Busnois & Domarto - Masses - A Kirkman, cond; Binchois Consort (2001) [Philidor; FLAC]

Antoine Busnois was one of the most important composers of the second half of the 15th century ACE, a writer and composer whose work traveled via manuscript throughout Europe. Much of his music is lost, though what remains of it confirms the extremely high opinion formed by his contemporaries of both his sacred works and chansons. His idiom, founded on the Burgundian School of the late part of the 14th century, still retained several of its extremely complex features, but unified behind specific goals rather than as a general attempt to be as recondite as possible.

By contrast, Petrus de Domarto's sacred music has a much lower harmonic and thematic profile than just about anything by Busnois. With Busnois, you're drawn in; with Domarto, you have to move towards the music to make it work for you. It is difficult music to grasp at first, but probably represents a more average level of skill for that period, where counterpoint remained the most distinguishing feature of the Western sacred tradition.


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Bio, essay, full texts and translations enclosed. You can find all my classical uploads by searching on Philidor, or just looking in this regularly updated thread:

https://kat.cr/community/show/philidor-s-classical-stuff/