Publisher's Synopsis
The four books of Dominique Phinot's motets and chansons, published in Lyon in 1547-48 (vols. 1, 3, and 4 in this critical edition), established the composer's reputation throughout Europe as a skilled polyphonist and an innovator in double-choir writing.
Volume 5 introduces Phinot's imitation Masses, Vesper Psalms, and Magnificats, genres in which the concentrated imitative style of his motets is generally replaced by freer polyphonic textures. Characterful thematic ideas enrich the Psalm settings, often underscoring the texts with madrigalian symbolism. The sixth-tone Magnificat is one of several double-choir works by Phinot preserved in a Gubbio manuscript, which implies that Phinot's contributions to this genre were composed in Urbino during the 1540s and within the context of an established polychoral tradition in central Italy.
