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Besides eleven songs by Johannes Ockeghem (c.1420-1497), this album includes two related works: the anonymous “En atendant vostre venue” from the recently-discovered Leuven Chansonnier (probably copied c. 1475 in the Loire Valley, where Ockeghem lived and worked), whose text borrows the first line of Ockeghem’s "Quant de vous seul", and "Au travail suis" by the composer Barbingant, which quotes both text and music from the opening of Ockeghem’s "Ma maistresse". Ockeghem was one of the most celebrated musicians of the fifteenth century and is one of the greatest composers of all time, every bit the equal of J.S. Bach in contrapuntal technique and profound expressivity, and like Bach able to combine the most rigorous intellectual structure with a beguiling sensuality. His two dozen songs set French lyric poetry in the courtly forms of the fifteenth century—rondeau, virelai, and ballade—to exquisitely crafted polyphony in which all voices are granted equally beautiful and compelling melodies. Blue Heron is engaged in the exploration of Renaissance and medieval vocal music. Putting the study of original sources in the service of persuasive, vivid and exciting concert presentations, the ensemble is now established as the finest of its type in North America. Led by Scott Metcalfe, Blue Heron offers a home subscription series in Harvard Square, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a catalog of eight exceptional recordings is available on the Blue Heron label, one of which garnered the group the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music, thereby making Blue Heron the first group from outside Europe to receive the award. Touring engagements have taken the group across the United States as well as to Canada and England. Blue Heron is Renaissance vocal music for the 21st century.