Albums · Skopia

Every record chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
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6 records

Masses

1594

Byrd was a Catholic in Protestant England, and wrote these to be sung in secret at private houses. They were printed without title pages.

★ 2.6

1515

Josquin takes a plainchant hymn and dissolves it into four voices that imitate each other continuously, so the tune is everywhere and nowhere.

★ 2.9

1562

The legend that it saved church polyphony from being banned is probably untrue, but the words really do stay audible through six voices.

★ 3.4

1365

Machaut left money for this mass to be sung at an altar in Reims Cathedral in his memory, and it was, for centuries.

★ 5.3

1749

Bach assembled it late in life partly from music he had written decades earlier, and never heard the whole thing performed in his lifetime.

★ 9.4

1791

An anonymous stranger commissioned it and Mozart died before finishing. A pupil completed the rest, and arguments about which bars are his continue.

★ 9.5