Pfyffer & Prosoner

udwig Senfl was born around 1490 in Basel or Zurich and is rightly considered the most famous Renaissance composer in Switzerland. This program presents the variety of styles and genres in which he composed. His tenor songs range from the pensive “Patientiam” to the exuberant “Oho, so geb der Mann ein Pfenning.” Senfl kept his opinions on the Reformation under wraps and wrote for both Catholics and Protestants. He was so confident of his compositional abilities that he ventured to write an updated and expanded version of Josquin’s famous Ave “Maria … virgo serena”. At the same time, he dedicated his modest but impeccably crafted “Non moriar, sed vivam (Not to die, but to live I wish)” to Martin Luther, even though he was officially working for the Catholic court in Munich at the time. Senfl’s versatility is underlined by the wind instrumentation of I Fedeli, which consists of cornett, shawm, trombone and dulcian, and together with the spinet and the famous tenor Jacob Lawrence, presents Senfl’s works in all their shades.

Jacob Lawrence – voice
Josué Meléndez – zinc, co-direction
Nora Hansen – dulcian
Johanne Maître – dulcian, shawm
Maria Morozova-Meléndez – keyboards
Maximilien Brisson – trombone
Catherine Motuz – trombone; co-direction

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