The "Battle" for Evensong

BBC Four is advertising a programme to be broadcast on October 17 hosted by Lucy Worsley with the title "Elizabeth I's Battle for God's Music"!

Lucy Worsley investigates the story of the most remarkable creation from the tumultuous and violent era known as the Reformation - choral evensong.

Henry VIII loved religious music, but he loved power more - when he instigated his English Reformation he dramatically split from the ancient Catholic church that controlled much of his country. But in doing so set into motion changes that would fundamentally transform the religious music he loved.

Following Elizabeth I's personal story, Lucy recounts how she and her two siblings were shaped by the changes their father instigated. Elizabeth witnessed both her radically puritan brother Edward bring church music to the very brink of destruction and the terrifying reversals made by her sister Mary - which saw her thrown in the Tower of London forced to beg for her life.

When Elizabeth finally took power she was determined to find a religious compromise - she resurrected the Protestant religion of her brother, but kept the music of her beloved father - music that she too adored. And it was in the evocative service of choral evensong that her ideas about religious music found their ultimate expression.

I know that conflict is what drives plot and that there was lots of conflict during the English Reformation, but some of this language seems a bit over the top! 

Henry VIII never experienced Evensong so his links to Elizabeth's version of "God's Music" seem weak. In what way did the "ancient Catholic church control much" of England? As Thomas More's Poor Souls protested to Henry VIII in The Supplication of Souls, it was clear who had the authority in England--Simon Fish had stated that the Catholic Church was preventing Henry from ruling his people but More denied that completely. Henry VIII was, even before his split from the universal Church, deeply involved in naming bishops, communicating with Church hierarchy--Bishops and Archbishops served the monarchy in diplomacy and administration--the Church and State were separate powers, but they had worked together smoothly for years. Remember that Henry VIII, like his father, even had Cardinal Protectors to argue English positions on ecclesiastical issues to the Pope and the Curia in Rome

Did Edward VI really "bring church music to the very brink of destruction"? Listening to Thomas Tallis's English anthems from that reign might bring that into question. Tallis would compose music for English translations of the Psalms for Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker during Elizabeth I's reign too. Edward VI's reign, through Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer's creation of The Book of Common Prayer, made Evensong possible, combining Vespers and Compline into one prayer service.

What terrifying reversals in Church music did Mary I make? Seems like Worsley is mixing things up here a little bit, referring to the restoration of Catholic worship and unity with the Catholic Church, and the revival of the Heresy Laws by Parliament in the context of changes in religious musical styles. I don't think those reversals "saw" Elizabeth thrown into the Tower, but the Wyatt Rebellion and concerns about Elizabeth's involvement in it as the one who would replace Mary on the throne. Elizabeth I would throw many people into the Tower whenever she felt threatened too. 

Shouldn't Mary's restoration of English polyphony be the main point of this discussion? If Edward was bringing it to the brink of destruction, didn't Mary save it? 

It's a little strong to say that Elizabeth I "was determined to find a religious compromise"; I think most scholars agree that Elizabeth was pragmatic and her Parliament created the religious settlement she wanted but I doubt that she thought of it as a compromise.

Image (public domain): The Pelican Portrait by Nicholas Hilliard. The pelican was thought to wound her breast to nourish her young, and became a symbol of Passion and Eucharist, adopted by Elizabeth portraying herself as the "mother of the Church of England."

Perhaps we'll see it here in the USA on PBS someday to see how this history is really presented.

John Sheppard on BBC 3

You may listen to the Sunday, February 28 BBC3 Early Music Program on-line here for the next 27 or so days. The subject is John Sheppard:

No-one knows for sure the birth-date of Tudor composer John Sheppard, but it is thought to have been around 600 years ago in 1515-16. Lucie Skeaping is joined by singer and musicologist Sally Dunkley to explore the life and work of one of England's finest composers, with performances by The Sixteen, The Tallis Scholars, Stile Antico, the Gabrieli Consort, The Clerkes of Oxenford and the Choir of Westminster Abbey.

