V1 Eton Choirbook: Rose A/T

In the upheavals wreaked by the English Reformation triggered by King Henry VIII's rejection of Roman Catholicism, most of the Latin liturgical music hitherto composed was violently destroyed, often with the institutions and buildings that harbored the manuscripts that contained it, and it is something of a miracle that any of it survived at all. What survived was passed on to us in a large part through the preservation of the Eton Choirbook, a richly illuminated manuscript collection kept at Eton College. Only 64 out of the original 93 compositions contained in the original manuscript remain, complete or in part. Harry Christophers and his vocal ensemble The Sixteen first tackled the Eton Choirbook in the early 1980s through a collection published by Meridian, still in print (see my review of Stabat Mater: Music from the Eton Choir Book). In the early to late 1990s, they returned to that source for Collins Classics, in a more thorough survey, which ultimately totaled 5 CDs. Collins is now gone, but fortunately those CDs and the rest of the recordings of The Sixteen have been reissued on the ensemble's label, Coro.

This music is sublime. I discovered it, by chance, more than a decade ago, through the Tallis Scholar's recording of the choral music of William Cornysh (about that see my review of William Cornysh: Stabat Mater), but it is only now that I've come to explore more, through The Sixteen's Meridian CD and now this superb anthology. I've also ordered the John Browne CD of the Tallis Scholars (John Browne: Music from the Eton Choirbook).

I'm no specialist of English Renaissance music and I tend to bundle everything in a common category that goes from Dunstable to Byrd, although a century and a half separate them. But, already through Cornysh and now with all these selections from the Eton Choirbook, this music gives me a kick that I don't recall having ever experienced with Byrd or Tallis. I pulled out my CDs those two composers, to see if my earlier impressions were confirmed, and if so, to try and understand why. In the Byrd masses I selected the Tallis Scholars, who had been such a revelation in Cornysh (Byrd: 3 Masses by The Tallis Scholars), and in Tallis' Lamentations I took my ECM CD of the Hilliard Ensemble (Tallis: Lamentations of Jeremiah).

Impression confirmed, and here is my explanation as to why: sopranos. They fly and gambol in the stratosphere with heart-rending purity, and each of their leaps is an additional emotional stab in the heart. If angels have voices, I hope this is how they sound. The vocal virtuosity, the sinuous and sensuous vocal lines, the huge compass are not reserved to the sopranos, of course. In fact, this very virtuosity of writing it is a shared characteristic of all these composers, that apparently was abandoned by their post-Reformation successors. As beautiful as it is, the music of Byrd and Tallis is simpler, melodically and harmonically, more serene and "un-eventful", conveying less of a sense of exultation (the composer Wilfrid Mellers, who wrote the illuminating liner notes of the Tallis/ECM CDs, has a brilliant if perhaps a bit contrived explanation for that simplification of the music, relating it to Protestantism's centering on the individual and on the social solidarities of the individuals, a consequence being the importance for words to be understood and for the rhythms to follow the inflexions of the spoken word, making "the human import [...] therefore more readily manifest than it is in the labyrinths of Catholic counterpoint". Se non è vero è ben trovato). Conclusion: Henry VIII and the Reformation chased the Angels from England. Their loss.

Among the pieces contained on this CD, volume 1 of the collection, I can't really discriminate, although given my effusive reaction to sopranos (the voices, I mean), it will come as no surprise that my favorites are the compositions in which they are most prominently featured: Fayrfax's Magnificat, Hygons' Salve Regina and, of course, Cornysh's Stabat Mater (which opened the Tallis Scholars CD and within its five first seconds sent me to heaven, back then). Browne's Stabat and the song of Turges' do without them. In Cornysh I marginally prefer the singing of the Tallis Scholars - although they sing at the same pitch the women sound more stratospheric because the sonics spotlight them more. The effect is more otherworldly with The Sixteen but has marginally less impact. With the Tallis I get the impression that I'm in the chapel, sitting very close to the singing nuns (woudln't Henry VIII have loved it!), with The Sixteen I'm in the church. Nonetheless it is a fine reading.

The two secular songs contained on this disc, Edmund Turges' "From stormy windis and grievous wethir" and the anonymous" This day day dawes" are actually not from the Eton Choirbook: The Turges - a song praying for the protection of the ostrich feather, emblem of Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VII and heir to the throne - was included because it is quoted in Browne's "Stabat iuxta Christi crucem", evidently an allegory on the death of Arthur in 1502, aged 15, opening the way to the throne to his younger brother, the future Henry VIII. I haven't understood the reason of the inclusion of the other song, other that it is copied adjacently in the manuscript where the Turges song is preserved. Anyway, its references to "the lily-whighte rose", emblem of Eliszabeth of York, Henry VII's queen and mother of Arthur and Henry, but also a metaphor of the Virgin Mary often used in the Eton choirbook, gives its title to the disc, along with Arthur's ostrich feather.

TT 62:34, here is the link to the original Collins release: The Rose and the Ostrich Feather - Eton Choirbook Vol I. The Coro reissues of the four other volumes are

The Crown of Thorns: Eton Choirbook Volume II
The Pillars of Eternity: Eton Choirbook Volume III
The Flower of all Virginity - Eton Choirbook Vol IV
The Voices of Angels

This is an amazing CD, and, to paraphrase another reviewer, "its the sopranos, stupid." And that is the crux of the problem with this Coro reissue, I do not know what they have done, but the sopranos come out a bit muddy, compared to the Collins.

I leant the Collins one to a friend, who mislaid it, so i bought the Coro to replace, which was cheaper; but I wished I hadn't. As luck would have it, Richard found what was lost, we exchanged CD's, and now I am happy as a lark.

But this is really fine music, actually quite a revelation to one who thought Byrd and Tallis were the end all of Tudor music.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars