Music from the , volume 1 Robert Jones John Mason

Blue Heron Scott Metcalfe Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, volume 1 Blue Heron Hugh Aston (c1485-1558) Noël Bisson, Lydia Brotherton, Teresa Wakim, Brenna Wells (fl1520-35) Robert Jones Jennifer Ashe, Pamela Dellal, Martin Near John Mason (c1480-1548) Michael Barrett, Allen Combs, Jason McStoots, Marc Molomot, Aaron Sheehan, Steven Soph, Mark Sprinkle, Sumner Thompson Blue Heron Scott Metcalfe Cameron Beauchamp, Glenn Billingsley, Paul Guttry

Scott Metcalfe director 1 Hugh Aston Ave Maria dive matris Anne (11:17) NB TW BW • PD MN • JM MS • AC ST • CB GB PG

2 Robert Jones Magnificat (13:38) NB LB BW • JA MN • JM MS • AC AS • CB PG ST

3 Aston Gaude virgo mater Christi (12:02) NB TW BW • PD MN • JM MS • MB AC • CB PG ST

Acknowledgements 4 John Mason Our greatest thanks to Nick Sandon for making it possible for the incomplete Peterhouse music to sound again in our time. His work Quales sumus O miseri (12:13) MM MN • JM SS • AS MS • AC ST • GB PG is an unfailing inspiration for ours. 5 Aston This recording was made possible by the generosity of many donors, including major underwriting from Laurie Francis-Wright, NB LB BW • JA MN • AS MS • AC JM • CB GB PG Ave Maria ancilla trinitatis (14:36) William and Elizabeth Metcalfe, Harry Silverman, and Erin McCoy, and substantial support from John Paul and Diane Britton and

William J. Vaughan. Our grateful thanks to all who contributed: Cheryl K. Ryder, Peter Belknap and Jennifer Snodgrass, Michael P. McDonald, Daniel Donoghue, Andrew Sigel, Michal Truelsen and Joda Wormhoudt, Benjamin Krepp, Maureen A. Conroy, Anne H. Total time: (63:48) Matthews, Ann B. Scott, Noël Bisson, Paul LaFerriere and Dorrie Parini, Samuel Rubin and Jennifer Farley Smith, Thomas Bisson, and Edward S. Ginsberg. We are also thankful to all those who have made possible Blue Heron’s work with the Peterhouse repertoire over the years, especially Cynthia Schlaikjer and Philip H. Davis. Gaude virgo edited by, and all other works edited and completed by Nick Sandon. Published by Antico Edition (www.anticoedition.co.uk). Used with permission. Thanks to Suzy Westcott, Elton Matos, and the Church of the Redeemer for hosting the recording sessions. MUSIC FROM THE Provenance, destination, and historical others in a more modern idiom (concise, syl- was done; and why the enterprise was neces- PETERHOUSE PARTBOOKS interpretation of the Peterhouse partbooks labic, plain, and structurally transparent), and sary. The composers represented in a musical placing settings of traditional texts honouring manuscript can provide valuable clues as to All of the music included in this recording Peterhouse’s Henrician partbooks are the Mary alongside settings of new texts honour- where the collection originated, particularly if comes from a set of partbooks belonging most important extant source of English ing Jesus, reminds us that the English church their representation in other sources is either to Peterhouse, Cambridge (Peterhouse MSS church music on the eve of the Reformation. was in a state of flux and that the future was by very sparse or non-existent, and even more 471–4). It is ironic that Peterhouse, one of The repertory of five-part polyphony that they no means clear. The idea that in order to gain so if their music shows technical limitations the oldest and smallest of the colleges that contain is both large and varied, consisting support for his repudiation of papal autho- or peculiarities: the implication is that these together make up the university of Cam- of seventy-two compositions in the standard rity Henry VIII had to give free rein to religious may have been ordinary musicians—most bridge, should today own not just one but forms of the day—Mass, Magnificat, votive reformers, and that this resulted in the aban- probably choral singers—who did not spe- three significant sets of partbooks, for the col- antiphon, ritual plainchant setting, and one or donment of traditional forms and styles of cialise in composition and whose occasional lege had no early choral tradition and did not two pieces whose function is debatable—and church music a decade or more before the essays in the art did not travel outside the walls even have a chapel of its own to worship in more than half of these works do not survive introduction of the Book of Common Prayer of the institution that employed them. Disco- until the 1630s. The two later sets of partbooks in other sources. The composers represented in 1549, stems from a one-sided and ludi- vering where a minor composer of this type that it possesses, known as the former and lat- (twenty-nine, plus one anonymous) range crously over-simplified reading of history. worked may reveal the provenance of a source ter Caroline sets (MSS 475–81 and 485–93), from those widely admired both at the time Henry remained a religious conservative to in which he figures. In the case of Peterhouse were acquired during the reign of Charles I and also today, such as and the end of his days, and he ensured that con- MSS 471–4 the presence of music by front-rank (1625–49) as part of the college’s campaign to , whose careers are relatively servative opinion was well-represented in the composers such as Fayrfax, Taverner, Nicho- create a chapel, a choir and a choral repertory well documented and whose music is ubi- church that he governed. Although radicals in las Ludford, Hugh Aston and Richard Pygott for itself. In contrast, the partbooks preser- quitous in sources of the period, to the most the English church may have begun to experi- tells us very little, because their work was ving the music recorded here date from about obscure, such as Hugh Sturmy, whose careers ment with new forms and styles of musical very widely distributed. On the other hand, a hundred years earlier, towards the end of the have yet to be traced and whose music sur- service several years before Henry’s death in the presence of otherwise unknown music by reign of Henry VIII, for which reason they are vives nowhere else. The musical