Author: chris_m

National styles of music in the seventeenth century were often distinctive, and in the case of French and Italian music, famously so.

Despite an unsurprising degree of conservatism in liturgical music, devotional life in Rome often found ways of taking advantage of modern musical style.

The English composer Nicholas Maw has been a major voice since the 1960’s, with a wide range of works that include the 2002 opera, “Sophieís Choice,” a violin concerto for Joshua Bell (1993), and the monumentally-scaled orchestral work, “Odyssey” (1972-87).

Although few composers have been so closely associated with a single work, Johann Pachelbel, whose canon for three violins has achieved canonical ubiquity, was a prolific composer with a number of vocal works to his credit.

Founded in Oxford in the early 1990ís, the ensemble Charivari AgrÈable looks to seventeenth-century composers with Oxford connections as the basis for their recent recording, ìThe Oxford Psalms.î

Thomas Stoltzer represents German composition in the wake of the Reformation yet still immersed in the contrapuntal richness of the Josquin tradition.

This is a recording that glories in iconicity.

There are a number of signs of the popularity of the Kingís Singersótheir longevity as an ensemble, the huge success of their public concerts, and their sizable discography all come immediately to mind.

Westminster Abbey is surely many things to many people.

The 2004 DVD “Playing Elizabethís Tune,” originating in a BBC television production, features concert performances of Byrdís sacred music sung by the Tallis Scholars along with documentary material treating the composer and his time.