Loquebantur: Music from the Baldwin Partbooks by Delphian Records

Music from the Baldwin Partbooks

Vocal editions by Anthony Milledge (track 7);

Francis Steele (track 14); Magnus Williamson (track 16); Rory McCleery (others)

Instrumental editions by Bernard Thomas (tracks 6, 15); George Hunter (track 8); John Bryan (others)

Recorded on 8-11 January 2015 in the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford

Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter

24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks

24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter

Design: Drew Padrutt

Booklet editor: Henry Howard

Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK

www.delphianrecords.co.uk

Cover image: Thomas Tallis, Loquebantur variis linguis, Christ Church Mus. 983 (Baldwin Partbooks, Bassus), 181, by kind permission of The Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford Photography of The Marian Consort

Session Photography © Rory McCleery

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9 Alfonso Ferrabosco I (1543–1588) Da pacem Domine [3:59] [‘anon.’]

EW GM RMcC GC AT CB

10 Orlande de Lassus (1530/2–1594) Ubi est Abel [2:43]

AC† IA JB PW AK 11 Christian Hollander (c.1510–1568/9) Dum transisset Sabbatum [3:43] [‘Mr Orlandus’] RMcC GC AT CB

12 Tallis Suscipe quaeso Domine [7:54]

EW GM DC RMcC GC RR CB

13 John Taverner (c.1490–1545) Quemadmodum [4:13]

Mundy Adhaesit pavimento [7:09]

RMcC GC RR

John Baldwin (c.1560–1615) Coockow as I me walked [2:11] AC† IA* PW#

(c.1515–1558)

With thanks to the Warden and Fellows of the House of Scholars of Merton College, Oxford and the Revd Canon Dr Simon Jones, Chaplain; and to the following for their generous support: The Golsoncott Foundation, Christopher and Fiona Hodges, Frank Hitchman, Mike and Elspeth Barnett, John and Mary Borrett, Ben and Alex Reid, Patrick and Sonia Bell, Jane Dodgson, Wendy Graham, Michael and Susie Heybrook, Alexander McCall Smith, Roderick and Clare Newton, James Kelley, Adam and Ros Ford, and all of the Friends of The Marian Consort

Reede, here, behold, and see all yt musicions bee what is en closde, heere in declare I will begine A store housse of treasure this booke maye be saiede of songes most excelente and the beste that is made collected and chosen out of the best autours bothe stranger and englishe borne

– John Baldwin, postscript to his Commonplace Book

John Baldwin (c. 1560–1615) is a figure who looms large in the history of English music copying in the late sixteenth century. Relatively little is known of his biography, other than that he was appointed tenor lay clerk at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in 1575 and became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1598, singing with the latter for the funerals of Elizabeth I and Prince Henry and the coronation of James I. Not only was Baldwin responsible for the collation and copying of the two manuscript collections which commonly bear his name, the so-called Baldwin Partbooks (Oxford, Christ Church 979-83) and John Baldwin’s Commonplace Book in the British Library, but he was also the copyist of My Ladye Nevells Booke, a meticulously arranged anthology of keyboard music by William Byrd. Baldwin also undertook the restoration of a damaged

section of one of the voice-parts of the ForrestHeyther Partbooks (now in the Bodleian) and the addition of two compositions to Robert Dow’s Partbooks; this latter set now resides as shelf companion to Baldwin’s own in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. These two sets, Baldwin’s and Dow’s, were bequeathed to the library in 1710 by the devoted amateur musician and Dean of the College Henry Aldrich who may well have acquired them directly from St George’s, Windsor; they share the similarity of being very personal collections, representing the individual tastes and interests of their respective compilers, both of whom seemingly had access to a wealth of English and Continental polyphony and consort music.

