In the musical history of the Southern Netherlands during the 17th century, Christmas music was a genre in its own right.
This is mainly thanks to the Brotherhood of our Lady of the Antwerp Cathedral, where in around 1600, the custom arose of lighting up the daily Mary prayers during the Christmas period not only with Marian motets, but also with carols.
As early as 1604, this repertoire appeared in print, titled Laudes Vespertinae; its contents were mainly Marian hymns but complemented with Latin carols. Later reprints added more Christmas music which grew systematically.
This evolution led the music publisher Phalesius to print separate publications with carols, entitled Cantiones Natalitiae from the mid-1640's onwards which culminated in about sixteen volumes being published by the end of the 17th century.
This new recording celebrates the style changes from the earlier works which were still in a homophonic Renaissance style, to the more progressive generation of composers from the middle of the century who embraced the new Baroque style with solo voices accompanied by basso continuo with participation of solo instruments.
