This is an innovative release in several respects. First is the presence of the Yale Schola Cantorum, one of the few American choirs to crack the British scene in a big way. They sound fabulous here in the spacious textures of the Palestrina motets heard here. Second and more important is the music itself. Palestrina, as a representative of the bad old Counter Reformation, was out of vogue for some time, but new performances of little-known works are stimulating interest and revising the prevailing picture of his ...
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This is an innovative release in several respects. First is the presence of the Yale Schola Cantorum, one of the few American choirs to crack the British scene in a big way. They sound fabulous here in the spacious textures of the Palestrina motets heard here. Second and more important is the music itself. Palestrina, as a representative of the bad old Counter Reformation, was out of vogue for some time, but new performances of little-known works are stimulating interest and revising the prevailing picture of his compositional stance. He was, it can now be seen, a conservative in some ways (he did not truck in chromatic madrigalisms), but an innovator in others. The Missa Confitebor tibi Domine exemplifies the innovation. Although such a texture was not really suited to the Sistine Chapel, where Palestrina worked (the choir had its own single loft), the mass was written in the emerging cori spezzati style, with a double choir; Palestrina apparently had publication in mind and realized that this new...
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