Spain's King Charles V, who was reportedly the first monarch to be styled "His Majesty," makes an ideal subject around which to organize a program of Renaissance music -- examining the way music would have been used during his reign throws a good deal of light on the entire musical culture of the Renaissance. A Fleming from Ghent by birth, Charles was also Holy Roman Emperor. He lived from 1500 to 1558. The music that surrounded him was necessarily international, and it was his influence, along with the desire of monied ...
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Spain's King Charles V, who was reportedly the first monarch to be styled "His Majesty," makes an ideal subject around which to organize a program of Renaissance music -- examining the way music would have been used during his reign throws a good deal of light on the entire musical culture of the Renaissance. A Fleming from Ghent by birth, Charles was also Holy Roman Emperor. He lived from 1500 to 1558. The music that surrounded him was necessarily international, and it was his influence, along with the desire of monied Italians for northern music, that forged European music's first transnational style. Carlos had cohorts of Netherlandish and Spanish musicians at his beck and call, and the events of his life -- his assumption of the Spanish throne, his marriage to Isabella of Portugal, his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor, his leadership of imperial troops into battle against the Protestant princes of the North -- all would have been marked by music from Europe's top composers. This album by Germany's...
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