Sacred and Profane

CORO CORO The BRITTEN Collection cor16107 “...exceptional quality, reinforcing The Sixteen as one of the finest choirs of our day.” gramophone Sacred and Profane The ETON CHOIRBOOK Benjamin Britten cor16040 Collection “...wonderful music, wonderfully performed... William Cornysh sit back and let these glorious sounds fill your ears and lift your spirits.” gramophone To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit The Sixteen www.thesixteen.com cor16159 HARRY CHRISTOPHERS ver four centuries separate This album looks at the way these two composers mixed sacred with secular. Othese two representatives Whilst Cornysh’s sacred music is elaborate and rhythmically complicated, his of English music at its finest. secular music is simple yet subtly evocative. Britten makes constant demands on William Cornysh and Benjamin vocal artistry, best displayed in the last work he ever wrote for unaccompanied Britten were prolific in both voices, Sacred and Profane, composed in the winter of 1974-5. Britten chose his sacred and secular music. texts with great care and devotion; these are medieval lyrics, and he gives us a Cornysh is actually two fascinating mixture of the devotional and the rumbustiously secular. The final people, often confused with Borggreve Marco Photograph: song ‘A death’ is a wicked blend of horror and gallows humour far removed from one another and quite possibly the melancholic canon Ah, Robin by Cornysh. father and son. Both originated in Westminster of unknown Britten had a distinct affection for medieval lyrics like those he used in Sacred parentage; the Elder died in and Profane and A Hymn to the Virgin. He clearly enjoyed the archaic language, 1502 and the Younger, of whom the vowels and expressive consonants in the same way that Cornysh revelled in much more is known, in 1523. the insistent rhythm of the passion poem Woefully array’d. The importance of fine The matter of telling which man poetry to both these composers is abundantly clear, be it the glorious poetry of wrote which works is impossible the Salve Regina, Ah, Robin, WH Auden’s extraordinarily evocative Hymn to Saint to settle, so for the purpose of Cecilia or Randall Wingler’s earnest political poem Advance Democracy. We are this album I have decided to link undoubtedly blessed to have this glorious poetry set to music by two of the finest them as one. So whether it be composers of their respective eras; they both call on extraordinary feats of vocal the Elder or the Younger, we are fortunate that they not only excelled at writing virtuosity, demanding yet ultimately so rewarding. complex and adventurous antiphons for the church but also beautiful secular songs for the Tudor court. Of course, for Britten, writing in the 20th century, life was very different; he is a composer who encompassed so many facets of music, excelling in opera, solo song and all manner of vocal and instrumental music. 2 3 William Cornysh in the British Library – three pieces are 1 Benjamin BRITTEN A Hymn to the Virgin 3.41 attributed to ‘William Cornyssh Junior’. In the world of the arts, attribution (They include Woefully array’d, recorded 2 William CORNYSH My love she mourn’th 3.39 matters. Imagine yourself in a gallery, here.) By adding the word ‘Junior’, the 3 Benjamin BRITTEN Hymn to Saint Cecilia 10.58 facing a picture labelled ‘Bruegel’. Yes, scribe tells us that these pieces are not by 4 William CORNYSH Salve Regina 14.45 but which? – the rare and superior Pieter William Cornysh Senior; he therefore 5 Benjamin BRITTEN Advance Democracy 3.21 Bruegel the Elder, or his more prolific implies that the older man was also a 6 William CORNYSH Ave Maria, Mater Dei 3.50 and derivative son, Pieter Brueghel composer. Regrettably, other scribes the Younger? Or imagine a concert were less meticulous, merely writing 7 William CORNYSH Woefully array’d 7.48 announcing works by ‘Gabrieli’. Yes, the name ‘William Cornysh’ into their 8 William CORNYSH Ah, Robin, gentle Robin 2.49 but which? – the well-known Giovanni, copies. By doing so, they leave us to maker of bold musical spectacles, or his guess which man they meant. Benjamin BRITTEN SACRED AND PROFANE more versatile but lesser-known uncle 9 St Godric’s Hymn 1.34 Andrea, from whom Giovanni learnt so Biographically, the two Williams much? And now, in these recordings, Cornysh have two things in common: bl I mon waxe wod 0.39 bm works by ‘William Cornysh’. Yes, but both were church musicians, and both Lenten is come 2.43 which? – because there were indeed held prestigious posts in London. In the bn The long night 1.20 two Tudor musicians named William 1480s, the elder Cornysh was a singer at bo Yif ic of luve can 2.39 Cornysh, and both seem to have been Westminster Abbey, where he directed bp Carol 1.36 composers. So who wrote