La Quintina
Early Polyphony
Ludford, Mass for an ordinary daye
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La Quintina loves Nicholas Ludford, the group could have taken the name of this forgotten, neglected or even disowned composer ... and yet so brilliant and irreverent. Refusing to espouse the Anglican reform and his musical style decreed by Henry VIII, this London composer of the first half of the 16th century was downgraded to the rank of simple sacristan, preferring to invent complex and flowery polyphonies between tradition and modernity. After the discographic success of Missa Sabato, the musicians of La Quintina wish to draw a final portrait of Nicholas Ludford by performing another unpublished mass from the Lady Masses. The Missa Feria II reveals a more complex and dark side of the composer. His science of three-voice counterpoint allows him to give a thousand colors to the mode of D, and transports the listener to another temporality. The three voices and the portable organ of La Quintina follow the path of a melody invented by John Dunstable, illuminated by Nicholas Ludford and William Whitbroke.
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