Dufay, Guillaume - O gemma, lux - Nevel, Paul van

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Huelgas-Ensemble
Paul Van Nevel, conductor

"Certain disciples of the new school hasten without rest, inebriating men's ears without appeasing them, miming with gestures that which they cause to be heard." These were the words used in 1324 by Pope John XXII to castigate the "so-called" progress which none the less paved the way to a prodigious development in the rhythmic notation and the polyphonic execution of musical compositions (Ars Nova). A century later this system based on learned mathematical rules reached a peak of refinement in the work of Guillaume Dufay, the great master of poly-textual isorhythm, an art of which the motets may be considered to represent the quintessence. Written over a period of twenty years, they are an admirable fusion of this extremely complex rhythmic system with an unequalled sense of melody, contributing in their way to the new spirit of the Renaissance.