Music from the Odhecaton: Celebrating the 500th Anniversary of the First Printed Music.(Sound Recording Review)

Piffaro. Dorian xCD-90301, 2002.

It would be difficult to overstate the impact of the decision, taken by the Signoria of Venice in 1498, to grant music publisher Ottaviano Petrucci a monopoly in the publishing of polyphonic music. Working in collaboration with the Dominican friar Petrus Castellanus, who acted as editor and compiler, Petrucci produced a volume entitled Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A, which contained ninety-six polyphonic works (mostly chansons) by a variety of popular composers, including Alexander Agricola, Antoine Busnoys, and Jacob Obrecht. It remains a landmark in the history of printed music, and selected contents have been recorded in a variety of configurations, recently and notably in a fine 2002 collection by Fretwork (Harmonia Mundi HMU 907291). While Petrucci would go on to publish many other musical collections, it was this one that would have the greatest impact. This album features twenty-nine selections from the Odhecaton, all of them played by the Renaissance wind band Piffaro. Consistent with the common practice of his day, Petrucci did not ...