Performers: Dufay Ensemble [Alain Ebert (altus); Rolf Ehlers, Achim Plagge, Florian Cramer, Michael Bunse (tenor); Jörn Bartels (bariton); (Georg Hage, Eckehard Kiem (bass)].
Recording date: January 2002
Playing time: 53:24
Jacobus Vaet (ca. 1529-1567) was one of the most important composers of his generation. Born in Courtrai, where he studied as a choirboy from 1543-1546, he later entered the court chapel of Maximilian II (1554). Upon Maximilian's accession to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, Vaet in 1564 became "chief Kappellmeister of the Roman-Imperial Majesty," a position he retained until his death. Though relatively unknown today, his surviving oeuvre is quite large, filling no fewer than seven volumes, and is of consistently high quality. His beautiful Requiem is unusual in that it quotes portions of his motet Filiae Jerusalem in several sections, and in that it does not include a setting of the Dies Irae, but does contain settings of the Tractus and Ne recorderis, sections generally omitted by other composers. The motet Continuo lacrimas uses the Requiem plainchant as a cantus firmus, and was probably written as a lament on the death of Vaet's friend Clemens non Papa in 1556.
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Christopher Schifani