The vocal quintet Cinquecento has recorded the music of Jacob Regnart (ca. 1540-1599) in the past, and they return here with a set of exceptionally strong compositions from this contemporary of Lassus, who recommended Regnart for work in the Habsburg empire. This composer is rather neglected, and even those who don't favor Cinquecento's one-voice-per-part approach may wish to check this out. Regnart, like Lassus, was a Fleming who traveled to southern Europe and wrote a variety of music similar to that found in Lassus, ...
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The vocal quintet Cinquecento has recorded the music of Jacob Regnart (ca. 1540-1599) in the past, and they return here with a set of exceptionally strong compositions from this contemporary of Lassus, who recommended Regnart for work in the Habsburg empire. This composer is rather neglected, and even those who don't favor Cinquecento's one-voice-per-part approach may wish to check this out. Regnart, like Lassus, was a Fleming who traveled to southern Europe and wrote a variety of music similar to that found in Lassus, including not only sacred music but secular pieces in Italian and German. He was no clone of Lassus, though, and his imagination perhaps flourished especially well in the mass, not a specialty of Lassus. The two masses on the program here, with some lovely motets as an intermezzo, are both based on monophonic German hymns. They seem not especially well suited to polyphonic treatment, but Regnart manages to weave them into his texture in multiple ways, often quite cleverly. The tunes are...
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