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Rose_Ostrich Booklet 6/9/04 4:45 pm Page 2

CORO The Sixteen Edition CORO The Sixteen Edition The Eton An award-winning series of CDs from The Sixteen The Rose and The Crown of Thorns The Pillars of Eternity Eton Choirbook Volume II COR16012 Eton Choirbook Volume III COR16022 "This is beyond doubt "It is difficult to believe that The Ostrich Feather the most moving Eton any 15th or 16th century Choirbook disc I have could have sung this Eton Choirbook Volume I ever heard." music with the refined FANFARE, USA blend, the rich tone or the shapeliness shown by The Sixteen, under the direction of Harry Christophers." THE TIMES

The Flower Of All Virginity The Voices of Angels Eton Choirbook Volume IV COR16018 Eton Choirbook Volume V COR16002 “Vibrant performances... “Foreigners were with undiminished astonished at the quality of enthusiasm and English . Theirs were imagination.” “the voices of angels”, a GRAMOPHONE tribute which The Sixteen deserves no less today.” CLASSIC CD The Sixteen HARRY CHRISTOPHERS To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, or to buy CDs, visit www.thesixteen.com C O R 1 6 0 2 6 I remember well, some years ago, sitting in the library THE SIXTEEN TURGES: FROM BASS 2 STORMY WINDES Timothy Jones (verse) at Eton College with Christopher Page and recording a TREBLE Philip Lawson programme for BBC Radio 3 about the Eton Ruth Dean ALTO Choirbook, by far the most outsanding of a handful of Carys Lane Philip Newton (verse) BASS 3 to survive the Reformation. We turned the Alison Smart Michael Lees Christopher Purves (verse) Penny Vickers Lawrence Whitehead parchment pages of this vast book, admiring the MEAN vividly illuminated capitals, marvelling at some of the, Sally Dunkley TENOR 1 BASS 4 Neil MacKenzie (verse) Francis Steele (verse) obviously frequently performed, , the corners of Penny Vickers Julia White Nicolas Robertson Benjamin Odom which were heavily thumbed by fingers of a past David Roy century. My abiding thought was how incredibly talented these sixteen choristers ALTO Andrew Giles TENOR 2 ANON: THIS DAY must have been to sing this highly complex music, difficult by any standard, Michael Lees Simon Berridge (verse) DAY DAWS while crowding around a lectern, straining to read by candlelight. Today we have Philip Newton Peter Burrows SOPRANO modern editions, electricity and aids for failing sight and it still seems difficult! Christopher Royall Philip Daggett Carys Lane (verse) Our edition represents very much the grass roots of our work and our TENOR Ruth Dean overwhelming desire to rejoice in the survival of this great music. Philip Daggett BROWNE: STABAT IUXTA Sally Dunkley Neil MacKenzie CHRISTI CRUCEM TENOR Nicolas Robertson TENOR 1 Neil MacKenzie (verse) David Roy Neil MacKenzie (verse) Nicolas Robertson BASS Philip Daggett David Roy Simon Birchall David Roy BASS Timothy Jones TENOR 2 Christopher Purves (verse) Christopher Purves Simon Berridge (verse) Simon Birchall Francis Steele Peter Burrows Timothy Jones Nicolas Robertson BASS 1 Simon Birchall (verse) Henry Whickham

