Ars subtilior: Dawn of the Renaissance

Ars Subtilior: Dawn of the Renaissance is a collection that is the seventh volume in the Harmonia Mundi series Century. This is an idea previously pursued in the 1990s by the similarly named but wholly different concern Deutsche Harmonia Mundi as Century Classics. Century consists of several discs devoted to a progressive study of the history of music from the Gothic era up to the present. Ars Subtilor covers the period from the first stirrings of the Renaissance amid the papal court in Avignon circa 1370 through the advent of "countenance Angloise" circa 1420 and ending with the early Franco-Flemish school, which includes Dufay and Ockeghem. Obviously, Harmonia Mundi has a rich store of such music to draw upon, some recorded performances within its library being among the best ever made of this literature.