American Brass Quintet released an album of renaissance music in 1960.
There is an interview with Raymond Mase in the Aspen Times where he says “brass music had its golden age during the Renaissance era, which roughly spanned the 14th to 16th centuries.Brass music fell away, however, when composers began to focus more on strings and piano for their chamber-music endeavors during what is commonly thought of as the golden age of classical music”
Although most music from the Renaissance Era is not specific about the instruments to be used and rather to be played on what is available, it got me thinking that rather than performing the same Gabrieli pieces that everyone knows why not arrange and use other works and other composers from the same era when looking to program Renaissance music.
Check out my post about Claudio Merulo for example of other works.
I definitely agree that we should be playing more than just the standard Gabrieli pieces when there is such a larger amount of repertoire! Are there any brass musicians who currently are leading the way with producing more arrangements by other Renaissance composers? If not... sounds like you have a summer project...
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