La naissance de la Polyphonie is a handy collection found in Harmonia Mundi's Century Series as Volume 5; it covers the rise of polyphonic music from its humble origins in eleventh century Aquitanian neumes through fragmentary thirteenth and fourteenth century English sources utilized by Anonymous 4 to construct the English Ladymass of 1991. This is a surprisingly narrow scope, given that manuscripts -- at least through the thirteenth century -- of polyphonic music are relatively few in this period and are dwarfed by the ...
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La naissance de la Polyphonie is a handy collection found in Harmonia Mundi's Century Series as Volume 5; it covers the rise of polyphonic music from its humble origins in eleventh century Aquitanian neumes through fragmentary thirteenth and fourteenth century English sources utilized by Anonymous 4 to construct the English Ladymass of 1991. This is a surprisingly narrow scope, given that manuscripts -- at least through the thirteenth century -- of polyphonic music are relatively few in this period and are dwarfed by the rich range of contemporary sources extant for monophonic music. This disc progresses from a point two centuries behind the earliest Organum appears in the treatise Musica enchiriadis and ends just short of the advent of Guilluame Machaut; the only motets performed here come from the Montpelier Codex, the oldest and most comprehensive source for the earliest motets. As one might expect, with the reins on this repertoire drawn so tightly, passages of plainchant remain abundant throughout...
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