Album Notes

The Suspicious Cheese Lords, a male a cappella ensemble, performs concerts and provides church service music for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Although specializing in music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, their repertoire ranges from Gregorian chant to original composition.

Maestro di Capella: Music of Elzéar Genet (Carpentras) is the Cheese Lords' first CD, and a world premiere recording.
Elzéar Genet (c. 1470-1548) sang in the papal chapel under Pope Julius II, and thereafter in the court of the French king Louis XII. On November 5, 1513, he became the first composer to be named Master of the Papal Chapel. Working for Pope Leo X, who, in the Medici tradition, was a lavish patron of the arts, Genet's musical output became exclusively sacred. Although Genet was the first composer to publish his collected works, his music has unjustly fallen into near-oblivion. By the late 16th century, Genet's works had been replaced with newer settings by Palestrina and other composers. Sadly, there are no documented performances of his music again until the early 19th century.