The Eton Choirbook

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Next Wednesday, Dec 14th, marks the 60th anniversary of the first performances in 400 years of works by John Browne (his 6-voice Stabat Mater) and Walter Lambe (a 5-voice Salve Regina). The works (performed by Schola Polyphonica conducted by Henry Washington) were given in Eton College and their survival is due to that astonishing collection of early Renaissance English choral Music, the Eton Choirbook, which avoided the fate of countless other such collections which were destroyed during the fanatacal anti-Catholic reforms during the reign of Edward VI. These ensured a radical overhaul of Church Music, forbidding the elaborate polyphony that prevailed in English Music from the time of Dunstable (as well as banning settings of Marian texts). A glorious corpus of great Music was lost and it is mainly through private collections such as the Choirbook and the Old Hall Manuscripts that we can hear Music that was the envy of contemporary Europe.

In commemoration of the anniversary, the BBC is brodcasting ... well, b*@@%r all, actually. But I would urge Forumites to seek out performances on youTube, spotify or the deeply-felt CDs by the Sixteen on CORO (the only collection that offers an overview of the Choirbook) or the Tallis Scholars John Browne CD. This is Music that, in my view, should be as prominent a part of the cultural history of these islands as the Lindisfarne Gospels, the works of Chaucer, Ely Cathedral or the Mystery Play cycles. Not (merely) because of the Historical baggage that surrounds it, but because it is some of the most moving, inspired, beautiful and thoughtful creations in the History of the Art.

Best Wishes.

[BBMmk2]

Fgh, the set of the Choir of The Sixteen/Harry Christophers, is a must have! That music is just so beautiful, it is beyond compare!!

[DracoM]

Thoroughly endorsed - many thanks for writing.

[decantor]

Not forgetting, I hope, the CD More Divine than Human by the choir of Christ Church, Oxford (Avie Records - AV2167). It offers works by Fawkyner, Cornysh, Lambe, Davy, and Browne, totalling 79mins, and is AFAIK the only recording of Choirbook items by a working liturgical choir. The performance comes with my recommendation; the music needs none, as the CD's title suggests.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not forgetting, I hope, the CD More Divine than Human by the choir of Christ Church, Oxford (Avie Records - AV2167). It offers works by Fawkyner, Cornysh, Lambe, Davy, and Browne, totalling 79mins, and is AFAIK the only recording of Choirbook items by a working liturgical choir. The performance comes with my recommendation; the music needs none, as the CD's title suggests.

I didn't so much "forget" as "didn't know" this disc, decantor; many thanks for the "nod"

[ardcarp]

Yes, thanks fg for that post. I shall be thinking again of my experience in the 70s of seeing the book itself (yes it really was) being (apparently) sung from by some Eton scholars in EC Chapel. It is indeed a treasure...and that pre-Ref English sound world is very special.

[jean]

Incomparable music. I owe it to John Poole that I discovered it in the 1960s and sang the John Browne Stabat Mater with him.

We also sang the very fine Fayrfax Magnificat Regale, which is being performed next Saturday (December 17th) by Chapelle du Roi with Alistair Dixon at St John's Smith Square:

http://www.sjss.org.uk/pages/Diary/content_page1_4.htm

[jean]

...Music that was the envy of contemporary Europe.

I wonder if that's right, though!

Certainly they knew Dunstable on the continent, but doesn't the great difference in style between the early Tudor composers and what was happening over there argue that they'd forgotten about us by then?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wonder if that's right, though!

Certainly they knew Dunstable on the continent, but doesn't the great difference in style between the early Tudor composers and what was happening over there argue that they'd forgotten about us by then?

Yes, you may be right here, jean (I can get carried away with my enthusiasms): but it ruddy well ought to have been!

[John Skelton]

They knew the mysterious and very wonderful Walter Frye, too, since most of his surviving music is in continental manuscripts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Frye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiqp4QvxEck

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

They knew the mysterious and very wonderful Walter Frye, too, since most of his surviving music is in continental manuscripts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Frye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiqp4QvxEck

[jean]

Did anyone get to yesterday's concert?

[Miles Coverdale]

I wonder if that's right, though!

Certainly they knew Dunstable on the continent, but doesn't the great difference in style between the early Tudor composers and what was happening over there argue that they'd forgotten about us by then?

There is a lot of early 15th-century English music in Continental manuscripts. Indeed, quite a lot of important music by composers of that time survives only in Continental sources. However, by the middle of the century the influence of the 'contenance Angloise' had very much waned.

The index to the choirbook does actually list the motet Gaude flore virginali by Dunstable, and gives its range as 21 notes, meaning it must have been for full choir. However, the music itself has been lost. If the entry is correct and not a mistake, its loss is doubly unfortunate, for no other piece for full choir by Dunstable has survived.

Two LPs of music from the Eton Choirbook were recorded by the choristers of All Saints, Margaret Street, and the Purcell Consort of Voices (released in 1968). Although they're a bit rough around the edges, they probably give a fair idea of what it would have sounded like in the early 16th century.

The Christ Church CD is very good, I think. My spies tell me that they're recording a second one later this year.

[jean]

Anyone near Liverpool may like to know that they can hear some motets from the Eton Choirbook performed by the Renaissance Music Group in the Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral on March 25th at 8 pm.

The programme includes Fayrfax's Salve Regina and Richard Davy's stabat Mater, as well as Tallis's early Salve Intemerata Virgo, and works by Ludford and Taverner.

http://www.renaissancemusicgroupliverpool.org/

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anyone near Liverpool may like to know that they can hear some motets from the Eton Choirbook performed by the Renaissance Music Group in the Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral on March 25th at 8 pm.
The programme includes Fayrfax's Salve Regina and Richard Davy's stabat Mater, as well as Tallis's early Salve Intemerata Virgo, and works by Ludford and Taverner.