William Byrd and Arvo Part from The Sixteen (and Thomas Tallis too)

This new CD from Harry Christophers and The Sixteen will be out soon in the U.S.A. (April 1, no fooling):

Whilst coming from very different eras, William Byrd and Arvo Pärt are both considered masters of sacred music despite having faced considerable persecution for their work. This programme presents six of William Byrd’s works from the Cantiones Sacrae including the monumental "Tribue, Domine", and the mighty eight-voice motet "Ad Dominum cum tribularer". The three works by Arvo Pärt speak in his unmistakable voice, with its unique blend of ancient and modern, and include his mesmerising "Nunc dimittis" which is crafted in his bell-like ‘tinitinnabuli’ style.

In 2016 The Sixteen’s Choral Pilgrimage will take The Deer’s Cry programme to 33 towns and cities across the UK including London, Oxford, Cambridge, York, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

The title "The Deer's Cry" refers St. Patrick's prayer also called the Lorica or Breastplate of St Patrick. More about it here from the Irish Chaplaincy in Ireland.

The program consists of:

Byrd- Diliges Dominum

Byrd- Christe qui lux es et dies

Arvo- Pärt The Deer’s Cry

Byrd- Emendemus in melius

Arvo- Pärt The Woman with the Alabaster Box

Byrd- Miserere mihi Domine

Byrd- Ad Dominum cum tribularer

Tallis/Byrd- Miserere nostri

Tallis- When Jesus went

Byrd- O lux beata Trinitas

Arvo- Pärt Nunc dimittis

Byrd- Laetentur coeli

Byrd- Tribue, Domine



Here's a review!

Vespers at Hampton Court with Cardinal Archbishop Nichols

These events appear in the news every so often, when Catholic services (the Mass, the Divine Office, etc) are celebrated in formerly Catholic churches and chapels at the invitation of Anglican officials. From the Hampton Court Chapel website:

History will be made on the evening of Tuesday 9 February when the Genesis Foundation and the Choral Foundation bring together leaders of the Catholic Church and the Church of England for the first service according to the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church to be celebrated since the 1550s at Hampton Court Palace’s Chapel Royal. 

This historic service of Vespers in King Henry VIII’s chapel will be celebrated by His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols and will include a sermon from The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres, KCVO, Bishop of London and Dean of Her Majesty’s Chapels Royal – an unprecedented coming together of the Catholic and Anglican churches on such an historically important site.

Celebrated mostly in Latin, another first in over 450 years, Vespers will be dedicated to St John the Baptist as the Chapel Royal was built by Cardinal Wolsey on the site of a chapel of the Knights of St John Hospitaller, dedicated to that Saint. 

Members of the public will have the chance to attend this service through a free ballot. 

The musical element of the service has been chosen and will be performed by Harry Christophers and his ensembles The Sixteen and Genesis Sixteen. Paying tribute to the rich and turbulent religious history of the Chapel Royal, the ensembles will sing ThomasTallis’ Magnificat, William Cornysh’s Salve Regina and John Taverner’s ‘Leroy’ Kyrie. 

The composers chosen are historically significant according to the news release:

Both Cornyshe and Tallis were Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal. 

William Cornyshe in 1509 became Informator Choristarum of the Chapel Royal and led the Chapel Royal’s ceremonies at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in June 1520. 

Thomas Tallis was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal and served in the royal household under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I. Tallis avoided religious controversies, though he stayed an "unreformed Roman Catholic" under four consecutive monarchs. 

John Taverner was Henry VIII’s chief minister and in 1538 Taverner supervised the demolition and burning of the rood screen in Boston parish church as a result of reformation activities. His Leroy Kyrie takes its name from a tune called “Leroy” which appears in many Tudor manuscripts. It is most likely that one of the C15th kings composed it, most probably Henry IV or V being “Le Roi”. 

I'm not sure what the reference to John Taverner as "Henry VIII's chief minister" means: he was a choirmaster and a lay clerk, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica:

In 1526 Taverner went to the University of Oxford to become master of the choir in the chapel of Cardinal College (later Christ Church). He left Oxford in 1530 to serve as a lay clerk in St. Boltoph choir in Boston, England, where he may have taken up the position of chorister instructor. However, by 1537 he had ended his association with the choir, at which time he may have retired from employment in church music altogether. The allegation that he served as a paid agent of Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII’s suppression of English monasteries cannot be verified.

Taverner’s church music, which is printed in Tudor Church Music, volumes 1 and 3 (1923–24), shows a variety, skill, range, and power that represent the climax of pre-Reformation English music. It includes 8 masses (e.g., The Western Wind), a few mass movements, 3 Magnificats, a Te Deum, and 28 motets. Taverner’s adaptation of the musical setting of the words In nomine Domini from the Benedictus of his mass Gloria tibi Trinitas became the prototype for a large number of instrumental compositions known as In nomines, or Gloria tibi Trinitas.

John Foxe reported years after Taverner's death that he had regretted wasting his time with Catholic church music.

More about the history of Hampton Court here: it was Thomas Cardinal Wolsey's great palace before he turned it over to Henry VIII in 1527 after he fell from favour for failing to make the way clear for Henry VIII to marry Anne Boleyn. Before Anne's apartments at the Palace were finished, however, Henry had her executed: neither Wolsey nor Anne had much time to enjoy the pleasures of Hampton Palace.

BBC and the Sixteen (Harry Christophers) on Sacred Music

Over the past couple of weeks, my husband and I have watched this DVD set from the BBC/CORO: Sacred Music, hosted by Simon Russell Beale, with musical excerpts and commentary by The Sixteen and Harry Christophers. Note the words "musical excerpts"; The Sixteen perform parts of the works under discussion as examples. These are not complete performances.

The four episodes are:

Episode 1: The Gothic Revolution
Episode 2: Palestrina & the Popes
Episode 3: Tallis, Byrd & the Tudors
Episode 4: Bach & the Lutheran Legacy

The only one I did not enjoy as much as the others was Palestrina & the Popes, mainly because Simon Russell Beale presented the Renaissance/Reformation popes so unfairly. What do I mean by that? First he speaks of one pope as being totally corrupt and reprehensible--and that's very bad. Then Beale speaks of another pope as being devout and and ready to impose reforms and improve morals--and that's even worse! 

The first episode I love because it's set in Paris and Notre Dame with a trip to St. Denis, and because of its fascinating explanation of the development from plainchant to polyphony. The episode on Tallis and Byrd offers the great insight into how much William Byrd focused on the words of the sacred texts of the Mass and the Holy Bible to write his music. Byrd was not using plainchant forms or models to adapt them to the words, but beginning with the words to create the most beautiful and appropriate music he could to elucidate their meaning.

The fourth episode focuses on Luther's changes to liturgical prayer to include congregational singing, the vernacular, and the organ -- and how those changes influenced Bach. Johann Sebastian Bach created more than a thousand works of music, most of them for the Lutheran church. We had recently started listening to Actus Tragicus, a CD of early cantatas from Harmonia Mundi, so we were glad to learn more about Bach's choral music.

I recommend the DVD set, with the warning that the discs do not present complete performances and my discontent with the second episode noted.

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.