quality of the 1547, institutions with more traditional tastes William Alen, Thomas Appelby, John Catcott known as the Henrician set. For those who collection is generally very high, and many clearly continued to welcome the type of rep- or Cobcot, Arthur Chamberlayne, “Edwarde” may find it interesting, I will explain briefly why pieces (by no means only those by well-known ertory offered in Peterhouse’s Henrician part- (probably Edward Hedley), Robert Hunt and these partbooks are so important, and give an composers) show not only skilled craftsman- books, which would have been familiar to Edward Martyn, most of whom do not appear idea of the detective work that has gone into ship but also marked imagination and strong Henry’s father in religious content if not always in other extant sources, is extremely sugges- their study. Those who find this kind of stuff character. in musical style. tive of a connection with Magdalen College, a trifle nerdy may wish to skip to the section Oxford, because the names of all of these headed “Music by Aston, Jones and Mason.” The very varied nature of this repertory, inter- A great deal can be deduced about the genesis men occur in a musical context—mostly as mingling compositions in a rather conserva- of these partbooks: who the copyist was; when singers in the choir—in college records dat- tive style (expansive, melismatic, ornate, and he carried out his task; where he found many ing from between the later 1480s to the early structurally rather opaque to the listener) with of his exemplars; for whose benefit the work 1540s. Some of the other composers in the 4 5 books strengthen the probability of a link with cathedrals were refounded as secular cathe- Thus there appeared on the scene several useful to his new employers, and then brought Oxford, although not a direct one with Mag- drals and provided with a dean and chapter important choral foundations urgently in them with him to Canterbury. There, I suspect, dalen College: John Mason, Hugh Aston, John and a choral staff to perform divine service need of skilled singers and music for them they were recopied neatly into the partbooks Darke and James Northbroke held the degree with appropriate ceremony and expertise. to perform. Could the partbooks have been that we now have, along with other music of B.Mus. from the ; John Three other monasteries—Chester, Glouces- intended for one of these? One of the com- that Bull may have picked up during his jour- Taverner was choirmaster of Cardinal Col- ter, and Peterborough—were also reconsti- positions in them has a bearing upon this ney from Oxford to Canterbury (which would lege between 1526 and 1530, and William tuted as the cathedral churches of new dio- question: Hugh Sturmy’s Exultet in hac die, a probably have taken him through London) or Whytbroke was a chaplain of that college in ceses. In many ways the transition was smooth setting of an antiphon in honour of St Augus- found waiting for him at his destination. This 1529/30. In addition, John Mason and Richard enough: some monks were pensioned off; tine of Canterbury, the missionary sent by might explain why the partbooks contain two Pygott were members of the household cha- others became secular clergy in the new foun- Pope Gregory the Great to bring Christia- copies (clearly from different exemplars) of the pel (“chapel” can mean a group of ecclesias- dations; and with the necessary administrative nity to the pagan Anglo-Saxons. This piece votive antiphon Salve intemerata by Thomas tical singers as well as the building in which and liturgical adjustments the life of the insti- could only have been relevant to Canterbury, Tallis, one of Bull’s colleagues in the cathedral’s they sing) of Cardinal Wolsey, founder of Car- tution carried on. Musically, however, there whose first archbishop Augustine became. No newly formed choir (it was Tallis’s first major dinal College and himself an ex-member of was a problem: at the beginning of their new other work in the collection refers to a saint appointment). Salve intemerata probably dates Magdalen College. existence very few of these cathedrals can associated with one of the refounded cathe- from the late 1520s; Bull could have made one have possessed a particularly challenging or drals. The hypothesis that the partbooks were copy from an exemplar at Oxford, and the se- It therefore seems very likely that most of the extensive polyphonic repertory. Even if they intended for Canterbury is strengthened by cond copy could have been made at Canter- music in the partbooks was available for copy- inherited the polyphonic repertory of their the existence of a highly relevant human link bury from an exemplar provided by the com- ing in Oxford, and that some of it was only to monastic predecessor, this may not have been between the cathedral and Magdalen College poser himself. be found at Magdalen College. But for where particularly impressive; monasteries had for in the person of Thomas Bull. Between Mi- was the collection copied, and why should several decades been finding it hard to keep chaelmas 1528 and Michaelmas 1539 Bull was If we accept that the Henrician partbooks were such a large copying project have been ne- up with musical fashion—especially with the a lay-clerk in the choir of Magdalen College; copied for and used at Canterbury Cathedral, cessary at all? An answer is suggested by a increasing scale and technical difficulty of when he next appears, in the summer of 1540, their significance becomes even greater. Can- major event in contemporary English his- choral polyphony—because monks were not it is as a lay-clerk of Canterbury Cathedral. Dur- terbury was regarded as the birthplace of tory: Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monaste- necessarily expert musicians and monastic ing his time at Magdalen, moreover, Bull often Christianity in ; it was a cathedral city ries. In 1539–40 this reached its climax with rules severely restricted the hiring of profes- received extra payments for copying music. of unrivalled antiquity; its archbishop was the