

Host, can you correct the title?

Your wish is my command!

[Bamig]

I believe the De Rore is one of those combination parody / cantus firmus masses, with the c.f. text honouring a patron. You can sometimes pick up that one of the voices is using a different text, particularly when the c.f. text ends the phrase on a hard consonant and the mass text ends on a vowel.

Good point about non-sacred parody masses, (De) Roehre.

[Roehre]

I believe the De Rore is one of those combination parody / cantus firmus masses, with the c.f. text honouring a patron. .....

Honouring a "patron" was not unusual (the Missa Beati Anthonii, attributed to Dufay e.g.) but hinting at a patron for something did happen too.
DesPrez' Missa la sol fa re mi (Mass please let me go) a good example (a 16th C Abschiedssymphonie )

[Bamig]

Another wonderful piece. The first early choral CD I bought was the Tallis Scholars recording from the late 80s. I can feel a Renaissance listening phase coming on....