Hello all!
The last year I've been very interested in Medieval and Renaissance music. It's a period of music that in my opinion has not received much exposure (at least here in Greece), but is very beautiful and interesting. Even though the medieval and the renaissance period were times where people lived in great difficulty, I personally fail to see that reflected in their music; at least not in the level it should be.
As I've said only recently have I started listening to this music, but so far Hildegard von Bingen (1098 - 1179) is my favourite medieval composer and among my favourite composers in general (I urge you to google her name. She was a very interesting figure of the medieval period). I also like among others Giovanni Palestrina (1525 - 1596), Michael Praetorius (1571 - 1621), Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585) and Erasmus Widmann (1572 - 1634) from the Renaissance period.
Ordo Virtutum is among my favourite works of Hildegard. I tried to find a good interpretation in youtube.com, but I didn't find anything satisfactory. I'll post anyway a video of the closing of this morality play (the earliest one by more than a century according to Wikipedia. Composed c. 1151)
Hildegard von Bingen - Ordo Virtutum
Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis is another piece I love. It's truly magnificent!
Thomas Tallis - Spem in Alium
And lastly a video of a renaissance consort performing.
Two dances from Il Ballarino (1581)
I'd be very interested to hear what you think of early music before the baroque period and possibly hear any music examples you might have found on the Internet.
Alexandros