Josquin Desprez: In memoria mea Rebecca Stewart, Cantus Modalis, Seconda Prat!ca

• Josquin Desprez (1450-1521): Missa pro defunctis:
• 1 Desprez: Missa pro defunctis: Introitus Requiem eternam (Cantus prius factus of Josquin's Nymphes des bois) 02:24
• 2 Desprez: Nymphes des bois 05:30
• Antoine Brumel (1460 - 1512):
• 3 Brumel: Mater patris et filia 03:49
• Josquin Desprez: Missa Mater patris:
• 4 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Kyrie 04:47
• 5 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Gloria 06:26
• 6 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Credo 09:55
• 7 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Sanctus 02:17
• 8 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Plenisunt 01:53
• 9 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Osanna I 02:31
• 10 Desprez: MIssa Mater patris: Benedictus 02:31
• 11 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Osanna II 02:36
• 12 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Agnus Dei I 01:28
• 13 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Agnus Dei II 01:42
• 14 Desprez: Missa Mater patris: Agnus Dei III 04:21
• Traditional:
• 15 Traditional: Introitus Requiem eternam (Cantus prius factus of Josquin's Absolve quesumus domine) 02:25
• Josquin Desprez:
• 16 Desprez: Absolve quesumus domine - Requiem eternam 05:06
• Traditional:
• 17 Traditional: Introitus Requiem eternam (Cantus prius factus of Anon's Absolve quesumus domine) 02:25
• 18 Traditional: Absolve quesumus domine - Requiem eternam 08:22
• Total Runtime 01:10:28

Info for Josquin Desprez: In memoria mea

Rebecca Stewart together with the vocal ensemble Seconda Pract!ca explores the music of Josquin Desprez and his contemporaries Brumel and Willaert, commemorating the 500th anniversary of his death. The central piece of this recording is the famous Missa Mater patris by Josquin. Founded in 2012 by international musicians gathered in The Netherlands for their studies, Seconda Prat!ca has become one of the leading ensembles of the new generation of early music performers. The ensemble’s main goal is to bridge the gaps between performers and audience, revitalizing western musical heritage by bringing it back to a shared living experience. We achieve this through a continuous mixing of media, performance, research and musical excellence. Since 2013 Seconda Prat!ca has become part of the EEEmerging project, an initiative of the European Comission to support young developing ensemble specializing in Early Music.

In 2021, members of Cantus Modalis and the ensemble Seconda Prat!ca will come together, under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Stewart, in a commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the death of Josquin Desprez. In a celebration of the respected and daring composer, we are developing a project exploring the place of homage and remembrance in Josquin’s practice and the afterlife of his own work. Our “requiem” program will center on Josquin’s late (though heavily contested) Missa Mater Patris, the original motet of Brumel on which it was based and the commemorative pieces composed by Josquin for his colleagues and masters, as well as an anonymous Absolve composed for Josquin himself.

The project will include both a series of commemorative concerts as well as a recording of the program, in co-production with Cité de la Voix in Vezelay and the sound engineering work of Jonas Niederstadt, taking place in early January 2020.

In order to finance the recording part of the project, we have created this crowdfunding campaign, to find friends and patrons willing to help us make this initiative a reality.

To sing and research the repertoire of our shared musical heritage is one of the most rewarding occupations, but one which is both arduous and costly. For us as artists it has been inspiring to see how the memory of past generations found musical expression in both Josquin’s compositions and our own performance. This is made all the more symbolic for the young performers of the Seconda Prat!ca ensemble, being able to work with one of the pioneers of source-based performance of the Franco-Flemish repertoire of the High Renaissance, Dr. Rebecca Stewart.

With the support of Cité de la Voix and personal funding we’ve managed to cover many of the costs related with recording and hosting the musicians, but there are still expenses to be covered especially those concerned with the training of the performers, the travels, the edition and reconstruction of the repertoire, the creation of the musical material as well as the edition and distribution of the recording.

We hope the project’s exciting proposal and this crowdfunding campaign will attract people willing to be a part of the network of support that makes artistic endeavors possible. We gratefully accept donations of any size and we have also different rewards for those of you that would be interested in keeping a souvenir. We will also be sure to keep you updated on the different steps of the project as well as keep you informed on the upcoming concerts we are currently organizing, so we may also meet you in person.

Seconda Prat!ca
Cantus Modalis
Rebecca Stewart, musical direction

Rebecca Stewart
is an (ethno)musicologist and singer, retired head of the early vocal department of the Brabants/Fontys Conservatorium and co-founder/ex ‘maestro di cappella’of the Cappella Pratensis. She received her PhD in ethnomusicology in 1974 after having worked for many years in Hindusthani classical music. Since moving to The Netherlands in that same year she has concentrated mostly on early western music. After having taught for seventeen years in the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (as co-founder of the Baroque singing department and as a teacher of theory), she was invited to begin a new early music department in Brabant in which singers (and later instrumentalists) received a vocally-oriented practical and theoretical education which extended from the earliest chant traditions of Western Europe to the end of the Renaissance. She has published several articles concerning the relationship between singing and modal music. Primarily in her function as leader of the Cappella Pratensis she has made many CDs. After her retirement she formed and is leader of the Ensemble and Center Cantus Modalis. She continues to give concerts, workshops and lecture demonstrations.

Booklet for Josquin Desprez: In memoria mea