Renaissance Sacred Polyphony
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The a cappella masses and motets of the high Renaissance — Palestrina, Victoria, Tallis, Byrd, Lassus and their contemporaries — sung in interweaving imitative counterpoint, today the signature repertoire of elite chamber choirs recording in resonant chapel acoustics. Each voice part carries equal melodic weight, entering in imitation and weaving lines that resolve in luminous consonance; the modern performance ideal is small, unaccompanied, immaculately tuned ensembles whose blend lets the counterpoint speak. On record the style is inseparable from its acoustics — chapel and cathedral spaces are effectively part of the instrument.
History
Composed for the Catholic and English churches of the 15th–17th centuries, this music was reborn on record when Peter Phillips's Tallis Scholars cut Allegri's Miserere and Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli at Merton College Chapel in March 1980 — a Gimell disc that topped the UK classical chart and set the modern performance standard; Westminster Cathedral Choir's 1987 Hyperion Victoria Requiem, the Tallis Scholars' 1985 Spem in alium, The Sixteen's ongoing Palestrina series on Coro, and Stile Antico's Gramophone-winning Song of Songs (2009) built the catalog, and The Cardinall's Musick closed its 13-volume Byrd Edition in 2010 with Infelix ego — only the second early-music disc ever named Gramophone Recording of the Year.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Miserere mei, Deus (Allegri)(1980) — The Tallis ScholarsSpotifyYouTube
- Missa Papae Marcelli (Palestrina)(1980) — The Tallis ScholarsSpotifyYouTube
- Spem in alium (Tallis)(1985) — The Tallis ScholarsSpotifyYouTube
- Requiem — Officium Defunctorum (Victoria)(1987) — Westminster Cathedral ChoirSpotifyYouTube
- Infelix ego (Byrd)(2010) — The Cardinall's MusickSpotifyYouTube
- Vadam et circuibo civitatem (Victoria)(2009) — Stile AnticoSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Gimell Records, Allegri Miserere / Palestrina Missa Papae Marcelli (CDGIM 639, recorded 22 March 1980), https://www.gimell.com/
- Hyperion Records, Victoria Requiem, Westminster Cathedral Choir/David Hill (CDA66250, 1987), https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/
- Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2010, Recording of the Year (The Cardinall's Musick, Byrd Infelix ego)
- Stile Antico, "Song of Songs" (harmonia mundi HMU 807489, 2009)