J. Mouton - Missa Tu Es Petrus/Motett

Jean Mouton was a Renaissance French composer and choirmaster, much acknowledged but more rarely recorded, who wrote a body of music that�s both technically inventive and immediately appealing. Here Stephen Rice and The Brabant Ensemble�renowned exponents of sixteenth-century Franco-Flemish repertoire�perform all Mouton�s eight-part music, two four-part motets, and his only five-part Mass setting, the Missa Tu es Petrus. The latter is characterized by light, clear textures and a soaring cantus firmus, while the double-choir Nesciens mater is rightly famous for its ingenious canon. Sheer compositional skill aside, all these works demonstrate Mouton�s vivid and original imagination�one that has the ability to speak directly to our time.