Unlike Dow’s collection, however, and in common with many other surviving manuscript sources from this period, the Baldwin Partbooks come down to us incomplete: only five of the original six partbooks survive (the Tenor is lacking). Happily, many of the pieces collected by Baldwin appear in other sources, and the missing part is therefore readily recoverable. However, nearly sixty works are unique to Baldwin’s partbooks, and while some can be completed by the addition of a plainchant melody, others require the creation of an entirely new Tenor part to render them performable: I am hugely grateful to Francis Steele, Magnus Williamson and Anthony Milledge for their wonderful editions recorded here.

The Baldwin Partbooks are also unlike Dow’s in that they include printed material: William Byrd and Thomas Tallis’ joint motet publication Cantiones sacrae of 1575 is bound with Baldwin’s manuscript pages, and as John Milsom has observed, the avoidance of any duplication between manuscript and print suggests that Baldwin conceived of the latter as an integral part of his collection. Byrd and Tallis each contributed seventeen motets to the print in honour of the seventeen years of Elizabeth I’s reign, and their dedication of the print to the monarch was a means of thanking her for the (ultimately unprofitable) letterspatent granting them a monopoly on the printing of music and music paper in England issued earlier that same year. (It is interesting to note that Baldwin makes use of paper printed with five-line musical staves issued by Byrd and Tallis for the manuscript portion of his partbooks.)

Baldwin’s choice of repertoire is noticeably wide-ranging, including polyphonic settings of hymns and responds, large-scale Marian antiphons, canticles, a mass, lamentations, motets and, towards the end of the manuscript, untexted consort music for between three and six parts. Although unstated, it seems clear that his aim was similar to that for his Commonplace Book, namely the preservation (not only for himself, but as Roger Bray has argued, for posterity also) of the best music known to him. Many of his preferred

composers are connected with the Chapel Royal, and John Sheppard and William Byrd are given particular prominence, both in terms of quantity (41 and 31 pieces respectively) and in the index begun by Baldwin at the opening of the Bassus partbook. These two head the list alongside John Taverner, William Mundy and Robert Parsons, whose six-part The Song Called Trumpets, borrowing from the melodic patterns of martial music, is one of eight of that composer’s works included. A number of pieces by Baldwin himself are also preserved, among them the three-part Coockow as I me walked, the final item in the manuscript section of the partbooks. This rather eccentric trio also survives in an extended version in Baldwin’s Commonplace Book, where it appears in duplicate as both ‘A Fancie’ and ‘Coockow’. It is by no means the only work to appear in both sources: the absent Bassus Secundus and Tenor of Tallis’ Loquebantur variis linguis can be supplied from the textless version found in the Commonplace Book, as can the missing Tenor of Mundy’s Adolescentulus sum ego Tallis, who was a colleague of Parsons, Mundy and Byrd as Gentleman of the Chapel Royal and the latter’s close friend and mentor, sets this respond for Pentecost in stridently upbeat fashion, with the six freely composed voices capturing the spirit of the text and weaving a resolutely joyous texture around the plainchant cantus firmus in the Tenor.

Sharing this scoring, but not the cantus firmus construction (a relatively old-fashioned device by the mid-sixteenth century), is Tallis’ monumental Suscipe quaeso Domine, a setting of a plaintive penitential text by St Isidore of Seville found in the printed pages of the Cantiones sacrae. Here, the choice of a seven-part texture likely alludes to the traditional number of penitential psalms, rather than the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the motet, borrowing from the generic norms of older polyphonic settings of votive antiphons, is framed in two discrete sections, beginning with an extended passage for reduced vocal forces. Tallis employs kaleidoscopic varieties of texture and engages in notably expressive text-setting: he captures beautifully the sense of urgency and invocation on the part of the repentant sinner through his various settings of the word ‘peccavi [I have sinned]’; the yearning for ‘gratia tua [your grace]’ in his choice of aspirational musical figure; the more immediate questioning of the motet’s second half through homophonic exchanges; and the wistful resignation and hope of the final ‘in conspectu tuo [in your sight]’ in his dual deployment of a gently undulating motif closing in a descending scale, and the final rising figure in the second Superius voice.

