1501: The Printed Composer

Venice, 1501. In a canal-side workshop, Ottaviano Petrucci and his assistant are working at a bulky wooden machine: a printing press. They cover a set of small metal objects with a thin layer of ink before sliding a sheet of freshly lined paper into the machine. They pull hard on the press: paper meets ink, and history is made.

Petrucci’s first printed collection of multi-voiced works marks a huge turning point in music. It dramatically changes who can access music, who can make money from it, how it can travel – even what a piece of music actually is.

Gillian Moore is joined by a roster of distinguished historians for this major new BBC Radio 3 series, charting a course through 1000 years of classical music history. For the first eight programmes, historian Michael Wood is in the chair, as together they explore the bold new sound worlds of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Producer: David Fay
Academic Consultant: Professor Laura Tunbridge, University of Oxford
Story Consultant: Kate Leys
Series Editor for BBC Audio: Emma Harding

Key Changes theme tune composed by Joseph Howard and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Kerem Hasan.

MUSIC DETAILS
Josquin des Prez: Adieu, mes amours
Fretwork

Johannes Ockeghem: Ma bouche rit
BBC Singers
Owain Park (conductor)

Guillaume Dufay: Nuper Rosarum Flores
Pomerium
Alexander Blachly (conductor)

Josquin des Prez: Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae (Kyrie)
The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips (conductor)

Jacob Obrecht: Tandernaken
Les Flamboyants

Jean Japart: Je cuide se ce temps
Les Flamboyants

Josquin des Prez: La Bernadina
La Pifarescha

Josquin des Prez: Bergerette Savoisienne
Thélème
Ludovic Van Hellemont (Ondes Martenot)

Josquin des Prez: Ave Maria … Virgo Serena
BBC Singers
Owain Park (conductor)

Marchetto Cara: Oimè il cor aime la testa
Barbara Zanichelli (soprano)
Luca Pianca (lute)

Scott Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag
Dick Hyman (piano)