Gombert's redemption

Works by N. Gombert, C. de Morales,
J. Desprez and J. Clemens non Papa

Media vita in morte sumus...

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According to a contemporary physician and mathematician Jerome Cardan, writing in Theonoston, in 1540 N. Gombert (c. 1495 – c. 1560), one of the most prominent musicians of the generation of composers spanning from J. Desprez to Palestrina, was convicted of sexual contact with a boy in his care and was sentenced to hard labor in the galleys. The same source asserts that years later, thanks to a new and brilliant collection of Magnificats, Emperor Charles V - for whom he had worked in the Royal Chapel - granted him a pardon.

Following the structure of his famous Mass "Media vita in morte sumus" - in the midst of life, we find death - and through some of the most moving notes of penitential music of his time, this program sonorously revives an ancient story of penance and redemption.