Dufay: Flos Florum

Dufay is the most famous composer of the 15th century, and to contemporary ears his soundscapes form kaleidoscopic, alien worlds while retaining a foot in intelligible harmony and melody. His music is a borderland between the thorny motets of the 14th century and the rhetorical fireworks to come in the high-Renaissance madrigal and Mass. One of his most famous pieces, the “Ave regina caelorum,” was composed to be played at his deathbed, and is a fine entry point.