Gerald Hoekstra, director
From Leonel Power to Henry Purcell:
300 Years of English Music
7:30 p.m. · Friday, Nov. 11, 2005 · Urness Recital Hall
PROGRAM
I.
Both compositions in this section of the program come from the Eton Choirbook, a magnificent manuscript of English sacred music copied for use at Eton College between 1490 and 1502. It contains nine magnificat settings and 29 motets, primarily votive antiphons-the types of music that would have been sung at evening services at the college. The florid and rhythmically complex music contrasts markedly with the prevailing style on the continent at this time. Robert Fayrfax was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal already during the reign of Henry VII. His name appears at the head of the lists of clerks present at the coronation of Henry VIII in June, 1509, and his services were well rewarded by the young king. Like most composers, Fayrfax set only the even-numbered verses of the Magnificat text; odd-numbered verses were to be sung in chant, a practice known as alternatim. Walter Lambe is second only to John Browne in the number of pieces included in the Eton Choirbook. Nesciens mater, a motet in honor of the Virgin, displays many of the same style features as Fayrfax's Magnificat: lively, complex rhythms, highly independent contrapuntal lines with little imitation, and contrasts of duets, trios, and full-voiced sections. Walter Lambe was a scholar at Eton College in the 1460s.
Magnificat "Regale" — Robert Fayrfax 1464-1521
Nesciens mater — Walter Lambe ?1450-51-d. after 1504
II.
One of the most important sources of English choral music before the Eton Choirbook is The Old Hall Manuscript, the main part of which was copied between 1415 and 1421. Leonel Power, with more than 20 pieces, is the best represented composer in the collection, which also contains works by his better-known contemporary John Dunstable. Unlike the later Eton Choirbook, the Old Hall MS contains a large number of mass movements, of which this Sanctus is one. Its beautiful consonance sonorities, full triadic harmonies, and smoothly flowing rhythms reflect well the "sweet English sound" that continental musicians found so compelling and influenced them in their own composition.
Sanctus — Leonel Power c. 1370-1445
John Taverner held positions briefly at Cardinal College (later Christ Church) and Boston, both of which were cut short because of conflicts during the English Reformation. Taverner's style of Latin church music still reflects the unique English idiom that preceded the adoption of the Netherlandish style of imitative counterpoint that pervaded continental church music in the early sixteenth century. The respond Audivi vocem de caelo follows the eighth lesson of Matins on the feast of All Saints (Nov. 1): in the Sarum rite this respond would be sung by the choirboys, representing the five virgins referred to in the lesson, in alternation with the full choir. The boys would begin the respond facing the altar, each holding a candle. At the exclamation "Ecce sponsus" (Behold the bridegroom), they would turn to face the choir.
Audivi vocem de caelo — John Taverner c. 1490-1545
women
III. Thomas Tallis c. 1505-1585 -- 500th Anniversary
The most important composer of English church music in the mid-sixteenth century, Thomas Tallis managed to retain his position in the Chapel Royal and even to thrive during the turbulent religious and political upheavals of the period. He served Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor, and Elizabeth I in turn, providing Latin motets under Henry and Mary, and English service music under Edward and Elizabeth. In 1575, along with the younger composer William Byrd, he published a set of Latin motets and dedicated the volume to Queen Elizabeth herself. The two motets here come from that collection and show the adoption of the continental imitative style that Tallis helped to popularize in England. When Edward VI decreed the use of the vernacular for the English church and ordered composers to set the text in such a way that it could be clearly understood, Tallis produced some of the earliest and finest English anthems. Verily, verily I say unto you dates from this period in the middle of the century.
Salvator mundi —Thomas Tallis c. 1505-1585
O sacrum convivium — Thomas Tallis
IV. Seventeenth-Century Instrumental Music
Except for the Pavane and Galiard by Byrd, all of the selections in this group are fantasias, a genre of instrumental music cultivated particularly in England. Although John Coprario adopted an Italianate form of his name (Cooper), he was thoroughly English. A number of his fantasias appear with Italian titles, though it is unlikely they ever had texts. The titles, though, do reveal one of the principal influences on the fantasia--the Italian madrigal; with their multiple contrasting sections fantasias are very much like madrigals in character. Although fantasias were played on all sorts of instruments, many were clearly intended for viols. The viol consort retained its popularity in England well into the seventeenth century and gave way to the violin and cello only in the later part of the century. In what seems to have been a consciously retrospective exercise, Henry Purcell, in a burst of creative activity, wrote a set of nine viol fantasias in 1680.
Dolce mia vita — wind band — John Coprario c. 1570-1626
Fantasia no. 7 a 4 — viols — John Coprario
Passa madonna — wind band — John Coprario
Fantasia a 5 — recorders — John Okeover d. c. 1663
Pavane & Galiard in A — viols — William Byrd 1543-1623
Fantasia a 5 — wind band — John Coprario
Fantasia a 4 — viols — Henry Purcell 1659-1695
V. Dances from Antony Holborne's Pavans, Galliards, Almains, and other Short Aeirs for viols, violins, or other Musical Wind Instruments (1599)
Almaine — recorders
The honie-suckle — wind band
The choise — recorders
The fairie round — recorders
Galliard — wind band
VI.
This last set offers music of the type that would have been used for domestic music-making. Gibbons' consort anthem This is the Record of John may well have been used in churches also, but in that context it would most likely have been accompanied by winds. With sections for soloist and instruments alternating with sections for choir, the consort anthem was a distinctly English development. Although today we often use the term "madrigal" for pieces such as Weelkes's "Hark, all ye lovely saints," it is not really a madrigal, nor is the Dowland piece. "Hark, all ye lovely saints" is a ballett, a genre modeled on the Italian balletto ; yet, unlike the simple dance-like Italian balletto , Weelkes's ballett, with its expressive writing and lively countrapuntal "fa-las" brings in elements of the madrigal tradition. The two Dowland pieces are airs; they were published in versions for solo voice and lute as well as for vocal or instrumental consort.
This is the Record of John — Orlando Gibbons 1583-1625
John Grau, tenor, chorus, and viols
Awake, sweet love — recorders — John Dowland 1563-1626
Come, heavy sleep — voices and viols — John Dowland
Hark, all ye lovely saints above — Thomas Weelkes 1576-1623
* * *
Ane Kirstine Wynn
Hannah Bolt
Maranda Childs
Rachel Jenniges
Lara Burkhart
Morgan Sours
Heather Wood
John Grau
Joshua Rundell
Darin Riedel
Carl Nelson
Joseph Mignano
Blaise Douros
Benjamin Eickhoff
Brendan Golle
Christine Wilkinson, treble viol
Rachel Nesvig, tenor viol
Aria Peters, tenor viol
Gerald Hoekstra, bass viol
Molly Crane, soprano & alto recorders
Timothy Dwight, soprano recorder
Christine Holmgren, tenor recorder
Catherine Wing, tenor recorder
James Haas, bass recorder
Laurie Bardenwerper , cornett
Ben Anderson, cornett
Phyllip Johnson, tenor sackbut
Christoph Dundas, tenor sackbut
Esther Terpenning, bass dulcian