2 3 one generation becomes outmoded, so the odds contained in its choirbook were specifically Others are more immediately linked to The Rose and against its survival become weighted indeed. composed for use there. With few exceptions, the persons or events. A striking example is Browne’s The Ostrich Feather Such was the fate of much Tudor church opposite is true: most of the contents were drawn Stabat iuxta Christi crucem, a six-part music. from the repertories of other choirs, assembled on the theme of the Virgin’s sorrows at the foot of Eton Choirbook Volume I Institutions known to have owned by an unknown editor who copied the the cross. John Browne, the most fertile mind impressive collections of music around 1500 manuscript probably in London during the late represented in the Eton Choirbook, is a shadow To an age that prizes and preserves the heritage have lost everything. Of the many choirbooks fifteenth century. While the Eton Choirbook figure thought to have been associated with of its past, the cavalier attitude of our ancestors listed in inventories at King’s College, usefully documents the musical diet of Eton Oxford rather than royal circles. Nevertheless his to the culture of their own day strikes us as Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford, not around 1500, it also tells us a great deal about antiphon quotes extensively from a partsong, deplorable. Tudor church music is a case in a single one remains. Even the music library of other institutions whose music books have From stormy windis and grievous wethir, by the point: rich as the repertory may seem to us the , ’s premier choral perished. Above all, it helps us to reconstruct the London composer Edmund Turges. The song’s today, untold quantities of similar music have foundation throughout the sixteenth century, repertoire of the choir that sang before the Tudor text prays for the protection of the ostrich feather, been lost, most of it destroyed by the end of the has been totally destroyed. monarchy itself. Many of the works contained in emblem of Prince Arthur, elder brother of Henry sixteenth century. Without question the number Viewed in that light, the very fact that Eton the Eton Choirbook would have been performed VIII and heir to the throne, as he sets out on a of discarded works far exceeds those that survive. College still possesses the great choirbook that by the Chapel Royal. Some, including several journey, possibly a sea voyage. By quoting Turges’ Why such carelessness, negligence and, to our was in daily use in its chapel in the early included on this record, were even addressed song, Browne’s antiphon evidently becomes an minds, vandalism by those who should have sixteenth century is little short of a miracle. directly to members of the Tudor royal family. allegory on the untimely death of Arthur in 1502: recognized and cherished artefacts of such high Admittedly negligence has seriously disfigured Admittedly the connections are often vague the sorrowing of the Virgin mirrors the mourning quality? There are several explanations. First, the book: 98 parchment sheets, more than a rather than specific. , Gentleman of the queen, Elizabeth of York, and the song’s English church music was devastated by political third of the original total, are now missing, of the Chapel Royal from 1497 to his death in plea for protection from danger now becomes a and theological change in the sixteenth century. presumably thrown away as the binding fell to 1521, gave the title ‘Regale’ to one of his settings prayer for the prince’s safe passage from earth. Choral foundations that had nurtured a strong pieces. Even so, the Eton Choirbook survived, of the presumably because the piece Allegory may also be sensed in the Salve Regina of musical tradition were abolished, refounded or first through oversight, in more recent times was composed either for the king or for a royal Richard Hygons, even if the connection with starved of income: changes in doctrine overnight through careful preservation. It is the largest foundation such as Eton College or King’s royalty is here tenuous. One of the tenor voices converted time-honoured texts into superstition, and most valuable document of early Tudor College, Cambridge. Beyond that, however, we quotes at length from the plainchant antiphon rendering both them and the music to which church music still in existence. Without it the move into conjecture. Fayrfax’s colleague Venid ad Petrum, specifically the huge melody they were set obsolete; music books that had music of its age would have been plunged into , Master of the Children of the that occurs on the single word ‘caput’ (‘head’). once been used daily in the service of the liturgy near obscurity. Chapel Royal from 1509, can hardly have written Other composers of the fifteenth century, ceased to be of any practical value and were Although the chapel at the College Royal his elaborate Salve Regina for any institution continental as well as English, also made use of broken up or left to rot. Second, natural laws of of Our Lady of Eton supported a flourishing other than his own. Works such as these are the quotation, yet its exact significance remains changing taste prevailed in Tudor England no musical tradition in the late middle ages, it ‘royal’ only in the sense that they probably graced unexplained. Possibly the word ‘caput’ alludes to less than they do in our own time: as the art of would be a mistake to assume that the pieces the king’s chapel. the idea of ‘head of state’, making works based on 4 5 the melody appropriate for state occasions such as 1 coronations, investitures or royal visits. Working The Rose and Magnificat in the relative obscurity of Wells Cathedral, it is The Ostrich Feather Magnificat anima mea Dominum My soul doth magnify the Lord, hard to know what even Hygons could have had et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo. And my spirit has rejoiced in God my saviour. in mind. Yet the biography of this composer, like Eton Choirbook Volume I Quia respexit humiltatem For he has regarded the low estate of his so many of his colleagues, is clouded in obscurity; the true significance of his Salve Regina remains Robert Fayrfax (1464-1521) ancillae suae: handmaiden: tantalizingly unexplained. Just as early Tudor 1 Magnificat (‘Regale’) 13.20 ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes for behold, henceforth all generations shall call church music is often shot through with generationes. me blessed. references to the magnates who financed it, so Richard Hygons (c1435-c1509) Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est: For he who is mighty has done great things to partsongs by the same composers reflect the 2 Salve Regina 11.49 et sanctum nomen ejus. me; and holy is his name. biographies, personalities and obsessions of the Et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies And his mercy is on them who fear him from Edmund Turges (c1450-?) patrons who supported them. Turges’ prayer for timentibus eum. generation to generation. 3 the ostrich feather, preserved in a late fifteenth- From stormy windes 6.32 Fecit potentiam in bracchio suo: He has shown strength with his arm; he has century songbook emanating from courtly circles, John Browne (fl c1490) dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. scattered the proud, even the arrogant of heart. is a clear example. Another is the anonymous 4 Stabat iuxta Christi crucem 10.59 Deposuit potentes de sede, He has deposed the mighty from their seats three-part song This day day dawes, copied et exaltavit humiles. and exalted the humble. adjacently in the same manuscript. Here the Anon Esurientes implevit bonis: The hungry he has filled with good things, allusion to ‘the lily-wighte rose’ is specifically to 5 This day day dawes 4.30 et divites dimisit inanes. and the rich he has sent empty away. the emblem of Elizabeth of York, Henry VII’s Suscepit Israel puerum suum, He has helped his servant Israel, queen. Yet the text is rich in other resonances: to William Cornysh (d1523) recordatus misericordiae suae. in remembrance of his mercy. the white rose a symbol of virginity, the rose as a 6 Salve Regina 14.46 Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, As it was spoken to our fathers, metaphor for the Virgin – an image that recurs Abraham et semini ejus in saecula. to Abraham and his seed for ever. regularly in the Marian of the Eton Total playing time 62.34 Gloria Patri, et Filio Glory be to the Father, and to the Son Choirbook. At first sight the juxtaposition of secular songs and sacred music presented in this et Spiritui Sancto. and to the Holy Spirit. collection might seem incongruous. In reality the Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever two repertories, worldly and divine, intertwine et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. shall be, world without end. Amen. exquisitely. The emblems of the white rose and the ostrich feather merge almost imperceptibly into the veneration of Christ and his Mother. JOHN MILSOM 6 7 2 Salve Regina 3 From stormy windes

