---
product_id: 30511604
title: "Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae"
brand: "stradivarius"
price: "KD 13.15"
currency: KWD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 6
category: "Music"
url: https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/30511604-missa-hercules-dux-ferrariae
store_origin: KW
region: Kuwait
---

# Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae

**Brand:** stradivarius
**Price:** KD 13.15
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae by stradivarius
- **How much does it cost?** KD 13.15 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.kw](https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/30511604-missa-hercules-dux-ferrariae)

## Best For

- stradivarius enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted stradivarius brand quality
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## Description

Stradivarius presents another amazing disc performed by Ensemble De Labyrintho. This is music that explores man&apos;s most intimate feelings, and creates unequalled depths of emotion. Musicologist Edgard Lowinsky gives the perfect description of one of the pinnacles of musical art of all time: &quot;A musical work of a power, intensity, vision, grandeur of conception, and religious fervor that is comparable to, and perhaps in a certain sense, even greater than Michelangelo&apos;s Last Judgment.&quot;

## Images

![Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512eZjJKKPL.jpg)
![Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DuFCTLGrL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Better Than the Previous Best
  

*by G***O on Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2011*

RE UT RE UT RE FA MI RE"That's the "cantus firmus" - the pattern of sustained notes around which the harmony is composed - of the Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae by Josquin Deprez (1440-1521). It translates into modern pitches as "D-C-D-C-D-F-E-D". It's derived from matching the vowels of the hexachord ut-re-mi-fa-so-la with the vowels of the name hErcUlEs dUx fErrArIE. Hercules in this cryptogram is Duke Ercole d'Este of Ferrara, to whom the mass was obviously dedicated. Those eight notes form the subtle melodic basis for the entire mass composition; they are heard again and again, sometimes almost subliminally, transposed to higher pitches, inverted, stretched and condensed. Renaissance polyphony is full of such cryptic coded messages, as well as remarkably complex mathematical puzzles expressed in the notation of the era. And occasionally, whole lines of the polyphony are not notated at all, but merely implied in a Latin rubric, effectively a riddle for the performers to enjoy while earning their keep by singing luxuriantly. Josquin spent exactly one year - 1503 - living high at the Este court in Ferrara, during which time he wrote only two pieces as far as anyone knows. The larger piece, the Miserere, is included on this CD. The mass was probably written years before, when Ercole visited Rome. Josquin's patron, Cardinal Sforza, perhaps commissioned it as an elaborate compliment to the guest. Whatever the history, this is one of Josquin's grandest and most polished compositions, a work of such exquisite proportions that it ought to be broadcast to the stars as evidence of intelligent life on Earth."And that whole paragraph is repeated from my previous review of this Mass as performed by the Hilliard Ensemble. Well, amici miei, comparisons are invidious; however much I liked, and still like, the Hilliard recording, it seems to my ears that De Labyrintho's recording is better. Josquin Desprez spent a lot of time in Italy, so perhaps his Italian masses and motets need Italian interpretations. De Labyrintho, especially the tenors, sing with fine Italian "squillo". That's a term for the projective brightness of voice that characterizes Italian operatic tenors. In this case, it amounts to asserting one's polyphonic line more expressively, in effect emphasizing the rhetoric of each line rather than binding the lines into a massive choral homophony. Both ensembles perform this mass with several voices per part, but since the singers are of soloistic technical control, the singing is perfectly precise.The other Italian virtue of De Labyrintho is its "sprezzatura", its seeming effortlessness. Sprezzatura is "is an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined as 'a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.' It is the ability of the courtier [in this case, the singer] to display 'an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them.'" David James, of the Hilliard Ensemble, is a gorgeous counter-tenor, but he has no sprezzatura. He always seems to be straining to sing his utmost. De Labyrintho uses women sopranos, and in this case the two women seem in better balance within the ensemble than the Hilliard counter-tenors; less effort is heard in their expression, and therefore more sprezzatura. Likewise the bassi. Paul Hillier is a very fine musician and an utterly good guy, but he's a baritone, not a bass. Even paired with basso David Beavan, Paul Hillier audibly works hard to produce the tuneful but somewhat thin lowest notes of this Mass. No such effort can be heard from De Labyrintho; the three basses -- Bonci, Ferrarini, Furnari, good Italian boys! -- sing their bottom notes with magnificent resonance. English vocal ensembles, by the by, frequently lack 'risonanza in basso', making me wondering if something about the English language inhibits the development of bass sonority.How much better is De Labyrintho than The Hilliard Ensemble? Well, the difference is totally a subjective perception. If you have the Hilliard CD already, you certainly won't NEED the De Labyrintho, unless you feel, as I do, that Josquin's Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae is a grand enough composition to warrant many interpretations.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    This is a wonderful recording with great liner notes
  

*by C***P on Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2015*

This is a wonderful recording with great liner notes.  My favorite of the many  Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae recording.  The motets that go with it are beautiful and equally well sung.  Why is their other Josquin recording (Missa Gaudeamus) not available?

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    exquisite
  

*by R***Z on Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2012*

after hearing the beautifully sung motets,I wish they had also included female voices in the mass. The mass performance has a bit more emotion than the similar Hilliard Ensemble performance.

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*Product available on Desertcart Kuwait*
*Store origin: KW*
*Last updated: 2026-03-20*