Orlando de Lassus (1532-1594)
Timor et tremor
Prophetiae Sibyllarum
Anna, mihi dilecta

Vicente Lusitano (1520-1561)
Heu me, Domine

Nicola Vicentino (1511-?1576)
Hierusalem
Musica prisca caput
Soav'e dolc'ardore
Dolce mio ben
Madonna, il poco dolce
Poi che'l mio largo pianto

Cipriano de Rore (1515-1565)
Da le belle contrade d'oriente
Calami sonum ferentes
O sonno

Luca Marenzio (1553-1599)
O voi che sospirate
Solo e pensoso

Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545-1607)
Quivi sospiri pianti
Itene mie querele

Ensemble Exaudi

Juliet Fraser, soprano
Lucy Goddard, mezzo-soprano
Tom Williams, contreténor
David de Winter, ténor
Stephen Jeffes, ténor
Ben McKee, basse
Jimmy Holliday, basse

James Weeks, direction

Chromatics is a word derived from the Greek noun ???µa (khr?ma), meaning color, and the Greek adjective ???µat???? (khromatikós; colored). During the Renaissance, new music was composed in the Western world, opening up a palette of (timbral) colors for the first time. Before the Renaissance, music (in Gregorian chant) existed only to convey the word, not to make an appearance itself; this changed completely after the 15th century. Music, like painting, exploded into new forms and colors, and the era of the modern age was ushered in. Strange harmonies, mysterious voices - tones of passion and desire, of terror and fear, of the confusion of the sublime or of divine apparition... This is the world of musical colors that opened up in the age of the Chromatic Renaissance, giving rise to a music that is daring, adventurous and timelessly modern.