Renaissance
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The figure of John the Baptist was, perhaps, a potential embarrassment to the early Christians: why would Jesus have implied subordination to the proclamation of another? Why would He seek baptism for repentance? And yet, all four Gospels mention him, and imply approbation. Nevertheless, and increasingly with the passage of time (if one accepts the Read more
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In 1631 a Franciscan priest in the ‘Viceroyalty of Peru’ published a liturgical manual setting out Catholic rituals explained in both Spanish and the indigenous language of the area he was working in, Quechua. This book includes what is generally considered to be the earliest work of vocal polyphonic music printed in the New World, Read more
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There is a popular myth – no less mythical for its popularity – that Palestrina composed his Missa Papae Marcelli to address concerns that polyphonic music obscured the import of religious texts, thereby ‘saving’ artistic music in Catholic liturgy after the Catholic Reformation associated principally with the council of Trent. Hans Pfitzner’s operatic retelling of Read more
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It has been said that the first printed book of music dedicated to works by a single composer was a 1502 publication by Petrucci containing five settings of the ordinary of the Mass by Josquin des Prez. By the time they were composed (though the actual date of composition is difficult to pinpoint) the tradition Read more
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Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium may be considered among the most famous motets of its period, if only because people know that it is written in forty independent parts. Strictly, it is written for eight choirs of five voices each. Its origin is, in fact, somewhat contested: it is often dated to c.1570, though the Read more
Theology in Music 