Très Doulx: A Renaissance Flute Consort

The performers are:
Rachel Carpentier, Na’ama Lion, Laura Randall, and Christopher Krueger

During the Renaissance, most European churches hired city instrumentalists on an occasional basis, but the Catholic Church in Spain engaged in a special and comparatively early patronage of instrumental music. By the early sixteenth century, Spanish churches began directly contracting instrumental musicians (ministriles) for long-term positions. Trés Doulx’s program explores a manuscript choirbook from this time period preserved in the archive of the Puebla Cathedral, located 100 miles southeast of Mexico City. Composers represented include such illustrious names as Francisco Guerrero and Orlando de Lassus, alongside some less known to us now, such as Johannes Wreede and Pedro Rimonte. These composers’ combined period of activity spans well over 100 years, and represents Spanish, Netherlandish, and New Spanish composition