Millennium of Music

All of the music on this program is from ensembles participating in New York Early Music's celebration of early Polish music, which will be taking place from October 4 - 20, 2013.

The superb Brabant Ensemble gives us the grand (and rarely-recorded) Palestrina Mass Ad coenam agni providi.

NOTE: All of the music on these programs are from discs produced by the Choir of the Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes.

For the 27th anniversary program of Millennium, we will return to how it began, with chant for Eastertide. And, happily, the same group with whom we initiated the program, the Choir of the Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, are now releasing self-produced discs!

NOTE: All of the music on this program comes from the recording Missa Dum complerentur and other music for Whitsuntide featuring the Westminster Cathedral Choir directed by Martin Baker.

With the current interest in the story of Christ's Passion rekindled by the recent popular film, we examined over three weeks how the story was told during the first twelve centuries of Christianity.

With the current interest in the story of Christ's Passion rekindled by the recent popular film, we examined over three weeks how the story was told during the first twelve centuries of Christianity.

With the current interest in the story of Christ's Passion
rekindled by the recent popular film, we examined over three weeks how the story was told during the first twelve centuries of Christianity.

The first Millennium of Music program was Easter 1979, and the program began regular broadcasts Easter 1980 (its ancestor, Musica Antiqua, began in 1975). We celebrate our birthday quietly, as always, and in the Middle Ages, with groups close to our heart: Schola Hungarica, Anonymous 4, and (of recent fame for the Croatian music), Dialogos.

We continue the series with The Cardinall's Musick directed by our guest, Andrew Carwood with the recording The BYRD Edition 6: Music for Holy Week and Easter.

For the 22nd anniversary of Millennium of Music, we present Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips with Nicholas Gombert’s Magnificat settings.

In time for Easter (and our 21st anniversary of the program) the new recording by the Ensemble Officium dedicated to Passion and Pentecost music of Switzerland's greatest composer, Ludwig Senfl.

NOTE: Frequent guest commentator Fr. Jerome Weber of Fanfare Magazine joins us to discuss the publication of the volume Western Plainchant: A Handbook by David Hiley from Oxford University Press. Many recordings were used to illustrate aspects both of chant and this excellent text, many from Fr. Weber’s personal collection.

NOTE: Frequent guest commentator Fr. Jerome Weber of Fanfare Magazine joins us to discuss music for the Feast of the Pentecost.

NOTE: Our special guest for this program is Martin Goldsmith, host of NPR’s Performance Today.

From the Reformation and the counter-Reformation into the early Baroque era, the music that celebrated Easter became larger and grander. This week we sample the antiphonal glory of Venice, as well as the simpler vernacular Lutheran chorales that marked the Easter feast from the end of the 16th into the beginning of the 17th centuries.

The play of the Three Marys, music from the vièlle, and an amazing look at music from Medieval Denmark.

The Danish composer and conductor has a great range of interests; happily early music is one. His latest CDs with his ensemble Music Ficta feature music of Gesualdo and the Lassus St. Matthew Passion.

The masterful conductor of the Choir of Westminster Abbey takes us through some of his recent recordings of music from the Elizabethan era. All recordings feature The Choir of Westminster Abbey conducted by James O’Donnell.

We are just back from a journey to London where we spent time with Musical Director Graham Ross, who shares his teaching philosophy and the great new recording of music for Corpus Christi, including Josquin’s masterful Missa Pange lingua.

Easter marks the 38th anniversary of the program, and we return to our roots—chant and early medieval sacred music.

Lute repertoire inspired by Martin Luther; the Dresden Passion; and haunting music of the Thirty Years’ War.

Music from Shakespeare’s time featuring the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, the ensemble Ora, and The Sixteen.

The ensemble Contrpunctus begins a series of recordings featuring great Latin Tudor works compiled by John Baldwin in the late 1570s at the St. George’s Chapel in Windsor.

Holy Week chant from both the Eastern and Western traditions, and a rare Passion from late 16th century Germany.

Holy Week lessons from Couperin, a rare Requiem from Sicily, and music for The Man in the Iron Mask.

On this, the 35th anniversary of our first program, we continue with recent recording of music for the season, including works by Guerrero, Mouton, and Hieronymous Praetorius.

Recent release of pieces for Passiontide including works by Lassus, Victoria, Gesualdo, and Jacques Arcadelt..

This year Pentecost falls on the 19th, and we will again celebrate with a chant program, including new releases from The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles and Gloria Dei Cantores.

This program began on Easter in 1979—this week, the young performers of Stile Antico and their recent release dedicated to Holy Week & Easter.

Continuing with new discoveries appropriate for the Holy season, the Vocal Consort of Berlin gives us the almost-unknown sacred settings of Gesualdo in time for the 400th anniversary of the composer's death.

For our 34th anniversary on this date, we continue as we began, with Gregorian chant appropriate for Eastertide.

Our Easter program looks at the inspiration for Tallis' famous 40 voice motet, a huge work by the Italian composer Alessandro Striggio, in a new recording by I Fagiolini.

As we enter the 30th anniversary season of Millennium of Music, we share the great Holy Week writings of Lassus.