Salve Regina, mater misericordiae, Hail O Queen, mother of mercy, From stormy windes and grievious weather, Now, good Lady, among thy saintes all, Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. our life, our sweetness and our hope, hail. Good Lord, preserve the Estridge Feather! Pray to thy Son, the second in Trinity, Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Evae. To you we cry, exiled children of Eve. For this young prince which is and daily O blessed Lord of heaven celestial, Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac To you we sigh, as we mourn and weep in shall be Which formed hast of thy most special grace lacrimarum valle. this valley of tears. Thy servant with all his heart so free, Arthur, our prince, to us here terrestrial Eia ergo, advocata nostra, Ah then, our advocate, turn those merciful O celestial, In honour to reign, Lord, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte; eyes of yours upon us; Mother maternal, grant him time and space, Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, and Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb, Empress infernal, to thee we cry and call, Which of alliance nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. show to us after our exile here. His safeguard to be; Our prince of pleasance Wherefore now sing we: From stormy windes… Virgo mater ecclesiae, Virgin mother of the church, By inheritance of Englond and France Aeterna porta gloriae, everlasting gate to glory, Right heir for to be; Esto nobis refugium be our refuge Wherefore now sing we: From stormy windes… Apud Patrem et Filium. before the Father and the Son. Wherefore, good Lord, sith of thy creation O clemens! O gentle! Is this noble prince of royal lineage, Virgo clemens, virgo pia, Gentle virgin, loving virgin, In every case be his preservation, Virgo dulcis, O Maria, O sweet virgin Mary, With joy to rejoice his due inheritance, Exaudi omnium hear the prayers of all His right to obtain Ad te pie clamantium. who humbly cry to you. In honour to reign, This heir of Britayne, of Castille and Spain, O pia! O loving! Right heir for to be; Funde preces tuo nato, Pour out prayers to your Son, Wherefore now sing we: From stormy windes… Crucifixo, vulnerato, the crucified, the wounded, Et pro nobis flagellato, scourged for our sake, Spinis puncto, felle potato. pierced with thorns, given gall to drink.

