Our programs and sources

Every source we work with can be found in high-resolution digital facsimile. Below you can find the program books and core sources for our concerts, with links to the digital images.

“Notes of the Finest Songs”: Motets from the Liber selectarum cantionum of 1520 (2019, 2021)

Core source: Liber selectarum cantionum, compiled and edited by Ludwig Senfl (Augsburg: Grimm & Wirsung, 1520); performed from the exemplar held at Munich, Bavarian State Library, 2 Mus.pr. 19

The Liber selectarum cantionum of 1520 represents one of the greatest achievements in typographic printed books, full stop. This folio book (on “imperiale”-sized paper) was dedicated to Archbishop Matthäus Lang of Salzburg; in some copies, the full-page frontispiece featuring Lang’s coat of arms was printed with a seven-color (i.e., seven-impression) woodcut, including gold leaf (see the Regensburg exemplar, linked below)—the most complex color woodcut that would be produced in Germany until the nineteenth century. The book was also printed using newly-struck, large-size music type that was apparently never used after this one-off project. Edited and compiled by Ludwig Senfl, of the imperial court and, soon after the publication of the Liber, the Bavarian court chapel in Munich, the magnificence of the book, its repertoire, and other details of its production have led to the supposition that the intended dedicatee was Emperor Maximilian Habsburg, who died unexpectedly while the book was presumably already in production. Around 20 copies survive, making the Liber the most widely-preserved of any single printed book from the period by far. The spectacle that is the material object of the Liber is surpassed only by the quality of its contents, featuring some of the greatest motets by Josquin des Prez, Henricus Isaac, and their contemporaries—alongside contributions by the younger Senfl.

Peruse our repertoire:

• Josquin des Prez: Praeter rerum seriem fol. 13v

• Henricus Isaac: Virgo prudentissima fol. 22v

• Josquin: Benedicta es celorum regina fol. 59v

• Ludwig Senfl: Sancte pater divumque decus fol. 84v

• Josquin: Inviolata integra et casta es Maria fol. 121v

• Jacob Hobrecht: Salve crux arbor vitae fol. 128v

• Jean Mouton(?): Missus est Gabriel angelus fol. 165v

• Isaac: Ave sanctissima Maria fol. 203v

• Isaac: O Maria mater Christi fol. 233v

• Senfl: Salve sancta parens (riddle canon) fol. 272r

Clangat plebs: The Five-voice motet around 1500 (2018)

Core source: Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Manuscript Chig. C.VIII.234, "The Chigi Codex"

This manuscript was copied in the Low Countries, ca. 1504-5, and was owned for a time by the French courtier of the Burgundian court Philippe Bouton. It is one of the most important collections of polyphony from the 15th century; it remains the sole source for the bulk of the music by Johannes Okeghem, one of the century's greatest composers. Unfortunately, its beautifully decorated parchment leaves belie the often subpar quality of its musical readings, making it a challenging source from which to sing! The manuscript was likely a repository, better suited for perusal than the everyday business of chapel music-making.

Peruse our repertoire:

• Johannes Okeghem Intemerata Dei mater: fol. 276v

• Johannes Regis Clangat plebs: fol. 281v

• Regis Lux solempnis: fol. 257v

• Regis O admirabile commercium: fol. 269v

• Gaspar van Weerbeke Stabat mater: fol. 245v