Books

Anthology of Renaissance Music by Allan W. Atlas (Editor)
Paperback - 550 pages (March 1998) - W W Norton & Co
ISBN: 0393971708

A treasury of music scores featuring the most important and best-known works of the era. Allan Atlas has gathered into one handy volume the scores of over one hundred pieces. Used in conjunction with Renaissance Music (see below) or on its own, Anthology of Renaissance Music exposes music lovers to the finest examples of Renaissance composition. Each selection in the anthology--either a complete piece or an entire movement from a longer original--is discussed in Atlas's Renaissance Music.

Renaissance Music : Music in Western Europe, 1400-1600 by Allan W. Atlas
(Norton Introduction to Music History)
Hardcover - 600 pages 1 edition (March 1998) - W W Norton & Co
ISBN: 0393971694

Music in the Age of the Renaissance by Leeman L. Perkins
Hardcover - 750 pages (April 1999) - W.W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393046087

Music in the Age of the Renaissance presents a richly detailed portrait of the music and surrounding culture in one of history's most creative eras. Leeman Perkins, a leading Renaissance music scholar, brings to life the musical styles and genres that mark this humanistic period of artistic and scientific revolution. The discussion of the music, leading us from early-Renaissance England to all the regions of Western Europe, proceeds chiefly by genre. Thus, for the fifteenth century, we take up the French chanson, the motet, polyphonic settings for the Mass and liturgical offices, Italian secular and sacred music, and the contributions of Germany and Spain. Many of the same topics are elaborated in the study of sixteenth-century music, to which are added the Italian and English madrigal, music of the Protestant Reformation, and instrumental music.

Recordings

Guillaume Dufay: Missa 'Se La Face Ay Pale', Chansons, etc
Alejandro Planchart with the Capella Cordina
2 Audio CDs - Lyrichord - #8013

Considered to be the first Parody Mass. The two CDs also include the Missa Sancti Jacobi and a handful of Dufay's chansons

Guillaume Dufay: Complete Secular Music
Medieval Ensemble of London
5 Audio CDs - Pgd/L'Oiseau-Lyre - #452557

Medieval or Renaissance? I call it Burgundian! Unbelievably beautiful music!

Clément Janequin: Les Cris de Paris
Clément Janequin Ensemble
Audio CD - Harmonia Mundi - #7901072

Several of Janequin's chansons, including the Chanson Descriptive 'La Bataille.' There are also chansons by Claudin de Sermisy and Francesco da Milano

Beyond Chant: Mysteries of the Renaissance
Dennis Keene, Voices of Ascension
Audio CD - Delos - #3165

Beautiful! If you buy only one CD of Renaissance sacred music, this should be it!

French Chansons
The Scholars of London Audio CD - Naxos - #550880

Inexpensive collection of 27 different Renaissance Chansons. The play list looks a little like the top-10 countdown of popular tunes from the 16th century.

Pathways of Renaissance Music
5 Audio CDs - Harmonia Mundi - #2908016

EXCELLENT Collection of lots of Renaissance music. The best single place to start your collection. Good notes and lyrics in French and English.

• CD1 - La Renaissance de la Messe
• CD2 - L'Apogée du Motet
• CD3 - La Musique Instrumentale
• CD4 - Le Temps de la Chanson polyphonique
• CD5 - L'Age d'or du Madrigal