Sacred polyphony in England from the Eton Choirbook to Byrd’s Gradualia Lecture 1: The Eton Choirbook

‘We will and ordain…that, each day at Vespers, at a time deemed appropriate by the Pro- vost or, in his absence, the Vice-Provost, the 16 choristers of our college shall enter the church two-by-two, wearing surplices [and] accompanied by the instructor of the choris- ters…having knelt before the rood, they shall say Pater noster and, on rising, shall sing be- fore the image of the B[lessed] V[irgin] M[ary] the antiphon Salve regina with its versicles during Lent (at which time, at least on the eves of feast days, all the scholars of our college should attend, wearing surplices): outside Lent, they should likewise sing another anti- phon of the BVM in the best manner which they know, with the versicle Ave Maria and prayer.’ (Statutes of Eton College) ‘Illi etenim in dies novos cantus novissime inveniunt, ac isti, quod miserrimi signum est ingenii, una semper et eadem compositione utuntur.’

‘For indeed [the French] invent new songs in new manners every day, whereas [the English] go on using one and the same kind of composition, which is a sign of an impoverished mind.’ Tinctoris, Proportionale musices (c. 1473–4)

Reading Hugh Benham, Latin Church Music in England, 1460–1575 (London, 1977), ch. 5–6 (and, for context, ch. 1–4 and 7–8) Frank Ll. Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain (London, 1958), ch. 6 (and, for context, ch. 1 & 4) Frank Ll. Harrison, ‘English Polyphony (c. 1470–1540), in The New Oxford History of Music III (Oxford, 1960), 303– John Caldwell, The Oxford History of English Music, I (Oxford, 1991), ch. 4 Roger Bray, The Sixteenth Century, The Blackwell History of Music in Britain (Oxford, 1995), ch. 2 Reinhard Strohm, The Rise of European Music, 1380–1500, pp. 377–82 & 394–402 Magnus Williamson’s introductory study to the facsimile edition of The Eton Choirbook (Oxford, 2010), ch. 1, 2, 9 Magnus Williamson, ‘Royal Imagery and Textual Interplay in Gilbert Banaster’s O Maria et Elizabeth’, Early Music History 19 (2001), 237–75 Magnus Williamson, ‘The Early Tudor Court, the Provinces, and the Eton Choirbook’, Early Music 25 (1997), 229–43 Magnus Williamson, ‘Pictura et scriptura: The Eton Choirbook in its Iconographical Con- text’, Early Music 28 (2000), 359–80 Fabrice Fitch, ‘Hearing John Browne’s Motets: Registral Space in the Music of the Eton Choirbook’, Early Music 36 (2008), 19–40 Fabrice Fitch, ‘Towards a Taxonomy of the Eton Style’, in Jennifer Bloxam, Gioia Filocamo, and Leofranc Holford-Strevens (eds), Uno gentile et subtile ingenio: Studies in Renaissance Music in Honour of Bonnie J. Blackburn (Tours, 2009), 37–52 Richard Sherr (ed.), The Josquin Companion, ch. 9, 10, 15 Theodor Dumitrescu, The Early Tudor Court and International Musical Relations (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007)

Grove Music Online ‘Obrecht’, ‘Ockeghem’

Editions For the facsimile edition of the Eton Choirbook, ed. Williamson: see above The complete edition of the Eton Choirbook music is: Frank Ll. Harrison, The Eton Choir- book, 3 vols, Musica Britannica 10–12 (London, 1955–60). Note that Harrison has quartered the original note-values. Paul Doe (ed.), Early Tudor Magnificats, Early English Church Music 4 (1962) Edward Warren, Robert Fayrfax, Collected Works, 2 vols, Corpus mensurabilis musicæ 17 (1959/1964) Johannes Ockeghem Collected Works 3, ed. Richard Wexler (for the Marian motets) New Obrecht Edition 16, ed. Chris Maas (for e.g. the Salve regina settings) New Josquin Edition 23 & 24, ed. Willem Elders (vol. 23 includes Alma redemptoris, Ave Maria virgo serena, and Benedicta es cælorum regina; vol. 24 includes Illibata, Inviolata, and Præter rerum)

Recordings The Eton Choirbook, 4 CDs, The Sixteen, dir. Harry Christophers (Collins Classics) (in MFL) William Cornysh: Stabat Mater, The Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips (Gimell CDGIM 014) John Browne: Music from the Eton Choirbook, The Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips (Gimell CDGIM 036) Ockeghem: Missa Mi-mi, Salve regina, Alma redemptoris mater, The Clerks’ Group, dir. Ed- ward Wickham Obrecht: Missa Caput, Salve regina, Oxford Camerata, dir. Jeremy Summerly There are many recordings of Josquin’s Marian motets