The Brabant Ensemble, Stephen Rice - Cipriano de Rore: Missa Doulce mémoire & Missa a note negre (2013) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Missa Doulce mémoire: I. Kyrie
02. Missa Doulce mémoire: II. Gloria
03. Missa Doulce mémoire: III. Credo
04. Missa Doulce mémoire: IV. Sanctus & Benedictus
05. Missa Doulce mémoire: V. Agnus Dei
06. O altitudo divitiarum
07. Fratres, Scitote
08. Illuxit nunc sacra dies
09. Missa a note negre: I. Kyrie
10. Missa a note negre: II. Gloria
11. Missa a note negre: III. Credo
12. Missa a note negre: IV. Sanctus & Benedictus
13. Missa a note negre: V. Agnus Dei

The Brabant Ensemble continue their investigation into unknown jewels of the Low Countries Renaissance, researched by their director Stephen Rice and recorded with equal amounts of passion and erudition by the young singers of the group.

Cipriano de Rore was and is principally known as a madrigal composer, and, as Stephen Rice writes, ‘blended the contrapuntal complexity of Low Countries polyphonic style with Italian poetic texts to create a newly expressive vernacular genre’. This recording represents something of a new departure in presenting some of the least well-known aspects of the output of a composer who is justly famous in other fields.

The album contains two Mass settings based on French chansons, Missa a note negre on a composition by Rore himself, and Missa Doulce mémoire, which takes one of the sixteenth century’s greatest hits, by Pierre Regnault dit Sandrin (c1490–after 1560) as its inspiration. Also included are three motets. Fratres: Scitote is apparently a unique instance of composition to its text: St Paul here tells the story of the Last Supper, in which Jesus takes bread, blesses and distributes it, and thereby institutes the ritual of Holy Communion.

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