The cover blurb for this release by the Cleveland, OH, early music ensemble Ciaramella quotes a critic who praises the musicians for their ability to play "with the ease of jazz musicians improvising on a theme." The comment is especially apt for this disc of German Renaissance music, commercially speaking the poor stepchild of the era compared with English, Italian, and even French music. For the German Renaissance world was full of individual musicians and ensembles who elaborated on preexisting models, much as a jazz ...
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The cover blurb for this release by the Cleveland, OH, early music ensemble Ciaramella quotes a critic who praises the musicians for their ability to play "with the ease of jazz musicians improvising on a theme." The comment is especially apt for this disc of German Renaissance music, commercially speaking the poor stepchild of the era compared with English, Italian, and even French music. For the German Renaissance world was full of individual musicians and ensembles who elaborated on preexisting models, much as a jazz musician would. The music they made is only incompletely preserved in manuscripts of the era. Such anthologies as the Buxheim Organ Book and various instrumental ensemble collections are full of imaginative instrumental treatments of tunes imported from somewhere else, and this disc (of essentially scholarly origin, but not a bit less musical for it) gives a good idea of what went on. Give a listen to the three different versions of Dufay's chanson Se la face ay pale (If my face is...
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