Messes Sine Nomine Faysant Regretz

Description

This record is the 9th and penultimate volume of our complete collection of masses by Josquin Desprez, "Josquin l’Européen". We chose to name it "Josquin et Bruxelles", due to the composer's affinities with the historiographer and poet Jean Lemaire de Belges at the court of Mechelen, near Brussels, a very active musical center, under the regency of Margaret of Austria. Josquin Desprez undoubtedly addressed his famous song "Mille regretz" to the sovereign with whom he had a correspondence. This recording pairs the masses Faysant regretz and Sine nomine.
Written in the last years of the fifteenth century, the Missa Faisant regretz, essentially for four voices, is one of the shortest by the composer.
The second, the Missa sine nomine, probably composed at the end of the 15th century as well, is thoroughly developed by Josquin, who publishes it only from 1514 in the Missarum Josquin Liber tertius edited by Petrucci. In it, Josquin explores the possible canonical combinations without referring to a pre-existing motif. In total, there are seventeen different canons that follow one another in the same work!