Christmas in the Renaissance, 1300s to 1600s: Recordings

 

Christmas in the Renaissance

A Working List of Recordings

Complied by R. Rojas

2024

#8 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums chart, Week of Dec. 17

A celebration of the Christmas season, from Advent through the New Year, in music from the courts of 15th-century France and Burgundy. Music by Guillaume Du Fay, Johannes Regis, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin Desprez, Antoine Brumel, Adrian Willaert, and others.

1. O clavis David
2. Factor orbis
3. O virgo virginum 01:11
4. O virgo virginum 06:39
5. Conditor alme siderum 03:19
6. Ave Maria gratia dei plena 01:54
7. O admirabile commercium / Verbum caro factum est 07:58
8. Letabundus 05:37
9. Gloria Spiritus et alme 
10. Nato canunt omnia 
11. La plus belle et doulce figure 03:50
12.Dieu vous doinst bon jour et demy 02:37
13. Auxce bon youre delabonestren 01:29
14. Amours servir et honnourer 02:51
15. Dame excellent ou sont bonté, scavoir 04:27
16. Ce jour de l’an qui maint doist estrenier 03:50

https://blueheron.bandcamp.com/album/christmas-new-year-s-in-15th-century-france-burgundy

2025

New York-based early music ensemble Concordian Dawn presents Veni Redemptor Gentium, a joyful and introspective celebration of the Christmas season centred around songs from the 13th – 15th centuries, plus two world-premiere recordings of works by Australian-born composer David Yardley.

1. This Holy Tym Oure Lord Was Born
Kennedy, Hedberg (voice and percussion), Karageorgiou, Thompson (voice and percussion), McCargar (voice and percussion), Mor (recorder and percussion), Seligmann (vielle)

2. Isaiah and Sybil’s Prophecies
McCargar (voice), Thompson (harp), Mor (ney), Seligmann (vielle), Evans, Karageorgiou

3. Gabriel fram Heven King
Karageorgiou, Thompson (voice), McCargar (voice)

4. Veni, redemptor gentium
Kennedy, Hedberg (voice), Thompson (voice), McCargar (voice)

5. Kuando el rey Nimrod
Mor (voice and percussion), Seligmann (vielle), Hedberg (voice and percussion), Thompson (voice and percussion), McCargar (percussion)

6. Alma redemptoris mater
McCargar (voice)

7. Ave, regina caelorum/Alma redemptoris mater
Evans, Hedberg (voice), Mor (recorder), Thompson (harp)

8. Orientis partibus
Mor (recorder), Seligmann (vielle), Thompson (harp), McCargar (percussion)

9. Alle psallite cum luya
Karageorgiou, Thompson (voice), McCargar (voice), Seligmann (percussion), Mor (percussion)

10. Psallite regi glorie: Thompson (voice and harp)

11. Hail Mary, full of grace
Karageorgiou, Thompson (voice), McCargar (voice)

12. Personent Hodie
Seligmann (vielle), Thompson (harp), Mor (percussion)

13. Beata viscera
Kennedy (voice), Seligmann (vielle)

14. Vox Clamantis in Deserto
Evans, Hedberg (voice), Thompson (voice), McCargar (voice), Seligmann (vielle)

15. Dum medium silentium
McCargar (voice), Karageorgiou, Thompson (voice)

16. Magnificat
Evans, Thompson (voice), McCargar (voice)

17. Now make we mirthe all and sum
Evans, Karageorgiou

18. Quem pastores laudavere
Mor (recorder), Seligmann (vielle), Thompson (harp), McCargar (percussion)

19. Verbum caro factum est
Evans, Hedberg (voice), Thompson (voice)

20. Ther is no rose of swych vertu
Kennedy, Hedberg (voice), Karageorgiou (voice), Mor (recorder), Seligmann (vielle), Thompson (harp)