John Sheppard: Libera nos I
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers (director)

John Sheppard: Verbum caro (excerpt)
The Clerkes of Oxenford
David Wulstan (director)

John Sheppard: The Lord's Prayer
Stile Antico

John Sheppard: Magnificat (from Second Service)
The Choir of Westminster Abbey
James O'Donnell (director)

John Sheppard: Agnus Dei (from Missa Cantate)
Gabrieli Consort
Paul McCreesh (director)

John Sheppard: Libera nos II
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers (director)

John Sheppard: Media vita
The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips (director).

Stile Antico explored his works on one of their CDs, too:

Winner of the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Stile Antico’s fourth recording is entirely devoted to the remarkable music of John Sheppard. Once overshadowed by his illustrious contemporary Thomas Tallis, Sheppard is now recognised as a composer of extraordinary originality. The disc explores his achievement in wide range of forms, from enchanting English miniatures written during the Protestant reign of Edward VI to great Latin hymns, antiphons and responsories – chief amongst them the outstanding Media vita, one of the longest and most emotionally involving works of the entire Renaissance.

One Drowning Victim Among Many: Robert Parsons

The BBC History Magazine posts an extra: why did so many people drown in Tudor England?:

Travel across and beside water was as risky as travel on it. Rickety bridges, slippery banks, panicky horses, and fords where the depth of the water or the speed of the current were hard to judge all posed threats.

Everyone was at risk, from a labourer like John Hayward, walking the six miles from Broadway to market in Evesham across the brook at Childswickham on a dark December morning, to a yeoman like Richard Mongombery, riding the eight miles from Uppingham to Kirby late on a February afternoon beside the flooded river Welland.

Animals and water were a dangerous combination. The easiest way to wash a horse was to ride it into deep water, but falling off could be fatal, as Griffin Home found when he rode a black horse into the ‘horse pool’ at Bishop’s Castle and it stumbled. Even taking excitable horses to drink was risky. William Hill, aged 17, took two colts to the river Soar at Burton on the Wolds on 15 June 1558, but they ran into the river and pulled him in after them.

Sheep needed washing before they were sheared and that too could have tragic consequences. One June morning in 1560 Alice and Katherine Bonde were washing sheep in the river Hodder at Slaidburn. A wether (castrated ram) jumped up and knocked Alice head over heels into a whirlpool. Seeing her sister in trouble, Katherine went after her, while John Swinglehirst jumped in from the bank to help. All three died.

Children’s curiosity could get them into trouble with anything that moved. John Choppinge, a Hertford toddler, followed a gosling into a pond in the yard of his family home in April 1560 with fatal results.

One drowning in every ten involved women fetching water for cooking or washing. They died this way three times as often as men, as we might expect from their predominant role in domestic work. Wells, slippery-sided streams and rivers like the Tyne at Newcastle, where Elizabeth Garret fell in on 26 June 1560, all posed problems.

Washing linen in rivers could also prove fatal for women. And in the devastating epidemics of the late 1550s, men and women alike drowned in the attempt to slake their fevered thirst. Some were described as losing their reason in the heat of the fever, like Dorothy Cawthorn of Belton in Lincolnshire, who got out of bed between 4 and 5am on 19 October 1559 and smashed a hole in the kitchen wall so she could get out into her mistress’s hop-garden, where she drowned in a pit five-feet deep. . . .

Read the rest there. Robert Parsons, the great Tudor composer, died of drowning. Naxos posts this biographical note:

Little is known about the life of Robert Parsons. Much of his music has survived to the modern day, however, often in incomplete editions. Born in England around 1535, Parsons was appointed as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1563, a post he held until his death in 1572, when he was succeeded by William Byrd.

Parsons’ output of music was varied, and although the majority of his surviving scores are for choir, he is believed to have written a large amount of instrumental music for the Chapel Royal as well. It is the story surrounding the death of Robert Parsons that arouses great intrigue. On a cold and wet January day, Parsons fell into a swollen River Trent and drowned. Such was the upset and suspicion surrounding his death that much of his music ceased to be performed in the Chapel Royal, as musicians tried to move on and forget this tragic incident. These unfortunate circumstances may also have led to the poor maintenance of Parsons’ music over the years. The consequence of the lack of performance of Parsons’ works after his death has, in the course of time, led to this English polyphonic master being largely unrecognised and even forgotten. His vocal writing is very gifted, and he must have been well versed in composition to have access to the skills of writing music for seven part viols.

