This hour, we’re continuing our series on music in and about the Americas during the first centuries of colonization, with a focus on the Northeast and mid-Atlantic coasts of what is now the United States. We’ll hear psalms carried by religious refugees, earthy polyphony by New England singing-school masters, and favorites of the myriad European visitors and settlers who, along with the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples they occupied, shaped the region’s soundscape between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. On our featured recording, the ensemble La Compagnia del Madrigale takes us back across the pond for Giaches de Wert’s Ninth Book of Madrigals.
PLAYLIST
Rose of Sharon: 100 Years of American Music
Ensemble Phoenix Munich, Joel Fredericksen
Harmonia Mundi | HMC902085DI (2011)
William Billings
Tr. 9 I am the Rose of Sharon (4:33)
Segment A:
Music in Golden-Age Florence, 1250–1750
La Morra, Corina Marti, Michal Gondko
Ramee | RAM2206 (2024)
Heinrich Isaac
Tr. 13 Nè più bella di queste (4:44)
Flores de España
Chant 1450
Christophorus | CHR77374 (2013)
Antonio Ribera
Tr. 16 Ave Maria (2:36)
Music from the Spanish Kingdoms
Circa 1500, Nancy Hadden
CRD Records | CRD3447 (2012)
Anonymous
Tr. 4 Mi racomando (:55)
Dowland: Songs for Tenor and Lute; A Musicall Banquet
Nigel Rogers
Erato | 190295313654 (2020)
John Dowland
Tr. 9 Far from triumphing court (3:34)
Francis Cutting: Lute Music
Domenico Cerasani
Brilliant Classics | BC96099 (2020)
Francis Cutting
Tr. 1 Sir Walter Raleigh’s Galliard (1:33)
The Topping Tooters of the Town: Music of the London Waits, 1580–1650
The City Musick, William Lyons
Avie Records | AV2364 (2017)
John Dowland
Tr. 18 Psalm 100, "All people that on earth do dwell" (2:27)
Thomas Ravenscroft
Tr. 21 Psalm 117, "O praise the Lord, all ye nations" (1:13)
A Gift to be Simple
The Gregg Smith Singers
The Gift of Music | CCLCDG1136 (2004)
Henry Ainsworth
Tr. 17 Psalm 84 (:50)
Leonora Duarte: The Complete Works
Sonnambula, Elizabeth Weinfeld, Teju Cole
Centaur | CRC3685 (2019)
Leonora Duarte
Tr.1 Sinfonia a 5 No. 4 (2:12)
Souterliedekens
Camerata Trajectina
Globe 6020 (2014)
Gherardus Mes
Tr. 1 Psalm 35 (2:34)
Midpoint Break Music Bed:
And Glory Shone Around
The Rose Ensemble
Rose Records | Rose009 (2014)
John Playford
Tr. 20 The English Dancing Master: Scotch Cap - Juice of Barley
Segment B:
Songs of the American Land
Salli Terri, Jack Halloran Quartet, Roger Wagner Chorale
Warner Classics - Parlophone | 5099908293954 (2011)
Traditional
Tr. 3 On Springfield Mountain (3:33)
Early American Choral Music
His Majestie’s Clerkes, Paul Hillier
HCX3957048DI (1992)
William Billings
Tr. 7 Jordan (2:50)
And Glory Shone Around
The Rose Ensemble
Rose Records | Rose009 (2014)
Daniel Read
Tr. 7 Sherburne (1:42)
Lost Music of Early America: Music of the Moravians
Boston Baroque, Martin Pearlman
Telarc | 00888072235809 (1998)
Jeremiah Dencke
Tr. 3 Meine seele erhebet den hern (1:41)
Anonymous
Tr. 31 Jesus Makes my Heart Rejoice (:43)
Featured release:
Giaches de Wert, Nono libro de madrigali
La Compagnia del Madrigale
GCD922813 (2026)
Giaches de Wert
Tr. 5 Quel rossignol, che sí soave piagne (5:39)
Tr. 13 Ha Ninfe adorne, e belle (2:46)
Theme Music Bed: Ensemble Alcatraz, Danse Royale, Elektra Nonesuch 79240-2 [ASIN: B000005J0B], T.12: La Prime Estampie Royal