21. In Adventu Domini
Karageorgiou, Thompson (voice), McCargar (voice)

22. Be mery, be mery
Evans, Hedberg (voice), Karageorgiou, Mor (recorder), Seligmann (vielle), Thompson (harp)

https://www.avie-records.com/releases/veni-redemptor-gentium/

Apollo Ensemble releases "Weihnachten in the 17th Century"

Weihnachten in the 17th century

German Christmas Music

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
1) Nun komm der Heiden Heiland
Matthias Weckmann (1616-1674)
2) Dialogus: Gegrüsset seist du, Holdselige
Vincent Lübeck (1654-1740)
3) Wilkommen, süsser Bräutigam
Christoph Bernard (1628-1692)
4) Fürchtet euch nicht
Michael Praetorius
5) Von Himmel hoch da komm ich her
Heinrich Schmelzer (c1620-1680)
6) Venite ocius! transeamusad Bethlehem
Dietrich Buxtehude 1637-1707)
7) Salve Jesu, patris gnate BuxWV 94
8) Herr nun lässt du deinen Diener BuxWV 37
9) In dulci jubilo BuxWV 52

Apollo Ensemble
Agnes van Laar, Janneke Stoute soprano
Michiel Meijer bass
David Rabinovich, Daphne Oltheten violin
Robert de Bree, Emma Huijsser recorder
Annemarie Kosten-Dür, Agnieszka Papierska viola
Cassandra Luckhardt viola da gamba
Thomas Oltheten dulcian
Marion Boshuizen organ

https://apollo-ensemble.nl/recording/weihnachtenin-the-17th-century/

2023

 

Jacques Arcadelt's Missa Noe Noe presented in Ridercar Recording by Capella Mediterranea

Editor's Note: We missed this one. This was released in 2023. Description below is the label's own.

Given that not one of the Masses by Jacques Arcadelt was included in our boxed set that revealed his immense musical personality to the world, we now remedy this situation with an indispensable addition. 

Leonardo Garcia Alarcon chose the Missa Noe Noe, which is presented here in the context of the Christmas liturgy. We have also included motets not only by Arcadelt but also by Josquin Desprez, as he was the great model for musicians of his generation. 

The recording ends resoundingly with Josquin’s imposing "Benedicta es coelorum regina" for six voices, although in an expanded version for twelve voices by Jean Guyot de Châtelet (1512 – 1588): another Walloon composer to be discovered!


https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/arcadelt-missa-noe-noe

2021

 

New Recording off Signum Classics by Helen Charlston focuses on Elizabethan Christmas

 

A new recording off Signum Classics focuses on Christmas in Elizabethan times. By mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and viol consort Fretwork, it was released in July 2021.

 

 

The recording includes pieces by  William Byrd, Anthony Holbourne, Orlando Gibbons, and Martin Peerson.

Signum Classics description is as follows:

With celebrations confined strictly to the 12 days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the preceding Advent was regarded as a time of religious introspection, with music composed to mark both fasting and feasting. Byrd’s consort songs for voice and 5 viols encompass this range, from the joyous Out of the Orient Crystal Skies – ending with an exuberant ‘Falantidingdido’, a word whose meaning is lost to history – to his Lullaby, a ‘song of sadnes and pietie’ that became one of Byrd’s most enduringly famous songs.

In 2021, Fretwork celebrates its 35th anniversary. In the past three and a half decades they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged. In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works.

Acclaimed for her musical interpretation, presence and “warmly distinctive tone” (The Telegraph), Helen Charlston is quickly cementing herself as a key performer in the next generation of British singers. Helen won first prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition and was a finalist in the Hurn Court Opera Competition, and the Grange Festival International Singing Competition.

From Signum Classic webpage: 

https://signumrecords.com/product/an-elizabethan-christmas/SIGCD680/ 

2020

On the present recording the Peñalosa Ensemble brings together works by the two composers whose sacred music forms the chronological frame of the Golden Age of Iberian vocal music: its namesake, the Spanish Renaissance composer Francisco de Peñalosa (motets, Magnificat), and Tomás Luis de Victoria (Missa, motets). 

