Le miroir de musique Baptiste Romain - Arnold & Hugo de Lantins: Secular Works (2016)

The composers Arnold and Hugo de Lantins were natives of the diocese of Liège, but it was in Italy, principally in Pesaro and Venice that their presence is confirmed between the years of 1420 and 1430. As with the works of Johannes Ciconia, a fellow native of Liège whose time in Italy had preceded theirs, their secular and sacred compositions are preserved in manuscripts copied in Italy. Closely rubbing shoulders with their illustrious contemporary Guillaume Dufay, the Lantins brothers combined archaic traits with the earliest characteristics of the Renaissance. Le Miroir de Musique presents a large selection of French and Italian chansons which enriches our view of the cultural sophistication of the Italian courts at the start of the 15th century.

All the instrumental pieces are adaptations of the chansons and motets by Hugo and Arnold de Lantins; these have been composed according to sources of instrumental music from the 15th century. The divisions on Mirar non posso are inspired by the Codex Faenza, compiled around 1420. The Buxheim organ book was used as a model for both Ce jour de l’an and for the prelude to Io sum tuo servo. The manuscrit 431 from the communal library in Perugia (c.1490), together with the Italian balli described by Domenico da Piacenza (c.1450), were the sources of inspiration for the basse-danse Amour servir and the saltarello Ne me vueillés.