His Ave Maria, here sung by the Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge, is one of his best known works. The Cardinall's Musicke performed several of his works on their 2011 release, pictured above:

Gramophone award-winning ensemble The Cardinall’s Musick return to another master of the Renaissance, Robert Parsons. Very few records remain of the composer’s short life, and his musical output is often overlooked, perhaps in the shadow of the prolific William Byrd, his successor as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. However, his vocal writing is some of the most opulent of the period.

The Cardinall’s Musick give sublime performances of some of the composer’s most sumptuous choral works, from the remarkably sophisticated Magnificat to the dramatic O bone Jesu. As demonstrated in their previous recordings, their resonant, pure-toned singing is the perfect advocate for such exquisite polyphony. The ensemble’s seemingly effortless and magical performance of the glorious Ave Maria is the perfect conclusion to an enlightening recording.

It's Still Christmas! Byrd and Tallis Edition

My husband and I have indeed been fortunate to work for a large aviation manufacturing company that shuts down at Christmas time. While some people have to work over the long holiday break from Christmas Eve to New Year's (which this year has been extended to January 2 so the offices don't open until January 5) most of us are off. Since we're Catholic and we're off work, we have been celebrating Christmas every day. Our decorations are still up, the manger scene on the lawn lit up every night (we put it out Christmas Eve), and with prayer and song, we are still rejoicing at this wondrous season.

One CD in particular has been playing often during these cold winter days--we had snow here on Tuesday--Stile Antico's Puer natus est: Tudor Music for Advent & Christmas:

Stile Antico’s fifth recording, winner of the Edison Klassiek Award 2011, the Diapason d’or and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, focuses on the wonderful music written by the English Tudor composers for the seasons of Advent and Christmas. At its heart is Thomas Tallis’ magnificent seven-part ‘Christmas’ Mass, based on the festive plainchant Puer natus est (‘A boy is born’). The mass is interspersed with William Byrd’s exquisite propers for the fourth Sunday of Advent, and framed by responsories by Taverner and Sheppard, Robert White’s exuberant setting of the Magnificat, and Tallis’ own sublimeVidete miraculum.

There is some debate upon when Tallis' Puer Natus Est was first used at Mass: some say it was during Advent when Mary and Philip attended and Mary was thought to be pregnant. But that's not likely since this is obviously a Mass for Christmas and as the liner notes comment, Tallis--and Mary, and Philip, and the celebrating priest and deacons, and the choir, etc--would have known the difference between Advent and Christmas! (And cared, the notes add.)  While the recording does juxtapose Tallis and Byrd (like their earlier recording Heavenly Harmonies which countered every Protestant hymn by Tallis with a Catholic motet by Byrd) these selections are thoroughly Catholic settings of the propers and ordinary of the Mass:

Tallis: Videte miraculum
Taverner: Audivi vocem de caelo
Byrd: Rorate caeli desuper
Tallis: Gloria (Missa Puer natus est)
Byrd: Tollite portas
Tallis: Sanctus & Benedictus (Missa Puer natus est)
Byrd: Ave Maria
Tallis: Agnus Dei (Missa Puer natus est)
Byrd: Ecce virgo concipiet
White: Magnificat
Plainchant: Puer natus est
Sheppard: Verbum caro

Besides Tallis and Byrd, the Magnificat by While is magnificent and Sheppard's Verbum caro is, as the notes indicate, radiant and sensuous.

Merry Christmas!

And, as a bonus today after Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, we will witness the Baptism of our godson's baby sister!

What a way to start the New Year: attending Holy Mass and then seeing a little baby being born again in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus's Resurrection, becoming a daughter of God!

Happy New Year!

Sheppard, Davy, and Mundy from The Sixteen

On their new CD and in their 2014 Choral Pilgrimage:

The Sixteen returns to its grass roots and revisits the golden age of Renaissance polyphony in England for the repertoire of its latest disc. In this new programme the award-winning ensemble presents a stunning selection of music by Richard Davy, John Sheppard and William Mundy.