the closing-down of the greatest monastic sional singers. Any of these cathedrals of the In Bull, therefore, Canterbury secured the ser- senior primate of the English church, and his houses in the kingdom, including all eleven new foundation would thus have needed not vices not only of an experienced choral singer mandate descended from Pope Gregory. Such of the cathedrals (Bath, Canterbury, Carlisle, Co- only to recruit a competent choir consisting but also of a professional music copyist who considerations had even greater resonance ventry, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Rochester, Win- of anything between about eight to twelve had access to one or more of the major musi- in a country which had recently repudiated chester, Worcester and Christ Church, Dublin) boys and twelve to twenty-four men, but also cal collections in Oxford. Presumably he spent papal authority: Canterbury was England’s which housed a community of monks rather to assemble a suitable repertory for itself as his final months there choosing and making Rome, and the cathedral was her St Peter’s. It than secular priests. Most of the ex-monastic quickly as possible. loose copies of compositions that would be would seem ludicrous to pursue this analogy 6 7 by suggesting that the Archbishop of Canter- Missing parts and their restoration toral dissertation that was accepted in 1983. At The restorer’s task is to complete what remains bury was England’s Pope—Thomas Cranmer that time the practice of editorial recomposi- of the original in the most congruous way that would have been horrified by such a compari- If this set of partbooks is as important as I am tion tended to arouse suspicion—sometimes is possible, not to improve (still less to distort) son, and his authority and initiative were much suggesting, why is it so much less famous even disdain—on such grounds as the follow- it. This demands an acute eye, a very accurate more limited—but he had more influence on than, say, the Eton choirbook (a large col- ing: it created a kind of forgery; it risked dis- ear (particularly the inner or mental ear), con- religious policy than anyone except the king lection of votive antiphons and Magnificats figuring what it tried to make whole; it strayed centration, patience, time, and (my wife asks himself. Cranmer, of course, was a determined assembled for Eton College about forty years dangerously away from science into creativity; me to add) surpassing tolerance from one’s but cautious religious reformer who rejected before), and why is the music unique to it still it conjured up the ghost of the musical “general partner. In this context the idea of restoration is many aspects of traditional catholicism. How virtually unknown? The chief reason is that the practitioner”—the amateur scholar, the organ- perhaps rather misleading, because it implies could such a man allow the performance in his set is not complete. Originally it consisted of ist-cum-antiquarian—which British musico- that it should normally be possible to work out cathedral of a musical repertory as conservative five books each containing one of the vocal logy was for social and historical reasons espe- precisely what is missing from an incomplete as this? The question is misconceived, because parts—generally treble, mean (alto), con- cially anxious to lay. I believed, however, that composition and supply it with absolute fide- like all English bishops Cranmer had very lit- tratenor (a rather high tenor), tenor (a slightly the potential benefits outweighed the risks: lity. This is, however, rarely the case. It happens tle say in the running of his own cathedral lower tenor, or sometimes a baritone), and competent restoration might increase aware- only when a missing vocal part can be shown church. Responsibility for this lay instead with bass—of this five-part repertory; hence the ness of this repertory and encourage a more to have been based exclusively on material the cathedral chapter, and in the early 1540s term “partbooks.” However, the book contain- balanced appraisal of English church music; which exists elsewhere, and to have used that the chapter of Canterbury Cathedral was a ing the tenor part is now missing, and pages and it could rescue a large amount of music— material in an entirely systematic and predic- markedly conservative body, some of whose have been lost from the beginning and end some of it very good indeed—from oblivion table fashion. For example, it might quote a members even abetted an attempt to destroy of the treble book. In some cases the mis- and give pleasure to listeners and perfor- plainchant melody in equal note values (as in Cranmer himself. A musical collection includ- sing voices can be supplied from other musi- mers. Nowadays the restoration of music of John Mason’s O rex gloriose) or sing in canon ing Masses and votive antiphons celebrating cal sources, but many of these are themselves all periods is much more widely practised and with one of the surviving voices of the piece saints and the mother of Jesus is precisely what incomplete. The end result is that no fewer accepted, and there have been some asto- (as in William Alen’s Gaude virgo mater Christi). one would expect such men to have com- than fifty of the seventy-two works in the col- nishing achievements, for example Anthony However, most compositions which incorpo- missioned. What the Peterhouse repertory lection lack their tenor parts, and nineteen Payne’s completion of Elgar’s third symphony. rate a plainchant or other pre-existing melody demonstrates is that in 1540 the future of the also lack their treble. In its surviving state, two I have continued to revise my Peterhouse as a structural backbone or cantus firmus, as English church was by no means as obvious thirds of the repertory is unperformable. restorations and to publish them through most of the Peterhouse Masses and some of and inevitable as we today, with the advantage Antico Edition (www.anticoedition.co.uk), and the other pieces in the collection do, quote it of hindsight, may imagine it to