O dulcis Maria, salve! O sweet Mary, hail!

8 9 4 5 Recording Producer: Mark Brown Stabat iuxta Christi crucem This day day dawes Recording Engineer: Anthony Howell CD mastering: Julian Millard Stabat iuxta Christi crucem Near the cross of Christ stood Mary, This day day dawes Recorded at St. Bartholemew’s Church, Videns pati veram lucem As the True Light suffered there This gentill day dawes, Orford, Suffolk Mater regis omnium Mother of the King of glory, This gentill day dawes Originally released on the Collins label Vidit caput coronatum There she saw Him cruelly crowned, And I must go home. Cover artwork: from the Eton Choirbook, by kind permission of Eton College Spinis latus perforatum, Saw the spear his side that wounded, In a glorius garden grene Design: Richard Boxall Design Associates Vidit mori filium. Watched as death overcame her Son. Sawe I syttyng a comly quene Vidit corpus flagellari, Beheld his body scourged, afflicted, 2004 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. Among the flouris that fresth byn. © 2004 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. Manus, pedes perforari, Gentle hands and feet transfixed She gaderd a floure and set betwene; For further information about Itis a crudelibus. By the blows of cruel men. The lyly-whight rose methought I sawe The Sixteen recordings on Coro Vidit caput inclinatum, And as he bowed his head she saw or live performances and tours, The lyly-whight rose methought I sawe, Totum corpus cruentatum The Shepherd’s body bloodied o’er call +44 (0) 1865 793 999 or email And ever she sang: [email protected] Pastoris pro oviris pro ovibus. For the sake of all his sheep. This day day dawes... www.thesixteen.com In dolore tunc fuisti, Then in sorrow, holy Virgin, In that garden be flouris of hewe; Virgo pia, cum vidisti Sadly gazing, watching there The gelofir gent that she well knewe THE VOICES OF Mori tuum filium. Death invade thy dearest Son. The flour-de-luce she did on rewe, Dolor ingens, dolor ille Greater suffering thou enduredst, And said - ‘The white rose is most trewe N Dicunt sancti plus quam mille Say the saints, than pain and torment This garden to rule be ryghtwis lawe’. Praecellit martyrium. Of a thousand martyrdoms. The lyly-whyghte rose methought I sawe, Virgo mitis, virgo pia, Gentle Virgin, Virgin holy, And ever she sang: Spes reorum, vitis via, Hope of sinners, path of glory, This day day dawes... Virgo plena gratia, Virgin full of Heavenly grace, Iube natum et implora Bid thy Son, thy servants beg thee, (DAWES = DAWNS. SET BETWENE = SAT AMONGST Servis tuis sine mora And implore Him that He quickly THEM. GELOFIR GENT = CLOVE-SCENTED PINK) Nobis donet gaudia. Bring us into heaven’s bliss.

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