Little is known about the life of Richard Davy. He is, however, the second most represented of all the composers in the Eton Choirbook and wrote in the beautifully florid style so characteristic of 1490s English music. The mere fact that his music survived the Reformation is nothing short of a miracle. He was a scholar of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he acted as choir master and organist and it is believed that he wrote the monumental O Domine caeli terraeque creator in the span of a single day during his time at the college.

John Sheppard's musical style contains all the grandness and idiosyncrasies of English harmonic invention, as is aptly displayed on this new recording which includes one of the gems of Tudor music - the glorious seven-part Trinity antiphons Libera nos with their ethereal combination of upper voices balanced with an even-note cantus firmus in the bass, as well as one of the most grandiose of Sheppard’s responsories, Gaude, gaude, gaude Maria, a magnificent setting of the responsory and prosa for Second Vespers for the Feast of the Purification.

William Mundy was one of the few composers whose career bridged the Reformation and allowed him to develop his style through a variety of important periods. His Votive antiphon,Vox patris caelestis, probably written for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the reign of Mary Tudor, can be considered as the culmination of the great antiphon tradition with its elaborate and virtuosic vocal writing and daunting extended range.

The track listings are:

John Sheppard (c.1515-58/9)
1. Gaude, gaude, gaude Maria
William Mundy (c.1530-before 1591)
2. Adolescentulus sum ego
Richard Davy (c.1465-c.1521)
3. O Domine caeli terraeque creator
Sheppard
4. Libra nos I & II
5. In manus tuas I
Davy
6. Ah, mine heart, remember thee well
Sheppard
7. In manus tuas III
Mundy
8. Vox patris caelestis

While enduring withdrawal symptoms from the football season Sunday night, I watched the first episodes of Music and Monarchy again--with performances from Eton College, King's College, Cambridge, et al. I enjoyed again how David Starkey and his experts demonstrated the arrangements of College choirs around the huge choir book; then showed the changes made in the composition of music and the membership of the choir during the Tudor Reformation transitions, etc.

Something I did not comment on when I posted my review of Music and Monarchy is the other gradual transition Starkey demonstrates. From the Tudors to the Stuarts to the Hanoverians to the Windsors, the purpose of music at Court, Chapel Royal, and Cathedral changed. First, as Starkey showed particularly with the example of Henry V and Henry VI, the purpose was worship of God. Then, with the Restoration of Charles II and particularly the coronation of James II, the purpose was supporting the monarchy and king, which Purcell continued with the odes to Mary, for example, during the reign of William and Mary. After William curtailed music at Court, English music was revived during the Hanoverian dynasty by the German Handel--and George III supported his music and talent so much that the focus of the musical performance for the monarchy became recognition of the composer. With the Windsors, the purpose of music for the monarchy was patriotism or even nationalism: "Land of Hope and Glory", the Proms, the processional hymn by Ralph Vaughn Williams at Elizabeth II's coronation, "All People That On Earth Do Dwell", the focus was on the people and the glories of being English!

From God, to the King, to the composer, to the people.

David Starkey's "Music and Monarchy"

 

This Christmas, my husband gave me a copy of the DVD set of the BBC's series, "David Starkey's Music & Monarchy", a beautifully produced overview of musical history in England, considering the influence of the monarchy on mostly ceremonial church music.

 

Starkey begins with Henry V, who even wrote music for parts of the Mass, and ends the series with the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. During the four episodes, choirs and ensembles perform great music by well known composers like Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Henry Purcell, George Handel, Thomas Arne, Hubert Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, Edward Elgar, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Also, there are works by lesser known composers like Thomas Tomkins, William Lawes, Henry Lawes, Pelham Humphrey, William Croft, and Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria. Eton College, King's College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Canterbury Cathedral are among the venues, while the Choirs of Eton, King's College, Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul's Cathedral perform in situ. Fretwork, Alamire, the Academy of Ancient Music, The Parley of Instruments, The Band of the Life Guards, and several soloists also perform.

 

The musical selections and the performance are uniformly excellent, and Starkey's narration and his interviews with performers, conductors, and music historians are enlightening. The story of English music and monarchy basically follows, from Henry VIII on, the outline of English Reformation history during the Tudor dynasty, with the repercussions of religious division during the Stuart Dynasty, the Interregnum, Restoration, Glorious Revolution, Protestant succession through the House of Hanover, the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and finally, the House of Windsor succeeding. In the latter part of the history, Starkey considers the impact of the Oxford Movement on English church music, but he really does not consider the impact of secularization on English church music.

