Nearly over now and I only caught up with it halfway through, Peter Phillips of the Tallis Scholars talks us through The Glory of Polyphony at 11.30pm on Sundays and is worth catching up with for those with an interest in such esoteric wonder or asleep at this non prime time slot.
It would be great if he could do us a book on the subject but his radio script would need filling out. Although Renaissance polyphony covers 250 years or more, much of it sounds similar to the undifferentiating ear. Most of us could tell the difference between Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and later C19th music but the subtleties involved in recognizing your Gesualdo from your Ockeghem, Josquin from Victoria or Tallis from Byrd is where Peter comes in most useful. This week's thrilling episode was about Byrd mainly and most useful, not least in bringing to our attention the King's Singers doing Civitas sancti tui, the CD of which can be acquired for no more than a song through the usual bargain channels.
Thanks to Peter for doing that and very sporting of him to go beyond the extensive Tallis Scholars catalogue to illustrate his points.