have been. One of the tasks that I set myself when I began have been gratified by the number of choirs only when all five voices are singing, the sec- There was still room, at its very heart, for music working on the Henrician partbooks more that have performed them. The contribution tions in fewer voices being freely composed. that was in all respects traditional. than thirty years ago was to restore the incom- of Blue Heron and Scott Metcalfe has been They also vary its rhythmic layout from one plete pieces to a performable state by recom- exceptional: no other choir has shown such statement to another, and sometimes deco- posing the missing voices; I included editorial sustained interest in them, and very few have rate it melodically, so a great deal is left to the completions of nearly all of them in the doc- sung them with such insight and skill. restorer’s discretion. But at least, when a can- 8 9 tus firmus is present, it is usually in the tenor it. I am no spiritualist—it puzzles me that dead ingly varied, ranging from jog-trotting poetry to John Taverner. After his retirement he may part, and this can be a great help when it is the composers should bother to communicate to Ciceronian prose, and from pedestrian have played a significant role in the civic life of tenor part that is missing. mediocre and uncharacteristic music to their eulogies that are hackneyed in thought and , but it is not yet certain that the Hugh amanuenses—but I have once or twice felt that language to prayers that are imaginative, elo- Aston who occupied several important public Another musical device which, when present, I was experiencing something extremely close quent and compelling. A significant number offices there can be identified with him. can be enormously helpful to the restorer is to the original composer’s thought processes. of them are reworkings or expansions of the imitative writing, where musical motifs pass Ave Maria, Gabriel’s greeting to Mary. The text of John Mason’s Quales sumus O miseri, from one voice to another in a sort of musical Music by Aston, Jones and Mason by contrast, is stuffed with biblical allusion discussion; if the extant voices of a composi- It is easy to dismiss the former type, exem- and written in rather elegant and resourceful tion exploit this technique it is highly proba- Four of the five compositions recorded here plified here by Hugh Aston’s settings of Ave Latin. As with most votive antiphons we do not ble that the missing voice or voices did so too, are votive antiphons, representing one of Maria dive matris, Gaude virgo mater Christi and know its author, but it may perhaps have been and close examination will usually reveal places the favourite genres of church music in pre- Ave Maria ancilla trinitatis, as being intellectu- the composer himself. We first meet him as a where the motifs can be fitted in. The strength Reformation England. Strictly speaking votive ally unworthy, but in their intended context young singer in the household chapel of Mar- of a composer’s musical personality can also antiphons were not liturgical, in that they repetitive and predictable texts of this kind can garet Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, who paid strongly influence the ease or difficulty of were not a compulsory constituent of either work well as mantras aiding contemplation. It for him to be educated for the priesthood. Hav- completing his music: the more distinctive his the Mass or the Divine Office; instead they is interesting that in all three of these compo- ing been ordained in 1507, he was instructor style—even if the distinctiveness is of a nega- were sung as a separate act of devotion to sitions a closing prayer explicitly seeking the of the choristers at Magdalen College, Oxford tive kind, involving melodic gawkiness or idio- Mary, Jesus or a saint usually after Compline, addressee’s intercession has been added to the between 1508 and 1510 and took the degree syncratic dissonance treatment, for instance— the final service of the day. By singing such main text; in the first two the request is made of B.Mus. in 1509. He then disappears for more the more there is to assimilate and copy. The pieces religious communities sought to enlist on behalf of the college or religious commu- than a decade, reappearing as a member of hardest music to restore with conviction is that the intercession of the personages addressed nity performing the piece, while in the last it is Cardinal Wolsey’s household chapel in 1521. which is incoherent and lacking in personality: in them; private individuals could do the same made more personal. Aston spent most of his It may have been through Wolsey’s patronage it can be completed in virtually countless ways, by reading or reciting the texts, many of which working life at the wealthy collegiate church that he acquired several lucrative benefices, none of which may seem strongly preferable to were standard constituents of the books of of St Mary Newarke at Leicester, where he was including a chaplaincy at Chichester Cathe- any other. It is also considerably more difficult hours that were being printed in large quanti- choirmaster at least from 1525 until the col- dral (the Peterhouse partbooks refer to him to complete a piece lacking two voices than it is ties from the 1490s onwards. Some votive anti- lege’s dissolution in 1548; details of the earlier as “Mason of Chichester”) and a canonry of to complete one lacking a single voice, because phon texts, such as Salve regina, were centuries part of his career after taking the Oxford B.Mus. Hereford Cathedral. He seems to have settled the number of possible solutions is so greatly old and survive in numerous musical settings, in 1510 are lacking, but he may have worked at Hereford, where he became cathedral trea- increased. One is perhaps bound to be more but early Tudor England saw the production in Coventry, perhaps at the cathedral. It is clear surer in 1545. Three of his four extant composi- often disappointed than satisfied by one’s of many new texts, not a few of which