 

There were a couple of very great surprises: that Willliam and Mary dissolved the Chapel Royal and ended Henry Purcell's career as a royal composer of religious music--and that Thomas Arne wrote both "Rule, Britannia" and "God Save the King" in the midst of conflict between George II and his estranged son, Frederick the Prince of Wales (who was the father of King George III). Arne wrote "Rule, Britannia" for Frederick as part of a masque honoring King Alfred the Great and supporting the expansion of the British Navy, and then wrote "God Save the King" to support George II.

 

To me, the most noticeable gap is how little he considers the crucial restoration of Tudor church music during the reign of Mary I--when Tallis and Byrd and others were able to write polyphony again. That gap also means that Starkey does not consider the influence of great Spanish composers like Victoria, de Monte and Guerrero on English polyphony, or the exile of Catholic composers like Peter Philips, John Bull, and others. Starkey would only have had to consult Harry Christophers and The Sixteen to explore that crucial period through their CD The Flowering of Genius. Instead, Starkey skips over that period, perhaps because it does not fit his rather Whiggish narrative of English history.

 

That issue aside, the musical performances and the venues make this two-disc set a prized possession. As my husband commented, we could watch the first episode over and over again:

 

Byrd on My Mind

William Byrd has been on my mind lately, as I had written and revised a poem about him--I don't write poetry very often, but sometimes an inspiration comes to me--and I submitted it for publication, and I just heard that it's been accepted. (I'll tell you more about its appearance in print when I know more about the schedule.)

Then I've been listening to the new Stile Antico album of Tudor Church music, The Phoenix Rising--and then I read this blog post at the English Historical Fiction blog by Melanie Spiller, placing William Byrd as "A Catholic Composer in Queen Elizabeth's Court" in historical and musical context:

Byrd was firmly part of the group that defined Elizabethan culture, and it was his musical innovations that shaped what would become known as the English sound.

Byrd’s motets, the English version of the Italian madrigal, are the epitome of High Renaissance style. He also took the disheveled condition of English song in the 1560s and pulled it together to produce a rich and extensive repertoire of songs for consorts, a form that Byrd took seriously and that had no true imitators. He influenced lute songs with his consort pieces, and these evolved into what would become a distinctively English anthem form, Byrd’s most lasting legacy in English music.

His works for the virginal (a harpsichord-like keyboard instrument) transformed it from a parlor toy into an instrument of power and beauty. Byrd changed the direction of keyboard music, making it possible for later lights to shine, such as Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) and Frederic Chopin (1810-1949)—especially after the invention of the piano in 1770 or so.

Byrd’s direct impact on English composition can be compared to that of Shakespeare’s influence on the theater. Thomas Morley (c1557-1602) and Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656) were his pupils, and possibly Peter Philips (c1560-1628), Thomas Weelkes (1576-1623), and John Bull (c1562-1628). These, if you hadn’t guessed, are the royalty of English music during the Renaissance.

Spiller is attentive to the recusancy issue:

Times were tough for Catholics, and noblemen held secret Mass services in their private chapels. Few were prosecuted for this treasonous act, although it’s doubtful that Elizabeth I turned a blind eye. Byrd and Tallis were public figures and they had to put on a show of compliance.

But Byrd was known to be a Roman Catholic recusant, and he risked prosecution by writing Masses for undercover use. For English Catholics, 1581 became a year of decision and renewed commitment. In Harlingon, Byrd’s wife was cited for recusancy along with a servant. Byrd himself wasn’t cited until 1585, when lists of suspected recusant gathering places named his own house. The Byrd family was repeatedly accused of being recusants and in 1605, they were accused of being long-time seducers for the Catholic cause.

It was a terrible period for English Catholics, with rumors flying, forced retirement, assassinations, and executions. Byrd’s home at Harlington was searched twice, perhaps because he was there when he should have been in London. Byrd and his family were fined hugely, but there were concessions, probably at the behest of Elizabeth I. After all, he was still composing official pieces for her.

