Il Est Bel Et Bon (SSAA) English/French-Renaissance French composer Pierre Passereau was a popular creator of chanson rustiques in Paris and at court the early 1500’s. The songs that survive are almost all of a hearty style with plenty of onomatopoeia double entendres puns and occasional indelicacies employing graceful melody polyphony and sometimes chordal passages.Il es bel et bon has retained popularity almost since it was written. There is evidence that this song was sung as far away as Venice in the 1500's. Here composer Helen Cockburn makes the most of the delightful clucking cuckooing passages and the English words have retained most of the original’s consonants to good effect.

Jameson Marvin through his work with Harvard and Radcliffe has re-established the importance of teaching polyphony in the modern choral classroom. This beautiful setting of the Magnificat byPalestrina has been edited by Dr. Marvin to accommodate modern notation clefs and measure lines. He also maintains rhythmic groupings enabling the singers to move beyond the tyranny of the bar line and bring a beautifuland authentic performance to the stage.