This cycle of "O" Antiphons is part of the Christmas Vespers ceremony, centered around the Magnificat. In the present case, they are heavily troped, and end with a liturgical motet in a more triumphant mood.
The music itself it thoroughly isorhythmic, and heavily syncopated. The pieces form a true cycle, linked by both a sequence of modality and motivic figures. This is the most elaborate sacred section of the huge Turin manuscript (Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS J. II 9), the one source for the Cypriot repertory.

The Eton Choirbook is a richly illuminated manuscript collection of English sacred music composed during the late fifteenth century. The Huelgas Ensemble, known for their splendid interpretations, selected five astonishing works which were never recorded before. Founded by Paul Van Nevel in 1970, the Huelgas Ensemble soon specialized in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, drawing closely on primary sources and making a vital contribution to the study of early music through its published research. The Ensemble's performances are informed by a profound understanding of medieval and Renaissance vocal techniques and practices.

The Huelgas Ensemble was founded by director Paul Van Nevel in 1971. It has specialized in choral music, frequently with instrumental support, from the thirteenth century on to the early Baroque. Their recordings of the High Renaissance have been especially prized. They have also been pioneers in the performance of the difficult Ars Subtilior repertory of the late medieval era.

We possess many works by Jean Richafort, but very little biographical information on the composer. In the 16th century he was the object of veneration and admiration. The great Ronsard himself spoke of him in the most enthusiastic terms, and most of his contemporaries - Mouton, Morales, Gombert, Palestrina - based Masses on his music.

German composer Michael Praetorius, whose life bridged the 16th and 17th centuries, was one of his era's most prolific writers, both of musical works and of works about music. His "Syntagma Musicum" remains one of the most important treatises on instruments and performance practice; he composed many volumes of Protestant hymn-based works, motets, psalms, works for multiple choir, and Latin music for the Lutheran service. The "Magnificat" performed on this program is one of 14 that Praetorius included in his Megalynodia Sionia, published in 1611. Its polyphonic style and rich instrumental writing–particularly for brass–is occasionally reminiscent of Gabrieli, whose works Praetorius studied; or Schutz, with whom he traveled throughout Germany.

On the 'Deutsche Harmonia Mundi' label - Following the critically acclaim of their previous release The Music Prints of Christopher Plantin, The Huelgas Ensemble, under the direction of Paul Van Nevel, return with their stunning new album The Ear of Christopher Columbus. This remarkable album features music from the late fifteenth century and the early fifteenth century that may have been heard by Christopher Columbus during the course of his lifetime. The Ear of Christopher Columbus takes the listener to a musical journey through the lifetime of the explorer, beginning with his Italian childhood.

The Antwerp based French printer Christophe Plantin (1520-1589) achieved international renown through his epic bible editions (e.g. the eight part “Biblia Regia”) and elaborate humanistic works by the likes of Justus Lipsius and the mathematician Simon Stevin. On the other hand, his fame as a publisher of ground-breaking music prints of esteemed sixteenth century composers, often presented as monumental choir books, seems today to have gone relatively unnoticed.

The cycle of 125 variations that Costanzo Festa composed on the famous melody called La Spagna is conceived on a scale unique during the Renaissance, and may justly be described as a compositional tour-de-force. It has been comparisons to works such as Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations. This budget priced reissue, released for the first time in 2003, features a selection of these variations performed by the Huelgas-Ensemble.

"There are two things on which listeners can invariably rely with Paul Van Nevel: whatever he unearths, it is without exception wonderful music; and what he offers with his Huelgas Ensemble is always on the very highest level” (BR Klassik). For more than forty years the Huelgas Ensemble has been one of the world’s finest vocal ensembles.

Just how engaging, catchy, lively, and artful can 13th century Spanish music be? Very, as evidenced by this collection of motets, conductus, mass movements, and strophic songs from the legendary manuscript compiled at the 12th-century Cistercian convent at Las Huelgas. This remarkable program, highlighting only a handful of the nearly 200 works contained in the original manuscript, shows not only the beauty and inventiveness of sacred music of this period, but also how colorful and varied it could be.

Like Willaert, Cipriano de Rore was one of the great Flemish composers who spent their entire career in Italy.
Although better known for his madrigals, he also wrote this Mass based on the Christmas motet by Josquin Desprez Praeter rerum seriem (Beyond all human understanding, the Virgin Mary conceived the Son of Man).

The Huelgas Ensemble under Paul Van Nevel are numbered among the world’s best vocal ensembles for over 40 years. Their recordings of, in many cases, completely unknown works has earned the ensemble the highest international acclaim. The press wrote of their last recording: “The Huelgas Ensemble once again demonstrates its artistic skill and expressive power” (SWR 2). For their new album, Paul Van Nevel has selected outstanding works by Huguenot composers of the 16th century, a period when Protestants were ruthlessly persecuted in pre-revolutionary France. The tragic height of this persecution was the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre on the night of 23–24 August 1572, when the lives of thousands of Huguenots were taken.

La Oreja de Zurbarán – Zurbarán. The title chosen by Paul Van Nevel to illustrate the programme of this disc is a clear indication of his intentions – to bring to life the music that the Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) would have heard in the course of a career that led him from Seville to Madrid. Through an anthology of sacred and secular works, many of them hitherto unpublished, fluctuating from archaism and modernity, Paul Van Nevel and his Huelgas Ensemble seek to show how music and painting stem from one and the same vision of the world. Thus presenting the listener-viewer with the keys for an understanding of a period in which the watchword was ‘mysticism’.

A treasure-house of the grand master of sixteenth-century musical calligraphy, the choirbooks of Petrus Alamire contain some stupendous and hitherto unpublished polyphonic works. Through the hand of the dedicated humanist that was Alamire – famous as a “guardian of the books” and as a spy within the most influential courts of the Renaissance, including those of Marguerite of Austria in Malines, Henry VIII of England and Charles V – the Huelgas Ensemble and Paul Van Nevel trace a portrait of this brilliant humanist in a programme that will take you to the very heart of the secrets of Renaissance polyphony.