If Peñalosa may be said to belong to the first generation of composers who assimilated the Franco-Flemish style of Josquin Desprez, then Victoria's death in 1611 symbolically closed the Iberian Renaissance through the adoption of Italian influences from the Age of Mannerism. 

The unique, highly emotional manifestation of Iberian Marian piety also influenced both composers - just as it also left its imprint on the visual arts in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Compositions by Tomás Luis de Victoria not only experienced successful, rapid, and continuous dissemination over the whole of Europe owing to what was beyond any doubt their sublime quality but also received additional impetus from printed editions of music - so that his music was interpreted without interruption until the nineteenth century and was elevated to the status of a symbol standing for an entire musical epoch. Label: CPO.

2022

Following its digital debut on Linn presenting a triptych of works by Josquin des Prez, Vicente Lusitano and Roderick Williams, The Marian Consort now focuses it's attention on the central figure of this trio, the 'Portuguese'. In his own time an important music theorist, Lusitano's reputation and music have both been neglected in ours. 

As so often with musical figures of the Renaissance, many of the details of his life remain unknown. We can, however, be reasonably confident that he was the first published composer of African heritage. Referred to as 'pardo' in one eighteenth-century source, his only surviving printed book of compositions, the Liber primus epigramatum, was issued in Rome in 1551. 

True to its pioneer spirit as 'brilliant discoverers, and exponents, of rare repertoire' (The Observer), The Marian Consort has recorded a carefully chosen program of these striking and impressive unjustly forgotten works. Lable: Linn Records.

2018

 

Following The Sixteens hugely successful album, Song of the Nativity, which featured Christmas music from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, this new seasonal offering explores a stunning selection of festive works from the Renaissance. 

The Sixteen captures the joy and sincerity of the most wonderful of seasons, from the joyous simplicity of plainsong chants "Resonemus laudibus" and "Veni, veni Emmanuel" to the shining purity of Lassus polyphonic "Videntes stellam Magi" and Byrds jubilant "This day Christ was born." 

This album provides a perfect alternative to traditional carols for those looking for something a little different at Christmas. 

The Sixteen gives a masterclass in the art of unaccompanied singing, and in close emotional engagement with the pieces chosen It puts the music front and centre, in this beautifully realized Christmas sequence. (BBC Music Magazine)  

Label: Cora

2004

Imagine yourself in the fine surroundings of the Great Hall of Christ Church, with a programme of Tudor sacred and secular music including music by Henry VIII, one of Christ Church's founders, and choral works by Taverner and others associated with Christ Church during it's first century.

1 Pastime with Good Company
2 Coventry Carol
3 Rorate Coeli
4 Consort No. 3
5 Christe Jesu, Pastor Bone
6 Consort No. 3
7 This Is the Record of John
8 Ave Maria
9 Remember, O Thou Man
10 Consort No. 12
11 While Shepherds Watched
12 From Virgin Pure This Day Did Spring
13 Consort No. 2
14 Laudate Nomen
15 O Nata Lux
16 Magnificat a 4
17 Sweet Was the Song the Virgin Sung
18 Quid Petis O Fili
19 Consort No. 13
20 Hosanna to the Son of David

Gift of Music

1997

The end of the 15th century in Spain saw a consolidation of power and a resulting political stability. The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille brought about a union of these two kingdoms in 1479. Granada, the last Muslim stronghold, was conquered in 1492, the same year in which Columbus set out on a voyage of discovery which took him to what would later be known as the Americas. 

Thus, the Spanish Renaissance, the Siglo de Oro ("Golden Age"), and the period from which the pieces on this recording are taken, began with Spain at the height of political and military strength.