exist that he was highly thought of: he was the tions, including Quales sumus, are written not efforts, but the reward comes on the rare occa- in a single musical setting, as if they were cre- first choice to be choirmaster of Thomas Wol- for the usual mixed choir of boys and men but sions when one feels convinced of having re- ated especially for it. The intellectual content sey’s newly founded Cardinal College, but he for men’s voices alone, presumably because created a piece essentially as the composer left and literary style of these texts are astonish- declined the post, and only then was it offered only these were available to him. It is inte- 10 11 resting that one of the references in the text for instance a rather ornate style, a tendency text addressed to St Anne beginning “Gaude at Canterbury, from pre-existing exemplars of is accompanied by a reference in the music: to create variety and contrast through large mater matris Christi.” The version recorded works written in the 1520s and 1530s. The choir when the words “Sicut cervus aquarum fon- blocks of music in different scorings and here attempts to marry the music of the com- at Magdalen College, whose repertoire Bull tes” from Psalm 41:2 are quoted, the bass voice metres, a slightly ambiguous attitude to imi- plete copy to the text of the incomplete copy drew from, was staffed with sixteen boys and sings the melody to which they are sung in the tative writing which is sometimes decorative in Peterhouse. Ave Maria dive matris, the Mag- around ten men during this period. The three plainchant tract from the Mass for the dead. and sometimes structural—their composers nificat and Quales sumus O miseri need to have antiphons by Aston were probably composed also have unmistakably individual traits. Aston their tenor part recomposed, while Ave Maria for the choir at St Mary Newarke, which dur- Robert Jones’s Magnificat is a setting of the is the most showy, delighting in elaborate figu- ancilla trinitatis lacks both its tenor and its ing his time there (at least 1525-48) consisted New Testament canticle sung at the evening ration and striking effects, tolerant of stronger treble. I would not claim that my restorations of a maximum of six boys and sixteen men. service of Vespers. It observes many of the con- than average dissonances, and fond of repeat- are definitive, but I hope that they may help to The Royal Household Chapel, served by Jones ventions that had grown up in English settings ing short motifs in a rather dogged way (as gain for this music some of the attention that it from at least 1520 until 1535, employed about of this item during the previous hundred years. the bass does in the “Amen” of Ave Maria dive deserves. a dozen boys and fifteen to twenty men when Jones sets only the even-numbered verses of matris); he is also the most innovative of these — Nick Sandon at full strength, shrinking to about six and six the canticle and its doxology, leaving the others composers in exploiting now and then a more New Year’s Day 2010 when the court went on progress, traveling to be sung to their usual plainchant formula; he syllabic style allied to musical repetition and around the country in the summer months. sets some of the verses for the full complement more rapid changes of scoring, particularly in Nick Sandon retired from the Chair of Music at Exeter The household chapel of Cardinal Wolsey was of five parts, and others for a smaller number; the closing sections of the works performed University in 2003, having previously been Professor of made up of ten lay-clerks and ten boys in 1521, and he bases many of the polyphonic sections here. Jones’s music is more lyrical, and he has Music at University College, Cork. He now lives in France. when Mason is first documented there; by the (sometimes so loosely that it is almost imper- a talent for telling touches of detail such as a late 1520s there were sixteen lay-clerks and ceptible) on a rather unusual type of cantus felicitously placed dissonance or a slightly sur- PERFORMANCE PRACTICE about a dozen boys. firmus called a faburden, which had originally prising harmony. Mason can give a first impres- been the lowest voice of an improvised har- sion of reserve and remoteness (it may be that What sort of choir might have performed the Polyphonic music was most often the pro- monisation of a plainchant. Very little is known five active vocal lines interweaving in a space music of the Peterhouse partbooks? A list of vince of soloists in the fifteenth century, but about Jones’s career except that he was a of only two octaves create special difficul- the staff of the refounded Canterbury Cathe- by the late 1400s many English choral founda- singer in Henry VIII’s household chapel in 1520 ties for the listener), but repeated and careful dral, undated but probably from the late sum- tions had rosters comparable to the above. The and still a member of it in about 1535. Whether listening will reveal subtle interrelationships mer of 1540, names 169 members of the new choirs would have sung a great deal of plain- he was related to Edward Johns or Jones, a between the voices and the composer’s ability establishment. The list includes thirteen “Vyc- chant, of course, but it seems clear that such slightly earlier member of the royal household to make a large structure hang together. cars” (vicars-choral) and ten boy “queresters” sumptuous choral forces were desired espe- chapel, or to the later lutenist and composer (choristers). Among the vicars are Thomas Tal- cially so that they might adorn the liturgy with Robert Jones, has yet to be established. Gaude virgo mater Christi is the only one of lis and Thomas Bull, the putative copyist of performances of polyphonic music. It is not these works not to require editorial comple- the partbooks. Of course, none of the works known, however, whether early sixteenth-cen- Listeners will notice that although these five tion; it survives complete in another manu- recorded here is likely to have been composed tury polyphony was normally performed by an compositions