William Mundy’s Adhaesit pavimento is similarly indebted to the older compositional form of the votive antiphon: this setting of a portion of Psalm 119 (a text which seems

to have been of particular interest to Tudor composers) maintains the old bipartite structure with clear internal sectional divisions, and opens with a lengthy trio, the composer significantly delaying the entry of the full fivevoice texture. The secunda pars also takes its cue from earlier practices in featuring a substantial gimell, with the Superius part dividing into two for much of the latter half of the piece. Rather more forward-looking is the composer’s Adolescentulus sum ego, an exquisite setting of later verses of the same psalm with a consistently fuller scoring featuring twin Contratenor and Bassus parts throughout. Mundy does, however, preserve the formal binary division, beginning both sections with dolorous descending motives appropriate to the text.

Derrick Gerarde’s Sive vigilem is one of two settings of this text to appear in the Baldwin Partbooks: the other, by Mundy, is also found, with minor variants, in Robert Dow’s collection. Gerarde’s is a larger-scale motet both in scoring and scope, with the imitative polyphony giving way to homophony at key moments to highlight particular phrases. No biographical details exist for the possibly Flemish Gerarde, other than that he is known to have had an association with Henry FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, and his coheir, John, Lord Lumley, who were the owners of six almost certainly autograph sets of manuscript partbooks containing his music.

Several of the textless consort works preserved by Baldwin feature repeated melodic patterns in one or more parts: this is true of Elway Bevin’s Browning, where the tune of the popular song ‘Greening of the leaves’ (‘The leaves be green, the nuts be brown/They hang so high, they will not come down’) is heard fourteen times in total, moving between voices for each iteration, with the surrounding texture increasing in melodic embellishment as the piece progresses, before relaxing for the final statement. Bevin, who was employed variously at Wells and Bristol Cathedrals, is said to have been a pupil of Tallis, and was made a Gentleman Extraordinary of the Chapel Royal in 1605. Sharing this compositional conceit is Hugh Aston’s Maske, whose fourth part, missing from the Baldwin Partbooks, is a repeated bass pattern: the work can be completed thanks to Byrd’s incorporation of this ostinato line into his keyboard work Hugh Aston’s Ground. While it is generally assumed that Aston is the author of the Maske (Nick Sandon has even suggested that it represents an extract from a mass by the composer of which only the Bassus part survives), the name ‘Mr Whytbroke’ is appended to the part preserved in Baldwin’s Contratenor book: William Whytbroke was a contemporary of John Taverner’s at Cardinal, later Christ Church, College, Oxford. Taverner’s own six-part Quemadmodum is, despite his being one of the oldest composers collected by Baldwin, a very forward-looking piece, and its six-part

imitative texture is consistently full throughout both sections of the work. Although it appears textless in all surviving sources, it is believed by some to have originally been a motet setting the words of Psalm 42 (‘Like as the hart’), as suggested by its evocative title.

Although Baldwin includes no commentary in the Partbooks, his favouring of William Byrd is borne out by the lengthy paean in the poem which concludes the Commonplace Book, where he is described as ‘the rarest man … in musicks worthye art … thou prince of musicke now and aye’. Byrd’s Canon Six in One is unique among the works in the Baldwin Partbooks in carrying a date, 1600 (in the Contratenor part). This short piece, with six parts derived, as the title suggests, from a single line of music, is not Byrd’s only canonic rarity included by Baldwin: O salutaris hostia, which Kerry McCarthy assumes to have been a juvenile work and was unfairly dismissed by Joseph Kerman as ‘an exercise that would scarcely survive actual performance’, features three canonic voices, a compositional device that at least partially explains the striking number of false relations that characterise this unusual motet.

