Music from Renaissance Portugal

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Demo Tracks

The city of Coimbra in northern Portugal was for several periods in early history of the country both its capital and the seat of its medieval university. The old city is set impressively on the slopes of a hill overlooking the river Mondego, with the buildings of the university dominating the town.

During the sixteenth century, thanks largely to the efforts of King Joa III, Coimbra became the greatest educational centre – and one of the foremost cultural centres – in Portugal. The second most powerful institution in the cultural life of town was the Augustinian monastery of Santa Cruz, which, since its foundation in 1131, enjoyed the protection of royalty.

The recording is in no sense a liturgical reconstruction; rather, the programme falls into two principal parts, in the first of which the sections of Lobo’s Missa pro defunctis are used as a frame for works from Santa Cruz. The second part concentrates principally on marian works in the Santa Cruz manuscripts.