share many characteristics— script where, however, it has an alternative for Canterbury; rather they were copied for use 12 1313 entire choir such as Canterbury’s thirteen men instruments whose pitch might be measured, Until recently, the pronunciation of Latin by cler- have sung more of Nick Sandon’s tenor lines and ten boys, or (as seems more likely) by some and it is sometimes claimed, more or less off- ics (and thus church singers) was heavily influ- than any other ensemble in North America, subset of the roster. Multiple voices contribute handedly and on scant or no historical evi- enced by the sound of the vernacular tongue, so and I only mention this in order to sing his magnificence as well as power, both desirable dence, that all-vocal ensembles simply chose that English Latin sounded distinct from French, praises, for never in ten years has any of us ever qualities for large-scale music sung in grandi- a pitch out of the air and that the result was Italian, or Spanish Latin. Here we employ a pro- felt that a note he composed felt wrong. His ose spaces on occasions of special ceremony. a complete lack of vocal pitch standard across nunciation intended to reflect that of a profes- quite amazing accomplishment is to have re- Furthermore, at least two singers per part are Europe. Besides the lack of evidence in sup- sional church singer in early sixteenth-century created a musical line that is utterly idiomatic, necessary when a single line divides into two, port of this view, there are serious objections England. Our attempt is informed especially by not merely to the general language of English as happens for one note in the contratenor to its plausibility. Not the least of these is the Harold Copeman’s book Singing in Latin (Oxford, music in the early sixteenth century, but to the of Jones’s Magnificat and once in the bass of fact that when demonstrable pitch standards 1990) and Singing Early Music, edited by Timothy local dialect and accent of one composer and, Quales sumus. At the same time, however, addi- do begin to emerge in the later sixteenth cen- McGee (Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1996). even more specifically, to that one composer’s tional voices tend to decrease clarity of texture tury, whether in Italy, Germany, France, or Eng- The original orthography of the texts, which voice as heard in one piece in all its particular- and obscure the individuality of the lines. land, they fall more or less within a semitone we have preserved, provides important clues. ity. We—and Aston and Jones and Mason and or two above and below a’=440 for music that It should be stressed that any such attempt is all the other Peterhouse composers—owe him For this recording we sing mostly two to a part. combined voices and instruments: much more highly experimental, for definitive reconstruc- grateful thanks for restoring this marvelous Treble parts are sung by three women, rather variety than exists in the mainstream musical tion of the sound of sixteenth-century Latin is, music to us in singable form. than boys, and in the works with trebles we world today, it’s true, but hardly random scat- of course, impossible. Our hope has been that add a third bass, for a total of twelve singers. — Scott Metcalfe ter.2 For the present purposes, suffice it to say the unexpected sounds of “vernacular” Latin, as In both its size and its relatively even balance the range of the Peterhouse music—from bot- opposed to the bland, vaguely Italianate sounds of voices this ensemble is very close to the 1 The information in the above paragraphs is drawn from Nick Sandon, “The tom F for the basses up to high g” or a” in the of modern “Church Latin,” lend the music a par- one pre-Reformation choir for which we have Henrician partbooks belonging to Peterhouse, Cambridge,” PhD. diss, Uni- trebles—corresponds closely to the comfort- ticular, local flavor, draw attention to the texts, detailed evidence of the distribution of voices, versity of Exeter, 1983; Roger Bowers, “The vocal scoring, choral balance and able, normal ranges of singers today, that is and make Latin sound more like a real language performing pitch of Latin church polyphony in England, c. 1500-58,” Journal that of the household chapel of the Earl of Nor- to say, the ranges within which trained voices and less like a succession of attractive but not of the Royal Musical Association, vol. 112, no. 1 (1986-7): 38-76; Bowers, “To thumberland: on one typical occasion in about sound “natural,” can sustain melodic lines and especially meaningful vowels. Fortunately for chorus from quartet: the performing resource for English church polyphony, 1518, this choir was divided 3/3/2/2/3. Six- c. 1390-1559,” in J. Morehen, ed. English choral practice 1400–1650 (1995); are able to pronounce the words understand- us, English Latin is in a sense a native tongue teenth-century English choirs used either boy and Sandon’s prefaces to the Peterhouse works published by Antico Edition. ably. These are all qualities valued by Renais- for Americans, for the sounds called for are just altos or adult male falsettists on the “mean” or sance writers. Together with many other sorts those many American speakers normally use. 2 See Bruce Haynes, A history of performing pitch (2002), ch. 2. alto line, the second line from the top in the of circumstantial evidence, this points to a standard five-part scoring; our mean is sung by Blue Heron and the Peterhouse partbooks pitch standard of about A440, which we have one man and one woman.1 adopted for this recording. (For more on the Blue Heron has made the Peterhouse reper- The question of the performing pitch of a cap- issue, interested readers are invited to visit toire a specialty ever since our first concerts in pella music before about 1600 is a challenging www.blueheronchoir.org and read the essay 1999, in which we performed Aston’s Ave Maria one, due in part to the absence of surviving on performance practice.) dive matris Anne. I think it safe to say that we 14 15 The vocal ensemble Blue Heron combines a