CORO The Sixteen Edition CORO The Sixteen Edition Spem in alium Treasures of Tudor England Music for Monarchs and Magnates Parsons, White, Tye Ceremony and Devotion “A masterpiece of “The awesome choir detective work, rare revive underrated repertoire and artful masterpieces.” Music for the editing, and a fitting the times celebration of The Sixteen's first quarter- Tudors century devoted to early music.” corsacd16016 bbc music magazine cor16056 The Eton Choirbook The Sixteen - Sounds Sublime Collection The Essential Collection (2 CD set) SlipcaseCORO of allThe 5 Sixteen Edition CORO The Essential Collection Some of the most 2 CDs The Fairy Queen Handel: Dixit Dominus Tallis ofHenry The Purcell (2 CDSixteen's set) Steffani: Stabat Mater celebrated recordings Based on Shakespeare's The Sixteen adds to A Midsummer Night's its stunning Handel Purcell Handel The Fairy Queen The Fairy Queen Dream, The Fairy Queen collection with a acclaimedwas composed in 1691/2CDs Dixit Dominus of brand new recording The Steffani from Harry Christophers and remains without of his Dixit Dominus Stabat Mater doubt one of Purcell's set alongside a little The Sixteen greatest works adding his The Sixteen know treasure - magic, wit and sensuality Agostino Steffani’s Sixteen thecor16005 Etonto that of theChoirbook. play. cor16076 Stabat Mater. and his award-winning Byrd Compilation by: Robin Tyson - podiummusic.co.uk Re-mastering: Matt Howell (Floating Earth) Cover image: The Concert of Angels -, by Gaudenzio Ferrari (/0-) ensemble, these discs “Sit back detail of frescoand in the Sanctuary oflet Santa Maria dellethese Grazie, Saronno, Italy Sounds The Bridgeman Art Library Nationality/copyright status: Italian/out of copyright Design: Andrew Giles - [email protected] gloriousFor further information aboutsounds recordings on CORO or live performances fill and tours by Sublime provide a definitive The Sixteen, call +44 (0) 20 7488 2629 or email [email protected] 2009 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. The Voices of © 2009 The Sixteen Productions Ltd. Sheppard your ears and lift The Sixteen collection of familiar To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit HARRY CHRISTOPHERS your spirits.”www.thesixteen.com cor16073 classics and lesser- cor16040 gramophone cor16073 known treasures. To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit The Sixteen harry christophers www.thesixteen.com cor16077 the works of Sheppard; both Sally its brevity belies its complexity. It is and I were tutored by David when we based on a seventeen-note motif to Ceremony and Devotion were students at Oxford so it seems commemorate the seventeenth year very fitting that we should include of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Of the e recorded this programme to this great work on the disc. But it is seven vocal parts only one is not Wcelebrate the tenth anniversary Byrd’s Infelix ego which I found to be canonic, two are in strict canon, two of our Choral Pilgrimage in 2010. a revelation; the text is a meditation are by inversion and the final two are This was initially a millennium on the famous Miserere mei, Deus canonic but with one part four times project aimed solely at bringing the psalm, written by the Italian friar, the speed of the other. It sounds great music of our heritage back to Savonarola, while he lay in prison, complex and, quite frankly, it is, but the buildings for which it was written. Borggreve Marco Photograph: in a state of despair at not being technical feats like this can, in the Thus, I have returned to that idea and strong enough to resist the pain of hands of most composers, sound just focused on some of the finest music being tortured on the rack, only a that – technical and, ultimately, rather by three leading Tudor composers: few days before he was burned at the boring and academic. In the hands John Sheppard, Thomas Tallis and stake. Byrd, living in constant fear of Tallis, the result is mesmerisingly William Byrd. Once again it is of persecution because of his devout brilliant. Sally Dunkley who has spent hours Catholic faith, responds in such a All three composers lived through researching and, indeed, editing personal manner, which is at times decades of religious turmoil in much of the music and I am indebted both reflective and explosive. sixteenth-century England and to her for introducing me to two These are exceptional works by any However, we also see Byrd’s expressed in different ways their quite staggering works. standard and I am just surprised ebullient side in the joyful motets devotion to the Catholic faith. At the heart of the programme that it has taken me so long finally Laudibus in sanctis and Haec dies, is Sheppard’s monumental Media to perform them. Media vita was alongside hymns by Tallis and vita in morte sumus and Byrd’s perhaps the crowning achievement Sheppard. One of the gems of this deeply personal setting of Infelix ego. of David Wulstan’s championing of recording is Tallis’s Miserere nostri; 2 3 Ceremony and Devotion and households of well-to-do Catholics, Ceremony and Devotion Music for the Tudors focuses on sacred circumstances altogether different from the 1 plainchant, Sarum use Veni, Creator Spiritus 4.08 music by three leading Tudor composers: choirs that sang in Anglican cathedrals. 