Baldwin also features works by a number of Continental composers, among them Alfonso Ferrabosco I, according to whose assessment in the Commonplace Book, ‘Italians saie of hime: in skill hee had no peere.’ Baldwin

Notes on the music

includes two works by Ferrabosco in the Partbooks, although curiously Da pacem Domine, whose opening point of imitation closely paraphrases the plainchant for this text, is listed as anonymous in Baldwin’s index. Two other motets by Continental composers are also misattributed: Orlande de Lassus’s pictorial Ubi est Abel is ascribed to ‘Dowglas’, and Christian Hollander’s Dum transisset Sabbatum to ‘Mr Orlandus’. Hollander, who may have been one and the same as Jean de Hollande (who was dismissed from his post at St Donaas in Bruges for bad conduct in 1544), recycles a substantial amount of musical material from the first part of his motet in its second half; as a result only the former is recorded here. This widely-disseminated work also bears marked similarities to the anonymous setting of the same text preserved by Robert Dow, for which it may well have been a source of inspiration.

John Sheppard, who receives pride of place in the Partbooks, was Informator Choristarum of Magdalen College, Oxford and subsequently a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. His Ave maris stella is an alternatim setting of the Marian hymn (with the even-numbered verses set to polyphony, the odd verses being sung to plainchant). Baldwin copied only the polyphonic verses, hence the piece being erroneously listed as ‘Sumens illud Ave’ in the index; the plainsong is still in evidence, however, as a slow-moving cantus firmus in the Bassus part, over which

the five upper voices weave a web of typically dense imitative polyphony, replete with daring dissonance and elegant melodic lines.

It is hoped that the present selection will, in keeping with Baldwin’s own intentions, both bring to light some of the rarer gems preserved by this great advocate and lover of music, and provide the listener with, in his words, ‘such sweete musicke: as dothe much delite yeelde’.

© 2015 Rory McCleery

A selection from the Dow Partbooks, including several pieces referred to in this note, has been recorded on Delphian by The Marian Consort and Rose Consort of Viols as An Emerald in a Work of Gold, DCD34115

Texts and translations

2 Loquebantur variis linguis

Loquebantur variis linguis apostoli (alleluia)

magnalia Dei. Alleluia. Repleti sunt omnes Spiritu Sancto, et coeperunt loqui. Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.

Respond for First Vespers on the Feast of Pentecost

3 Adolescentulus sum ego

Adolescentulus sum ego et contemptus: iustificationes tuas non sum oblitus. Justitia tua iustitia in aeternum: et lex tua veritas.

Tribulatio et angustia invenerunt me: mandata tua meditatio mea est. Dignitas testimonia tua in aeternum: intellectum da mihi, et vivam.

Psalm 119 (118 Vulgate): 141-4

5 O salutaris hostia

O salutaris hostia, Quae caeli pandis ostium: Bella premunt hostilia; Da robur, fer auxilium. Amen.

St Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Hymn for Lauds on the Feast of Corpus Christi

The apostles were speaking in divers languages (alleluia) of the great works of God. Alleluia. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

I am small and despised; I have not forgotten your statutes. Your justice is an everlasting justice, and your law is the truth.

Tribulation and troubles have come upon me; your commandments are my study. Your testimonies are worthy for ever: grant me understanding and I shall live.

O sacrifice that brings salvation, That opens the gate of heaven: Fell wars press on us; Give us strength, bring us help. Amen.

7 Sive vigilem

Sive vigilem, sive dormiam, sive edam aut bibam, semper videor mihi audire sonum tubae et vocem angeli clamantis et dicentis: Surgite mortui, et venite ad iudicium. Vigilemus et oremus, quia nescimus diem neque horam quam Dominus veniet. anon.

9 Da pacem Domine

Da pacem Domine in diebus nostris, quia non est alius qui pugnet pro nobis nisi tu Deus noster.

11 Dum transisset Sabbatum

Dum transisset Sabbatum, Maria Magdalena et Maria Jacobi et Salome emerunt aromata ut venientes ungerent Jesum. Alleluia.

Respond at Mattins on Easter Sunday

Whether I wake, whether I sleep,whether I eat or drink, I always seem to hear the trumpet’s sound and the voice of the angel crying and saying: Arise, you dead, and come to judgment. Let us watch and pray, for we know not the day nor the hour that the Lord will come.

12 Suscipe quaeso Domine

Suscipe quaeso Domine vocem confitentis. Scelera mea non defendo. Peccavi: Deus, miserere mei; peccavi: dele culpas meas gratia tua.

Si enim iniquitates recordaberis, quis sustineat? Quis enim iustus se dicere audeat sine peccato esse? Nullus est enim mundus in conspectu tuo.

St Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636)

Give peace in our time O Lord, for there is no one else to fight for us but you our God.

When the Sabbath had past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices in order to come and anoint Jesus. Alleluia.

14 Adhaesit pavimento

Adhaesit pavimento anima mea: vivifica me secundum verbum tuum.

Vias meas enuntiavi: et exaudisti me. Doce me iustificationes tuas: viam iustificationum tuarum instrue me et exercebor in mirabilibus tuis.

Dormitavit anima mea prae taedio: confirma me in verbis tuis.

Viam iniquitatis amove a me: et de lege tua miserere mei.

Viam veritatis elegi: iudicia tua non sum oblitus.

Adhaesi testimoniis tuis, Domine: noli me confundere.

Viam mandatorum tuorum cucurri: cum dilatasti cor meum. Amen.

Psalm 119 (118 Vulgate): 25-32

Receive, I pray O Lord, the voice of one who confesses. I do not defend my crimes. I have sinned: my God, have mercy on me; I have sinned: through your grace wipe away my wrongdoings.

For if you will keep a record of our iniquities, who would be able to bear it? For what righteous man would dare call himself without sin? For no one is clean in your sight.

My soul cleaves to the ground: quicken me according to your word.

I have spoken of my paths, and you have heard me. Teach me your statutes: instruct me in the way of your statutes and I will make your wonderful works my study.

My soul has been asleep through trouble: strengthen me in your words.

Take away the path of sin from me: and from your law have mercy on me.

I have chosen the path of truth: I have not forgotten your judgments.

I have stuck steadfastly to your testimonies, Lord: put me not to confusion.

I have run the path of your commandments: for you have enlarged my heart. Amen.

Ave maris stella

Ave maris stella, Dei mater alma atque semper virgo felix caeli porta.

Sumens illud Ave Gabrielis ore, funda nos in pace, mutans Evae nomen.

Solve vincla reis, profer lumen caecis, mala nostra pelle, bona cuncta posce.

Monstra te esse matrem, sumat per te precem qui pro nobis natus tulit esse tuus.

Virgo singularis inter omnes mitis, nos culpis solutos mites fac et castos.

Vitam praesta puram, iter para tutum, ut videntes Jesum semper collaetemur.

Sit laus Deo Patri, summo Christo decus, Spiritui Sancto tribus honor unus. Amen.

anon. Hymn at Vespers on feasts of the Virgin

Hail star of the sea loving mother of God and, ever virgin, blessed gate of heaven.

Taking that ‘Ave [Hail]’ from the mouth of Gabriel, establish us in peace, reversing the name of Eva.

Loose the bonds of the guilty, bring light to the blind, drive away our ills, pray all good things for us.

Show yourself to be our mother, may he receive the prayer through you who for us bore himself to be your son.

Virgin unique, gentlest among all, free us from our sins make us gentle and chaste.

Grant us a pure life, prepare us a safe journey, that when we see Jesus we may forever rejoice together.

Biographies

Taking its name from the Blessed Virgin Mary, a focus of religious devotion in the sacred music of all ages, The Marian Consort is a young, dynamic and internationally renowned early music vocal ensemble, recognised for its freshness of approach and innovative presentation of a broad range of repertoire.

Under its founder and director, Rory McCleery, this ‘astounding’ (The Herald ) ensemble has given concerts throughout the UK and Europe, features regularly on BBC Radio 3, and is a former ‘Young Artist’ of the Brighton Early Music Festival.

Known for its engaging performances and imaginative programming, the group draws its members from amongst the very best young singers on the early music scene today. They normally sing one to a part (dependent on the repertoire), with smaller vocal forces allowing clarity of texture and subtlety and flexibility of interpretation that illuminate the music for performer and audience alike. The Marian Consort is also committed to inspiring a love of singing in others, and has led participatory educational workshops for a wide range of ages and abilities.

Its repertoire encompasses the music of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries with a particular focus on the exploration of lesserknown works, often bringing these to the attention of the wider public for the first time. The Marian Consort is also a proud exponent

of contemporary music, juxtaposing latter-day pieces and Renaissance works in concert in order to shed new light on both. As part of this commitment to new music, the group has commissioned works from a number of leading British choral composers, including Cecilia McDowall and Matthew Martin.

The Marian Consort performs across the UK and Europe: recent highlights have included recitals at the St Magnus International Festival, the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg and the Festival de Música Antiga Valencia; concerts for the Leipzig A Cappella Festival and the Brighton Early Music Festival, the latter in collaboration with actor Finbar Lynch; and performances at the Wellcome Collection and the British Academy.

The Marian Consort has to date released four CDs with Delphian Records which have met with considerable critical acclaim. Their disc of English and Continental Renaissance music from the Dow Partbooks (DCD34115) received outstanding reviews in all of the major broadsheets, with The Scotsman giving it 5 stars for ‘performances that glow with golden purity and soul’, the Sunday Times commenting ‘exquisite … the ensemble sings with eloquence and expressive finesse’, and Gramophone calling it ‘superb’. Their 2013 release of music by the Parisian Renaissance composer Jean Maillard (DCD34130) attracted praise from Richard Morrison in The Times

for its ‘precision and pellucid textures’, with the Guardian noting that ‘the performances are models of discretion and musical taste, every texture clear, every phrase beautifully shaped.’ The ensemble’s most recent release, of a Christmas mass and motets by Jean Mouton, Cristóbal de Morales and Annibale Stabile (DCD34145), was ‘Christmas Choice’ in BBC Music magazine, which commented that ‘the works are mellifluously performed by The Marian Consort, who shape the sinuous polyphony with winning pliability,’ while the Sunday Times described the disc as ‘sublime – sung with impeccable polish and blend’ and the Observer lauded the group for ‘drawing the listener in by quiet persuasion and musical intelligence of the highest order’.

Rory McCleery began his musical career as a chorister at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh under Timothy Byram-Wigfield and Matthew Owens. He gained a double first in music at Oxford University as both Organ and Domus Academic scholar of St Peter’s College, subsequently completing an MSt in Musicology with Distinction. He is the founder and musical director of The Marian Consort.

As a countertenor, Rory greatly enjoys working as a soloist and consort singer in concert and recording with ensembles including The Monteverdi Choir, The Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen, The Gabrieli Consort, Contrapunctus, The Tallis Scholars, Le Concert d’Astrée, The Academy of Ancient Music, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Cardinall’s Musick.

Recent solo performances have included Bach St John and St Matthew Passions; Handel Messiah, Dixit Dominus and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne; Pärt Passio and Stabat Mater; Purcell Come ye Sons of Art, Ode to St Cecilia and Welcome to All the Pleasures; Monteverdi Vespers of 1610; Rameau Grands Motets; and Britten Abraham and Isaac in venues including the Chapelle Royale de Versailles, the Concertgebouw Brugge, and the Snape Maltings. Rory has appeared as a soloist for broadcasts on ARTE, Radio France, BBC Radio 3 and German and Italian radio, and collaborates regularly with the Rose Consort of Viols.

Rory is much in demand as a guest conductor, chorus master and workshop leader, and is a passionate believer in the importance of music education and singing for young people. He is also currently engaged in doctoral research centred on the French Renaissance composer Jean Mouton, and acts as an academic and programming consultant to festivals and many of the ensembles with whom he performs.