commitment to vivid live performance with the Scott Metcalfe is a specialist in music between 1400 and 1750 whose career as a violinist and study of original source materials and historical performance practice. Blue Heron’s principal conductor has taken him all over North America and Europe. He has been invited to serve as repertoire interests are fifteenth-century English and Franco-Flemish polyphony, ranging guest director by Emmanuel Music, Monadnock Music, the Tudor Choir and Seattle Baroque, from Dunstable and Du Fay through Ockeghem to Josquin; Spanish music between 1500 and Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver, BC), and the Dryden Ensemble (Princeton, NJ), in works 1600; and neglected early sixteenth-century English music, especially the rich repertory of the by Monteverdi, Buxtehude, Handel, Bach, and others, and in January 2010 he led the Green Peterhouse partbooks (c. 1540). The ensemble has also reached outside these areas to perform Mountain Project in an all-star 400th-anniversary performance of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers very early music (organa by the twelfth-century French composer Perotin) and very recent in New York City. Metcalfe is concertmaster of the Trinity Consort in Portland, Oregon (dir. Eric music (new works by the Australian composer Elliott Gyger). Founded in 1999, Blue Heron pre- Milnes), a member of Les Délices (dir. Debra Nagy), and an active participant in Montreal’s early sents its own series of concerts in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has appeared at other venues music scene, working with Arion, Montreal Baroque, Les Voix baroques, and other groups. He throughout the Northeast, including the Boston Early Music Festival, St Ignatius of Antioch and was a founding member of the 17th-century ensemble La Luna and of the Renaissance violin the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and Monadnock Music in New Hampshire. In July 2008 it band The King’s Noyse, and from 1996 through 2007 he conducted the Renaissance choir made its West Coast debut at Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, California, and in October 2009 Convivium Musicum. Besides playing and directing, Metcalfe keeps busy writing, teaching, celebrated its tenth birthday by opening the twentieth-anniversary season of the Boston Early translating, and editing. He is at work on a new complete edition of the songs of Gilles Binchois Music Festival concert series. Blue Heron’s first CD, featuring music by Guillaume Du Fay (BHCD in collaboration with Sean Gallagher, and is a lecturer in choral repertoire and performance 1001), was released in March of 2007 to international critical acclaim. practice at Boston University. Metcalfe received a bachelor’s degree in 1985 from Brown University, where he majored in biology, and in 2005 completed a master’s degree in historical For more about Blue Heron, please visit www.blueheronchoir.org. performance practice at Harvard.

Jason McStoots Paul Guttry Steven Soph Mark Sprinkle Noël Bisson Glenns Billingsley Martin Near Michael Barrett Teresa Wakim Jennifer Ashe Cameron Beauchamp Allen Combs Brenna Wells Scott Metcalfe not pictured: Lydia Brotherton, Pamela Dellal, Marc Molomot, Aaron Sheehan, Sumner Thompson TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS Suscepit Israel puerum suum, He has helped his servant Israel, recordatus misericordie sue. in remembrance of his mercy. 1 Ave Maria dive matris Anne Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, As it was promised to our forefathers, Abraham et semini ejus in secula. Abraham and his seed forever. Ave Maria, dive matris Anne filia unica. Hail, Mary, only daughter of the blessed mother Anne. Gloria patri et filio et spiritui sancto. Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Ave Maria, que peperisti puerum virili sine semine. Hail, Mary, who brought forth a child without the seed of man. Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper: As it was in the beginning, is now, and forever shall be, Ave Maria, Jesum tuum filium lactasti sacro ubere. Hail, Mary: you nourished Jesus your son at your sacred breast. et in secula seculorum. Amen. world without end. Amen. Ave Maria, ipsum alluisti tua super genua. Hail, Mary: you washed him in your lap. Ave Maria, tres vidisti magos offerentes munera. Hail, Mary: you saw three wise men bringing gifts. 3 Ave Maria, Egyptum fugiens petisti angeli per monita. Hail, Mary: fleeing, you set out for Egypt, through the angel’s Gaude virgo mater Christi warning. Gaude virgo mater Christi Ave Maria, quesisti tuam sobolem magna cum mestitia. Hail, Mary: you sought your child with great sorrow. Rejoice, O virgin mother of Christ, que per aurem concepisti Ave Maria, in templo reperisti docentem evangelia. Hail, Mary: you found him in the temple teaching the Gospels. who conceived through the ear Gabriele nuncio. Conserva tuos famulos hec per tua merita, Preserve your servants through these your merits, by the message of Gabriel. Gaude, quia Deo plena et perduc eos ad celos cum celesti gloria, and lead them to the heavens with celestial glory, Rejoice, for being filled with God peperisti sine pena psallentes et omnes hoc Ave Maria. Amen. all singing this “Hail, Mary.” Amen. you brought forth without travail, cum pudoris lilio. with the lily of chastity. Gaude, quia tui nati Rejoice, for there shines forth 2 Magnificat quem dolebas mortem pati the resurrection of your son, Magnificat anima mea dominum, My soul magnifies the Lord, fulget resurrectio. whom you saw suffer death. et exultavit spiritus meus in deo salutari meo. and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior. Gaude Christo ascendente Rejoice, Christ having ascended, Quia respexit humilitatem ancille sue: For he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden: et in celo te vidente and your having seen him in heaven, ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes. behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. motu fertur proprio. moved, it is said, by his own will. Quia