And she also provides some analysis of Byrd's achievement that inspires me to look at other aspects of his music, especially his compositions for the keyboard:

Byrd was both a traditionalist and an innovator, converting Continental ideas of counterpoint and imitation into a new native-English tradition, and his expressive range was unusually wide.

Although his works were colored by the times in which he lived, many of his motets, galliards, and pastorals are exuberant and joyous. As a precaution against religious persecution, he took his texts from the Bible and other unassailable sources and he wrote for both Catholic and Anglican churches with equal genius.

His lifetime output—at least what is credited to him—includes 180 motets, three Latin Masses, four Anglican Services, dozens of anthems, secular part-songs, fantasias and other works for viol consort, and variations, fantasias, dances, and other works for keyboards. His vocal music includes psalms, sonnets and songs, and around 50 consort songs that could be sung or played by a consort of instruments.

Read the rest here.

Tudor Church Music and the Carnegie Trust

According to the review in The Guardian:

Stile Antico never disappoints. This disc of Tudor church music, sung by the small, conductor-less ensemble, doubles as a well organised programme of Byrd, Tallis, Gibbons and others, and a condensed history of the early music revival in the first half of the last century. Until OUP published the 10-volume Tudor Church Music, between 1922 and 1929, little of this vocal repertoire was known. In a philanthropic gesture which transformed the musical landscape, the project was funded by the Carnegie UK Trust, which marks its centenary this year. Stile Antico honour the endeavour with their customary clean lines, pure tone and precise articulation. If all that sounds a bit efficient, I'm struggling to say only that it is music making at the highest level.

1. Ave verum corpus by William Byrd  
2. Mass for 5 Voices by William Byrd  
3. O clap your hands by Orlando Gibbons  
4. Almighty and everlasting God by Orlando Gibbons  
5. Nolo mortem peccatoris by Thomas Morley 
6. Salvator mundi by Thomas Tallis   
7. In jejunio et fletu by Thomas Tallis
8. O splendor gloriae by John Taverner
9. Portio mea by Robert White
10. Christe qui lux es IV by Robert White

You may listen to samples here. I bought my copy yesterday and enjoyed listening to it before and after Mass on Sunday.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Robert White was an

English composer, b. about 1530; d. Nov., 1574; was educated by his father, and graduated Mus. D., at Cambridge University, 13 Dec., 1560. In March, 1561, he succeeded Dr. Tye as organist and master of the choristers at Ely cathedral, continuing in that office till 1566. He accepted a similar post at Chester cathedral in 1566, and took part in the Whitsuntide pageants during the years 1567-69. Such was his repute as a choir trainer that in 1570 he was appointed organist and master of the choristers of Westminster Abbey. Though an avowed Catholic he retained his post at Westminster Abbey from 1570 until his death. It is worth recording that during the same period, under Elizabeth, the musical services of the Chapel Royal, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral were directed by three Catholics, namely Farrant, White, and Westcott. White made his will on 5 Nov., 1574, and in it he describes his father Robert White as still living. He left each of the choristers four pence. The high estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries may be judged by the distich which a pupil (in 1581) inscribed in the manuscript score of White's "Lamentations":
"Non ita moesta sonat plangentis verba prophetae
Quam sonat authoris musica moesta mei."

Fortunately quite a large number of White compositions have survived, and of these his Latin motets are sufficient to place him in the front rank of English composers of the Elizabethan epoch. His contrapuntal writing is very fine, though stilted. However, his "Lamentations", set for five voices, have a flavour far in advance of his period, as also his motet "Peccatum peccavit Jerusalem" and "Regina Coeli". It is to be observed that he wrote his English anthems ex officio, but his Latin services reveal the full genius of White, and give him a place with Tallis, Byrd, Shepherd, and Taverner. Strange to say, though he stood so high among mid-sixteenth century musicians, his compositions were almost utterly neglected till unearthed by Dr. Burney. In recent years he has come into his own, thanks to the zeal of Mr. Arkwright, Dr. Terry, and others. Dr. Earnest Walker regards White "fairly to be reckoned — even remembering that Palestrina and Lassus were contemporaries — as among the very greatest European composers of this time".

Indeed, the Oxford Camerata recorded a "lamentable" CD of White's Lamentations, with Palestrina's, de Lassus', and Thomas Tallis', too!