SACRED MUSIC BY MASTERS FROM THE GOLDEN CENTURY - CAPELLA REIAL CATALUNYA, HESPERION XXI, SAVALL (3 HYBRID SACDS)

La Capella Reial de Catalunya
Hespèrion XX
Jordi Savall
The liturgy of the Dead – including the Requiem Mass, the Burial Service and the Office of the dead, properly speaking – was granted considerable importance by the Spanish ecclesiastical authorities and by the local church composers from very early times. Throughout the Middle Ages, according to the extant documentary descriptions, the death of a great Lord, such as the Count of Barcelona or the sovereign of any of the Spanish kingdoms of León, Castile, Aragon or Navarre, was usually mourned with impressive ceremonies in which the solemnity of the liturgy was often enhanced by the addition of the planctus, a kind of lengthy optional lament that was sung monophonically and of which several examples have survived.

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