Biographies

The Rose Consort of Viols takes its name from the celebrated family of viol-makers, whose work spanned the growth and flowering of the English consort repertory. The Consort performs extensively throughout the UK and Europe, appears regularly on the BBC and in the major London concert halls, and has also featured at festivals in Canada and the USA. Concerts have featured guest soloists such as sopranos Emma Kirkby and Ellen Hargis, mezzo-sopranos Catherine King and Clare Wilkinson, the vocal groups Red Byrd, Stile Antico and the BBC Singers, lutenists Jacob Heringman, Jakob Lindberg and Christopher Wilson, and keyboard player Timothy Roberts. Recent engagements have included performances at the BBC Proms Matinees at Cadogan Hall with vocal ensemble Tenebrae, at the National Gallery in London, and for Semana de Musica Religiosa in Cuenca, Spain. Members of the Rose Consort of Viols are in demand as tutors on courses throughout the world, including those at Little Benslow Hills and Dartington International Summer School.

The Rose Consort has received awards for its research and performance of newly devised programmes, and its most recent recordings include two programmes of music on specially made early viols – Serenissima (Delphian DCD34149), a programme of music from Renaissance Europe performed on instruments by Richard Jones copied from the earliest surviving viol, a Venetian instrument by Francesco Linarol from around 1540, and Mynstrelles with Straunge Sounds (DCD34169), another pan-European programme, this time on viols modelled after those painted in a late fifteenth-century altarpiece by Lorenzo Costa. Also highly acclaimed was An Emerald in a Work of Gold: music from the Dow Partbooks (DCD34115), an earlier collaboration with The Marian Consort.

Serenissima: Music from Renaissance Europe on Venetian viols Rose Consort of Viols DCD34149

A disc of journeying and exploration, paying homage to the pan-European tendencies of a period in which composers, instruments and manuscripts crossed geographical borders; in which a song by one composer might become the subject of ingenious contrapuntal treatments by another and of Mass settings by a third; and in which new dance genres evolved alongside the widespread adaptation of vocal music for performance by instrumental consorts.

The Rose Consort of Viols, already acclaimed for their recordings of later English repertoire, have been inspired by viol-maker Richard Jones’s reconstructions of a Venetian instrument by Francesco Linarol – the earliest viol surviving from the sixteenth century – and they trace a path from the viol’s northern Italian origins to England, where it found a particularly welcome home at the turn of the 1600s.

‘well-nigh flawless … Restrained, refined readings, informed by a deep understanding of the viol and its repertoire’ — BBC Music Magazine, December 2014, *****/*****, CHAMBER CHOICE

Christmas

with

the Shepherds: Morales – Mouton – Stabile

The Marian Consort, Rory McCleery director DCD34145

A Christmas programme with a difference: Rory McCleery and his acclaimed consort echo the shepherds’ noels through a motet by Jean Mouton which, astonishingly, remained in the repertoire of the Sistine Chapel for over a hundred years after its composition around 1515. So famous already by the middle of the century, when Cristóbal de Morales was engaged as a singer in the papal chapel, it was inevitable that Mouton’s motet – by the compositional precepts of the time – should form the basis for a mass by Morales, while, later still, its text was reused in a new, grander motet by Annibale Stabile. A world premiere recording of the latter work crowns this unique programme, for which McCleery himself has prepared new performing editions.

‘unobtrusively wonderful, sung in some style and sumptuously recorded in the chapel of Merton College, Oxford … [An] immaculately produced disc’ — The Arts Desk, December 2014

Mynstrelles with Straunge Sounds: the earliest consort music for viols Clare Wilkinson mezzo-soprano, Rose Consort of Viols DCD34169

A rapid transformation in musical tastes occurred in the years around 1500, with the widespread distribution of part-music in the new medium of print – it was in this context that the consort of viols emerged. For their third recording on Delphian, the Rose Consort use a set of instruments modelled on those depicted in a Bolognese altarpiece dating from 1497. Peerless early-music mezzo Clare Wilkinson joins the consort in a sophisticated interweaving of voices that casts revealing light on the earliest music for this innovative ensemble.

New in July 2015

Loquebantur: Music from the Baldwin Partbooks

LOQUEBANTUR

Music from the Baldwin Partbooks

© 2015 Rory McCleery

Biographies

Christmas

the Shepherds: Morales – Mouton – Stabile