Pierre de la Rue, an almost exact contemporary of Josquin des Prez, has never been as popular as his Flemish countryman. There are various reasons for this, most notably the fact that Josquin's structural ingenuity mostly lay on the surface while La Rue's were often more arcane. Nevertheless, the music of La Rue, whose favored form was the mass Ordinary, was widely copied and even printed in his own time, and strong performances of his music, like the ones offered here, cannot help but increase the listener's understanding ...
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Pierre de la Rue, an almost exact contemporary of Josquin des Prez, has never been as popular as his Flemish countryman. There are various reasons for this, most notably the fact that Josquin's structural ingenuity mostly lay on the surface while La Rue's were often more arcane. Nevertheless, the music of La Rue, whose favored form was the mass Ordinary, was widely copied and even printed in his own time, and strong performances of his music, like the ones offered here, cannot help but increase the listener's understanding of music around 1500. England's Brabant Ensemble under Stephen Rice specializes in this repertory, and although the small group of mixed-gender adults is not historically authentic, the expressive style connects with the music. It turns out that although some devices in these masses (and Salve Regina) are hidden, others are positively attention-grabbing. La Rue favors what would later be called chains of motives or chains of suspensions in vigorous polyphonic passages, set against...
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