—Felix Cox
From "Villancicos de diversos autores" Venice, 1556 - Anonymous
1. Verbum caro factum est 1:09
2. No la deuemos dormir 1:16
3. Alta Reyna soberana 1:44
4. Yo me soy la morenica 1:47
5. Señores, el qu’es nascido 1:51
6. Riu, riu chiu 2:57
7. Dadme al bricias 1:22
From "Canciones y villanescas espirituales" Venice 1589 - Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599)
8. Oyd, oyd una cosa 2:03
9. Vamos al portal 3:24
10. Zagales, sin seso vengo 2:10
11. Virgen sancta 3:40
12. A un niño llorando 2:38
13. Canite tuba - Francisco Guerrero 2:25
14. Rorate caeli - Francisco Guerrero 2:20
15. Veni Domine - Cristobal de Morales
(c.1500-1553) 2:21
16. Ave Maria - Tomás Luis de Victoria
(1548-1611) 1:57
17. Ne timeas Maria - Tomás Luis de Victoria 4:09
18. Pastores loquebantur - Francisco Guerrero 3:21
19. Tria sunt munera - Juan Esquivel
(c.1565-after 1613) 1:41
20. O magnum mysterium - Tomás Luis de Victoria 3:45
Missa O magnum mysterium - Tomás Luis de Victoria
21. Kyrie 1:52
22. Gloria 3:40
23. Credo 5:20
24. Sanctus/Benedictus 4:13
25. Agnus Dei 2:06

https://www.sonoluminus.com/dorian/navidad-iberica

Deutsche Grammophon gifts Monteverdi's Christmas Vespers

Deutsche Grammophon description: La Cetra's credo is to serve one purpose: to make "Early Music" accessible to today's audiences through fresh, gripping and contemporary interpretations. The Vespro veneziano that Andrea Marcon has assembled for this new recording is inspired by the resplendent sounds of the music that was performed at the great Christmas Vespers in St. Mark's in the presence of the foremost dignitaries of La Serenissima and a large audience of aristocrats and visitors from across Europe.

Concertos and Pastorales for Christmas Night with Bojan Čičić and the Illyria Consort

Delphian description: Bojan Čičić and the Illyria Consort’s latest Delphian recording revels in the great variety of musical styles and traditions that grew up around Christmas and its related feasts in Catholic Europe in the seventeenth century – a time when the introduction of ‘rustic’ effects into instrumental music changed the sound of Christmas forever.

The vivid theatricality of Baroque evocations of the shepherds and their milieu and the unusual combinations of instruments in much of this music, here given in performances brimming with energy and the joy of rediscovery, make this a Christmas album to reach for every year.

