Complete Decca Recordings: 14CD Box Set

This 14-CD boxed set brings together The Medieval Ensemble of London’s complete recorddings for L’Oiseau-Lyre, issued on the Florilegium series between 1980 and 1985.
L’Oiseau-Lyre is one of the pillars of Decca’s label history. Originally founded as a publishing venture called Editions de L’Oiseau-Lyre in Paris in 1932, the recording side was acquired by Decca in 1970. The label came to represent the highest standard in original instrument performance, based on the most recent research into the original texts, instrumentation and performing styles. The label represented, in some senses, the dawn of “Western” Music as we know it. 

Directed by Peter & Timothy Davies, The Medieval Ensemble of London was a clear successor to David Munrow in the area of ‘early music’. This box set brings together their pioneering work and represents the complete catalogue recorded by the group for L’Oiseau-Lyre and issued on their Florilegium series between 1980 and 1985. Their performance activity during the 1970s and early 1980s coincided with a peak of interest in music of the medieval and Renaissance eras, when the music was becoming ever more available to performers through ground-breaking editions, and performance styles were refined following the experimental methods of the previous generation. It was the availability of editions that allowed The Medieval Ensemble of London to develop its approach of recording the complete secular works of certain prominent late-medieval and Renaissance composers. This initiative led to some recordings of unprecedented length – 6 LPs in the case of Du Fay’s secular music – that would prove to be enormously influential and which remain to the present day the unique recordings of certain pieces.

Tracklist:
CD 1
MATTEO DA PERUGIA Secular Works

CDs 2–6
DU FAY Complete Secular Music

CDs 7 & 8 
OCKEGHEM Complete Secular Music

CD 9
Ce Diabolic Chant: Ballades, Rondeaus and Virelais of the late 14th century (GALIOT · GUIDO · OLIVIER · SENLECHES · SUZOY)

CD 10
MACHAUT 2 Polyphonic Lais

CD 11
Mi Verry Joy: Songs of 15th-century Englishmen (BEDYNGHAM · DUNSTABLE · FRYE · HERT)

CD 12 
ISAAC Chansons, Frottole & Lieder

CD 13
JOSQUIN DESPREZ Missa di dadi · Missa “Faisant regretz”

CD 14
JOSQUIN Secular Music