Palestrina Volume 6

   in Early Music Today (Sep, 2015)
In the 15th and 16th centuries it was a common practice for choral composers to write sacred works based on secular melodies. ‘L’Homme arme’ was a popular French song of the early 1400s that found its way into many mass settings, not least those of Josquin, Morales and Tinctoris. Palestrina was merely following in the footsteps of his illustrious forbears when he wrote his masses on the theme that were published in 1570 and 1582. The melody appears in every part of the mass, either in an immediately recognizable form or elongated in a cantus firmus.

We’re now on the sixth disc of Harry Christophers and the Sixteen’s survey of Palestrina’s …