Cristóbal de Morales (c.1500-1553)
New polyphony from Toledo Cathedral’s
‘Codex 25’

01 Asperges me
02 Et factum est postquam
03 Sacris solemniis
04 Eripe me
05 Urbs beata Jerusalem
06 Nova resultent gaudia
07 Felix per omnes
08 Nunc dimittis
09 Gloria laus et honor
10 Et incarnatus est
11 Jam Christus astra ascenderat
12 Veni redemptor gentium
13 Monstra te esse
14 Ave maris stella

Of all Spain’s Golden Age composers, it was Cristóbal de Morales who earned the most frequent and fulsome praise from his contemporaries. Among the most memorable encomiums were those flowing from the prolific quill of the music theorist Juan Bermudo (c.1510-c.1565). It was he who judged Morales deserving of nothing less than the unforgettable epithet, ‘the light of Spain in music’.

It is with great pride and satisfaction that we present, in its world-wide recording premiere, a rare find of this magnitude. Behind this disc there lies an almost detective-like story involving a recently discovered manuscript from a dusty archive in the Cathedral of Toledo, which Michael Noone had the privilege of studying and bringing to light: ‘My story begins with an invitation I received in 2002 from the distinguished canon-archivist of Toledo Cathedral to study a previously inaccessible and seriously damaged polyphonic manuscript. After months of painstaking examination of this parchment choirbook, known as Codex 25, I was able to establish without doubt that it contained 20 works by Morales, of which at least 14 were either completely or virtually unknown.’ None of the 14 works on this disc has ever been previously recorded. Eleven of them come from the newly rediscovered Codex 25, while three others have been recovered from Toledo’s Codex 21 and Codex 16.