1995

1995

Conifer Records

1 I. Rejoice, Rejoice: Nowell: Dieus Vous Garde 2 I. Rejoice, Rejoice: Gaudete, Gaudete 3 II. Behold The Handmaiden: Reading Luke I, 18-22 4 II. Behold The Handmaiden: Kyrie Eleison 5 II. Behold The Handmaiden: E La Don Don 6 II. Behold The Handmaiden: Two Fant On 'Une Heune Fillete' 7 III. Joseph Is Well Married: Une Jeune Fillete 8 III. Joseph Is Well Married: Joseph, Lieber Joseph Mein 9 III. Joseph Is Well Married: Magnificant Quinti Toni 10 IV. The Birth Of Jesus: Esprits Divins 11 IV. The Birth Of Jesus: Reading: Luke II, 17-19 12 IV. The Birth Of Jesus: Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen 13 IV. The Birth Of Jesus: Riu, Riu, Chiu 14 V. Herod And The Magi: Wie Schon Leuchet Der Morgenstern 15 V. Herod And The Magi: Reading: Luke III, 4-12 - The Boston Camerata/Joel Cohen T 16 V. Herod And The Magi: O Vos Omnes 17 VI. The Shepards At The Cradle: Reading: Luke II, 20-21 18 VI. The Shepards At The Cradle: Ungaresca 19 VI. The Shepards At The Cradle: Nouvelles, Novelles - The Boston Camerata/Joel Cohen T 1987 from England 1. Puer natus est nobis 2. Nowell, nowell: In Bethlem 3. Gaudete 4. Nesciens Mater 5. The Song of the Nuns of Chester 6. Coventry Carol 7. The Boar's Head Carol 8. Videte miraculum from Continent 9. Quem pastores laudavere 10. Pueri, concinite 11. O magnum mysterium 12. resonet in laudibus 13. In dulci jubilo 14. Riu, riu chiu 15. Nesciens Mater 16.Omnes de Saba DISC 1 1. Greeting 2. In Thee is Gladness 3. Magnificat noni toni, from Tabulatura Nova 4. Vetrate di Chiesa 5. Unexpected and Mysterious 6. Litany: Laudes Creaturum 7. Reading: Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996) 8. Hodie aperuit (III from The Hildegard Motets) 9. Ave Maria 10. The Spheres (from Sunrise Mass) 11. People Look East 12. Readings: Gospel of John and Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) 13. Gloria 14. O beatum et sacrosanctum diem 15. Sonata pian'e forte 16. A Child is Born 17. In Thee Is Gladness DISC 2 1. Reading: John Donne (1572-1631) 2. Vetrate di chiesa 3. Lullaby Carol (2005) 4. With Crowded Lamps (from Lumen Christi) 5. Sing We Now of Christmas 6. Carol of the Magi 7. The First Nowell 8. Reading: St. Fancis of Assisi 9. Riu, Riu, Chiu 10. Illumina le tenebre (Prayer before the Crucifix) 11. Prayer of Saint Frances 12. Sending Prayers 13. O Come, All Ye Faithful Produced in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this colorful disc celebrates the winter holiday with Renaissance carols and noels. Selections include: Green grow'th the holly and Taunder Naken from the Songbook of Henry VIII, noels by Busnois, Dufay and Brumel, 15th- century English carols, late Renaissance motets, lute songs, villancicos and instrumental dances by Palestrina, Attey, Arbeau and Praetorius' Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen.  This full color cover features The Annunciation (detail) by Botticelli from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. A generous twenty page booklet includes notes and complete texts with parallel English translations. 65 minutes. Artists: Todd Frizzell - tenor & harp; Wayne Hankin - winds & tenor; Dan Rigazzi - tenor; Mark Rimple - alto & lute; Mark Sullivan - bass-baritone; Jon Szabo - bass-baritone & vielle 2006 1994 Ancient Noels:An INDIE finalist for "Best Seasonal Album of the Year" ( and listed in BILLBOARD magazine)Ancient carols, Renaissance rhythms and haunting medieval hymns bring to life images of desert landscapes, stone monasteries and the origins of Chrismas. Maggie Sansone on hammered dulcimer with members of Ensemble Galilei: Marcia Diehl on recorder, bowed psaltery and pennywhistle; Jim Brooks on recorder and concertina; Sue Richards on Celtic harp; Carolyn Surrick on treble viol & bass viola da gamba; and special guests Bonnie Rideout on Scottish fiddle, Zan McLeod on cittern and guitar and Ben Harms on hand drums and medieval tambourine. Includes: Basque and Galician carols from Spain, medieval Dutch & French carols, and Renaissance tunes by 16th century master Tilman Susato. 1 Cantiga de Santa Maria, No. 48 2 Gloucestershire Wassail/Tomorrow Will Be My Dancing Day/The Sussex Ca 3 Hoboekentanz/Schafertanz 4 O Bethlehem/Bethlehem's Stall/A Maiden Was Adoring God, the Lord/Grea 5 Bellman's Song 6 Truth Sent from Above 7 Nowell, Nowell: Tidings True/Riu, Riu, Chiu 8 I Must Go Gather Comfort/There Was a Maid So Lovely/When Judah's Loya 9 Cantiga, a Madre Do Que Livrou 10 Whenas the Rose of Jericho/A Year Begins of Joy and Grace/To Us a Lit 11 Donkey's Carol/The Friendly Beasts 12 Here Betwixt Ass and Oxen Mild/The Golden Carol 13 In the Bleak Midwinter