The Singing Angels by Jan van Eyck

SingingRenaissance

High-quality PDF editions of choral music from the Renaissance and early Baroque

Our Aim

We aim to share the joy of singing early music with the modern world.

We publish transcriptions from original manuscripts and prints, offering high-quality editions of Renaissance and early Baroque music in PDF format – immediately downloadable, printable, and suitable for tablet use.

Our scores include learning aids for choir singers who do not read music: individual voice MP3s with the choir in the background, as well as full ensemble recordings with one voice omitted. Franco-Flemish chansons include an MP3 with native French pronunciation. Some of our scores are also available in large print.

Please browse our catalogue, blog, and FAQ.

We look forward to hearing you sing.

Un concerto — three Renaissance singers around a music book, by Lorenzo Costa

Why Sing Early Music?

Singing early music is enjoyable because it combines clarity, balance, autonomy, and emotional depth in a uniquely intimate way. Rather than focusing on dramatic display or sheer vocal power, singers become part of a transparent musical texture in which every line matters, and where much of the pleasure comes from listening, blending, tuning harmonies, and shaping phrases together. The lighter, speech-like vocal style can feel natural and calming, while the close relationship between text and music gives even the simplest musical gestures expressive meaning.

Renaissance and early Baroque music also create a powerful sense of connection across time, as singers inhabit works that have been performed for centuries, sometimes in contemplative or sacred settings. Its expressive restraint can make moments of dissonance or resolution especially moving, and the slower, more meditative flow of the music offers an experience of concentration and stillness that many people find both intellectually satisfying and emotionally calming.

From the Catalogue

New and noteworthy editions

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Sicut cervus (2 parts)

Sicut cervus (2 parts)

Sacred - Psalm

Palestrina • SATBBasic

Sicut cervus (2 parts)£2.10
What ails my darling

What ails my darling

Secular - Love

Thomas Morley • SSABasic

What ails my darling£1.20
Beata es, virgo Maria

Beata es, virgo Maria

Sacred - Marian

Hans Leo Hassler • SATBRare

Beata es, virgo Maria£1.95
Super flumina Babylonis

Super flumina Babylonis

Sacred - Psalm

Roland de Lassus • SATBBasic

Super flumina Babylonis£0.90
Angelus ad pastores ait

Angelus ad pastores ait

Sacred - Christmas

Hans Leo Hassler • SATBBasic

Angelus ad pastores ait£1.20

Learning Aids

When you purchase our PDF scores, you will automatically receive the following audio resources:

Each vocal part highlighted with the rest of the choir in the background, helping your singers learn their own line.

Each vocal part removed from the choir texture, allowing your choir singers to practise singing their part within the full choral context.

For French-language pieces, a recording of the text spoken by a native French speaker to assist with pronunciation and diction.

Musica Ficta

This Latin term refers to the practice of altering certain notes of the scale in early music, between the 13th and 17th centuries. However, these alterations were not always notated: they arose from rules (of varying degrees of strictness) which were known to the singers of the time, who operated in circles where such rules formed part of common musical knowledge.

Read about musica ficta →
Superius page of De mon triste déplaisir by Jean Richafort, 1529 edition
Jean Richafort, De mon triste déplaisir (superius), 1529 — Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), public domain.

Repertoire

Explore by genre

Collections

Curated collections for your choir

Sacred - Psalm

View all →
Super flumina Babylonis

Super flumina Babylonis

Sacred - Psalm

Roland de Lassus • SATBBasic

Super flumina Babylonis£0.90
Sicut cervus (2 parts)

Sicut cervus (2 parts)

Sacred - Psalm

Palestrina • SATBBasic

Sicut cervus (2 parts)£2.10

Sacred - Christmas

View all →
Angelus ad pastores ait

Angelus ad pastores ait

Sacred - Christmas

Hans Leo Hassler • SATBBasic

Angelus ad pastores ait£1.20

Hero image: The Ghent Altarpiece, panel The Singing Angels, by Jan van Eyck & Hubert van Eyck; collection Sint-Baafskathedraal Gent, artinflanders.be, photo: Hugo Maertens, License Contractuele beperkingen.

Editorial images (public domain): Lorenzo Costa, Un concerto (c. 1485–95), The National Gallery, London.