what? the lady chapel choir and instructed the boy choristers. His subsequent career bq Ye that pasen by 2.19 br Alas, the truth may never be known, is undocumented, but we do know A death 3.02 and there is only one firm fact. In a that he married at least once, died in Total running time 66.44 music manuscript copied around 1501 1502, and was buried in Westminster. – known as the ‘Fayrfax MS’, and now William Cornysh Junior might 5 therefore have been his son. By 1493, the Latin pieces, including the two entertainments. Certainly they would spoken outside the British Isles; so this younger Cornysh was a singer recorded here, Salve Regina and Ave have been known to King Henry VIII Tudor composers in effect had this rich with the choir of the Chapel Royal, a Maria, mater Dei. They were copied into and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, language all to themselves. position he held to his death in 1523. the celebrated Eton Choirbook, a huge and indeed they uniquely survive today His adult career therefore overlapped and sumptuous manuscript made for in a manuscript known as the ‘Henry Imagine, then, the amazement of with the elder Cornysh by at least a use at Eton College soon after 1500, the VIII MS’ – copied around 1520, and a diplomat from Venice who, on decade. William Cornysh Junior was contents of which stretch back to the again now in the British Library – which stepping into Westminster Abbey much more than a singer; he was also 1480s or earlier. There is no mention of contains many songs composed by the around the year 1500, came face to face involved in dramatic entertainments ‘Junior’ here, so these pieces could well young king himself. with the Salve Regina by Cornysh. Its at court, devising pageants, plays and be by the older man. If so, then he is the vast soaring lines, its breathtaking other staged events; and in 1509 he author of some of the most spectacular One feature connects these works by roulades and cascades, its muscular took charge of the Chapel Royal’s boy and virtuosic music of his age. the two Cornyshes. They all sound exchanges between the men’s voices, choristers, training them not only to quintessentially English, and indeed its dramatic tuttis, all exceed what sing, but also to take part as child actors As for Cornysh Junior, we have already they do so with intent, since their might be expected of a solemn prayer in his dramatic productions. met his Woefully array’d, a pathos-filled composers knew perfectly well that to the Virgin Mary. As for Ave Maria, carol on the subject of Christ’s passion. their music differed from that of mater Dei, scored for men alone, it These biographical facts fuel some (The word ‘carol’ in this context refers Italy or Germany or France. Note in may begin more compactly, but it soon guesses about who wrote what. to the work’s form: a repeating refrain particular the elaborate melodic lines, drifts into a world of pure fantasy. Basically, the works ascribed to ‘William alternates with contrasting verses.) so challenging to sing, especially in Small wonder, then, if that diplomat, Cornysh’ fall into two categories: Cornysh Junior is also the stronger the Latin-texted pieces. (To foreign when writing home to Venice, speaks elaborate Latin-texted pieces for candidate for the remaining secular ears, they justified use of the Latin verb with awe of the musical feasts to be church use, and more intimate English- songs, including My love she mourn’th ‘iubilare’ – music that jubilates.) As for heard in Tudor churches. texted songs, using texts variously and Ah, Robin, gentle Robin. These the songs, they stand apart from the sacred or secular. Our current hunch is soulful settings of enigmatic love-lyrics European crowd on linguistic grounds, Imagine his curiosity, too, on hearing that it was Cornysh Senior who wrote might once have formed part of courtly since English at this time was barely the English language turned into song 6 7 by Cornysh Junior. There is a bluntness the gait of an alman or a pavan, such From the start, Britten was always smaller SATB group acts as an echo about the robust poetry set to music as might have been danced in Paris or brilliantly, intelligently alert to the (ideally, spatially distant) with each in Woefully array’d and Ah, Robin that Rome no less than in London. Again, potential of texts. Whether it was alternating Latin line. It is a simple, would have seemed deeply foreign to however, it is the musical roulades William Blake or Wilfred Owen, even obvious device from a talented anyone used to the elegance of Italian and flourishes that stamp these songs Shakespeare, Donne or Tennyson, apprentice, but the teenage Britten’s poetry or the refined tread of French as being uniquely English.

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