2 William Byrd (c.1540-1623) Laudibus in sanctis 5.16 John Sheppard, Thomas Tallis and William 3 John Sheppard (d.1559?) Sacris solemniis iuncta sint gaudia 8.05 Byrd. Writing during the period of religious Biographical information for Sheppard, as strife that followed Henry VIII’s break with for many musicians of this time, is sketchy; 4 Thomas Tallis (c.1505-85) Jesu Salvator saeculi, Verbum Patris 4.56 the church in Rome, these musicians – all furthermore, as his name was a common one, 5 John Sheppard Media vita in morte sumus 24.31 6 of whom held appointments at the Chapel several unflattering incidents were wrongly Thomas Tallis Miserere nostri 2.47 Royal – found themselves having to adapt to attributed to him. What is established is that 7 William Byrd Domine, praestolamur 6.17 rapidly changing requirements as Henry was he was informator choristarum at Magdalen 8 Thomas Tallis Iam Christus astra ascenderat 4.53 succeeded first by his young Protestant son College, Oxford, by 1543, and by some time 9 William Byrd Haec dies 2.27 Edward VI, then by his fervently Catholic after 1547 had been appointed a Gentleman bl William Byrd Infelix ego 12.24 daughter Mary, and finally by her half-sister of the Chapel Royal, the monarch’s own Elizabeth I, who settled for a more moderate musical establishment. The appropriate Total running time 75.48 form of Protestantism. livery was ordered for his participation in the funeral of Mary Tudor in December In pre-Reformation England, church services 1558 and for the coronation of Elizabeth I a were conducted according to the Sarum month later, but his death occurred around The Sixteen (Salisbury) rite, and enhanced by elaborate this time (probably as a result of an epidemic sopraNO Julie Cooper, Grace Davidson, Julia Doyle*, Kirsty Hopkins, Charlotte Mobbs music, as is so spectacularly exemplified of ‘the new ague’), his will being proved on by Sheppard’s Media vita in morte sumus. 31 January 1559. meaN Sally Dunkley, Caroline Trevor† Composers such as Sheppard and Tallis ALTO Ian Aitkenhead, David Clegg, William Missin, Christopher Royall also provided music for the ritual Offices of Like Tallis, Sheppard composed a certain TENOR Simon Berridge, Jeremy Budd, Mark Dobell, David Roy Vespers and Compline, usually incorporating amount of English-texted music for the BASS Ben Davies, Eamonn Dougan, Timothy Jones, Stuart Young plainchant. As a young man, Byrd mastered Anglican church, but is most idiosyncratically these techniques but later on, as a recusant represented by his Latin polyphony, both in * all except Sacris solemniis iuncta sint gaudia; Media vita in morte sumus; Domine, praestolamur Catholic in Elizabethan England, he chose quality and quantity. Virtually all the texts he † to set different kinds of Latin texts, including set were liturgical, and the majority of these in Sacris solemniis iuncta sint gaudia; devotional motets that would have been works must have been written for a large Media vita in morte sumus; Domine, praestolamur sung by a few people in the private chapels choir, as they are scored for five or six voices 4 5 with an overall range often spanning three in the two four-part verses for low voices and gently ornamented in the top voice in a much more hostile climate. Byrd’s wife and octaves and a note (noticeably more than ‘Ne proiicias nos in tempore senectutis’ (‘Do the opening verses, returning it to the role of members of his family were fined again and was employed by continental composers). not cast us away in our old age’) and ‘Noli cantus firmus for the final verse. Iam Christus again for failure to attend church services, claudere aures tuas’ (‘Do not close your also features a canon between top and and Byrd himself certainly courted danger by By its length as well as its cumulative power, ears to our prayer’), and the final one ‘Qui middle voices, and contains some graceful associating with recusant circles. Gatherings Media vita in morte sumus is unique. In cognoscis occulta cordis’ (‘You who know ornamental figuration that accompanies the of these like-minded people took place in technical terms it could be described as a the secrets of our hearts’) where the high sevenfold turning described in the text. the houses of nobility and gentry, where Nunc dimittis enveloped by the antiphon voices are each divided.