Early Norwegian church psalm settings for Holy Week performed by the Oslo Cathedral Choir conducted by Terje Kvam. The Lutheran tradition is reflected in works from the Danish-Norwegian poets (Kingo, Dass, Brorson) whose hymnals defined the 16th and 17th century church style.

If the work that was done in the courts of Pepin II and his son Charlemagne was a vast editorial process collecting chant from different churches, one thriving musical style was in the neighborhood chapel—this week, we hear the liturgy of the Gauls.

Metz was the capital city of the Frankish kingdom, and the ancestor of the Carolingians was St. Arnulf, who became Bishop there after the death of his wife, and whose son married the daughter of Pepin I. It was the firs place Roman cantors taught Frankish cantors, and we hear an extremely rare reconstruction of this early liturgy (what we call "Gregorian Chant" was perhaps first called "Messine," from Metz).

Because of its centrality and continuity, the early liturgy of the Roman Christians is perhaps the earliest we can reconstruct—we'll hear some examples.

All of the music on this program is from the recording made by the Choir of the Monks of Chevetogne directed by Fr. Thomas Pott. You may reach the Abbey at their web site: www.monasterechevetogne.com

All of the music on this program is from the recording made by the Choir of the Monks of Chevetogne directed by Fr. Thomas Pott. You may reach the Abbey at their web site: www.monasterechevetogne.com

Responsories represent some of the most moving material in the Mass. Fr. Jerome Weber, Early Music critic for Fanfare Magazine, guides us through some familiar and obscure examples from Easter to Christmas.

November marks the 350th anniversary of the death of the great German composer; we are once again joined by Fr. Jerome Weber. This week, more Passion settings and the great Requiem

Two recent releases feature the choir of Notre Dame, creating music associated with the great cathedral since the fire; plus late medieval chant from Limoges and Northern European capitals.

Jacobus Clemens non Papa, Manfred Barbarini Lupus working at St. Gall, and from the Baldwin Partbooks, William and John Mundy.

The ensemble Cinquecento was formed with a speciality: composers working in the Hapsburg courts of the sixteenth century. Their latest gives us another of the fine northern French composer who worked in Prague, Vienna, and Innsbruck.

This week, Peter Phillips returns with works by Jean Mouton, more John Taverner, and Josquin once again.

A rare Mass by Heinrich Isaac, Sacred Treasures of Spain, and music for the King of Scots: Inside the Pleasure Palace of James IV.

In early spring of 1963, John Elliot Gardiner’s mother created an Easter play for their small church in Dorset; for the 55th anniversary, it was recreated for a special recording project we hear this week.

The director of the Ora Singers returns to share music from the Passion and into Easter; part 2 takes us from Good Friday to Easter day itself.

A new recording of the huge Tenebrae settings (in a three-CD set).

Views of the L’homme armé, rarely-recorded sacred works, and arrangements of Marian motets for lute.

Music for the Mayflower, ayres of Henry Lawes, and “In Chains of Gold” Volume 2 with the Magdalena Consort, Fretwork, and His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts.

The superb West Coast ensemble gives us music of Renaissance Crete and Cyprus, plus music as it would have been heard in the Hagia Sophia.

Motets from Saxony in 1603, music from the Thirty Years War, and Le Petite Bande performing Heinrich Schutz.

Motets of Melchior Vulpius, sacred concertos of Rosenmuller, and rare choral cantatas by Johann Samuel Welter.

The longest-serving conductor of this world-famous ensemble looks back on his work, and the service King's College has done for early music.

NOTE: All of the music on this program is features the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and our guest Stephen Cleobury. For more information: http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/choir/index.html

This recent release by the ensemble Vox Luminis helps remind us of the neglected 17th century German composer, with sacred works for Passiontide.

The early Italian 17th century with Jakob Jozef Orlinski, a Roman Vespers by Pietro Paolo Bencini, and the new release by Andreas Scholl with the Accademia Bizantina.

We continue our series dedicated Monteverdi’s teacher Marc-Antonio Ingegneri and his long-neglected sacred settings with the Choir of Girton College, Cambridge and their director, Gareth Wilson.

The latest from the London Oratory Schola Cantorum gives us familiar figures from Venice (the Gabrielis, Monteverdi) as well as the less-often heard works of Giovanni Croce and Giacomo Finetti.

The recently-formed Ghent-based ensemble Dionysos Now! has taken on another in one of those remarkable projects: the complete sacred music of Adrian Willaert. Volume 4 includes the St. John Passion.

Two recent releases we have featured earlier this year have extensive seasonal works we've saved for the holidays: world-premiere recordings from Isaac’s Choralis Constantinus, and extensive 13 part motet by Johann Rosenmuller.

The huge collection of motets by Heinrich Isaac (more than 375 works!) were a compendium of appropriate pieces for the entire church year; the new release on the Carus label features many first-time recorded examples.

The famous sub-label under the Musical Heritage Society has been revived with some lost rarities. This week: “John Dunstable: Sacred and Secular Music" with the Ambrosian Singers, and “Henry Purcell: The 12 Sonatas in Three Parts."