fecit michi magna qui potens est, For he that is mighty has made me great, Gaude, quod post ipsum scandis Rejoice, for after this you ascended, et sanctum nomen ejus. and holy is his name. et est honor tibi grandis and great honor is paid to you Et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies And his mercy from generation to generation in celi palatio, in the palace of heaven, timentibus eum. is on them that fear him. Ubi fructus ventris tui Where the fruit of your womb Fecit potentiam in brachio suo: He has shown strength with his arm: per te detur nobis frui through you is given to us to enjoy dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. in perhenni gaudio. in everlasting felicity. Deposuit potentes de sede He has put down the mighty from their seat O Maria virgo mater redemptoris nostri: O Mary, virgin mother of our savior, et exaltavit humiles. and exalted the humble. O Maria virgo nobilissima que jam regnas cum angelis, O Mary, most noble virgin who now reigns with the angels, Esurientes implevit bonis, The hungry he has filled with good things, coronata in gloria: ibi nostri memor esto. crowned in glory: be mindful of us there. et divites dimisit inanes. and the rich he has sent empty away. O virgo sanctissima, funde preces tu pro nobis O most holy virgin, pour out your prayers for us, ut possimus illic tuo sociari collegio. Amen. so that we may be able to join your company in that place. Amen. 18 19 4 Quales sumus O miseri ut Israel oculos erigat So that Israel may raise her eyes ad celum et deum sitiat to heaven and thirst for God Quales sumus, O miseri, What are we, O wretches, sicut cervus aquarum fontes, “as the hart pants after the water-brooks,” properantes ad portas inferi, hurrying to the gates of hell, ut, de Pharaonis imperio and so that we, snatched at last quatriduani fetentes, stinking within four days, erepti tandem durissimo, from the most cruel tyranny of Pharaoh, ut te laudare presumamus, that we dare to praise you, mare transeamus insontes. may cross the sea without harm. O Maria, cum sciamus O Mary, since we know non audiri delinquentes? that offenders are not fit to be heard? Et, licet hostes seviant, And, although enemies rage, hos maria non operiant, let the seas not conceal them, Sed in arcto constituti, But, closely confined, [lacuna] O domina, [lacuna] O Lady, in labore lateris et luti, toiling with bricks and clay, sed sevitiam removeant, but wash away their fury, insudantes gemiscimus. sweating, we groan. ut ereptos hos deleant so that then the confines of hell Consolatricem miserorum We beg you, the comforter claustra tunc infernalia. may destroy these plunderers. et refectricem laborum, of the wretched te deposcimus and refresher of labors, Et sic, virtutibus fecundi, And thus, rich in virtue, ad celestia mente mundi may we hasten to heaven ut oculos misericordes That you will turn your merciful eyes properemus, O Maria, with a pure mind, O Mary, ad nos convertas et sordes towards us and remove ut post finem vite, jocundi so that after life’s end, peccatorum amoveas, the stains of sinners, Christo juncti, letabundi happily united with Christ, scelerumque soluto vecte, and not despise the worms una cantemus alleluia. as one we may sing “Alleluia.” Jesum sequentes recte rightly following Jesus vermiculos ne despicias. when the bolt of sins has been shot.

Israel celum non respicit, Israel does not look towards heaven, nam terrena pulvis perficit; and (since dust is the fate of earthly things), hinc desperans confunditur. it is thrown into despair. Quare pro nobis deprecare Intercede therefore for us ad hunc qui lapides mutare with him who is said to turn stones in Abraham filios dicitur into sons of Abraham,

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Ave Maria, ancilla trinitatis humillima. Hail, Mary, most humble handmaid of the Trinity. Recorded September 6–11, 2009 Ave Maria, preelecta dei patris filia sublimissima. Hail, Mary, most exalted chosen daughter of God the Father. at the Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts Ave Maria, sponsa spiritus sancti amabilissima. Hail, Mary, most loving bride of the Holy Spirit. Ave Maria, mater domini nostri Jesu Christi dignissima. Hail, Mary, most worthy mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Engineering & mastering: Joel Gordon Ave Maria, soror angelorum pulcherrima. Hail, Mary, most comely sister of the angels. Producer: Eric Milnes Ave Maria, promissa prophetarum desideratissima. Hail, Mary, most longed-for promise of the prophets. Editing: Eric Milnes, Joel Gordon & David Corcoran Ave Maria, regina patriarcharum gloriosissima. Hail, Mary, most glorious queen of the patriarchs. Cover photo: Radius Images Ave Maria, magistra evangelistarum veracissima. Hail, Mary, most truthful lady of the evangelists. Group photos: Liz Linder (www.lizlinder.com) Graphic design: Pete Goldust Ave Maria, doctrix apostolorum sapientissima. Hail, Mary, most wise teacher of the apostles. Ave Maria, confortatrix martyrum validissima. Hail, Mary, most potent comforter of martyrs. © 2010 Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, Inc. Hail, Mary, sweetest fount and source of plenty for confessors. Ave Maria, fons et plenitudo confessorum suavissima. Notes and translations © 2010 by Nick Sandon. Ave Maria, honor et festivitas virginum jocundissima. Hail, Mary, most joyful reward and object of celebration for virgins. Second pressing, 2011. All rights reserved. Ave Maria, consolatrix vivorum et mortuorum promptissima. Hail, Mary, most ready consoler of living and dead. Mecum sis in omnibus tribulationibus et angustiis meis Be with me in all my troubles and perils with your motherly materna pietate, et in hora mortis mee suscipe animam affection, and in the hour of my death receive my soul and meam et offer illam dulcissimo filio tuo Jesu, cum omnibus present it to your most sweet son Jesus, together with all qui se nostris commendaverunt orationibus. Amen. who have commended themselves to our prayers. Amen.

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