All music is in "The Oxford Book of English Madrigals" except those with other links below. The other links are not necessarily the same edition we will be using on the night and therefore there may be some slight differences.
Tallis If ye love me (or YouTube link) SATB
Thomas Tallis served in the Chapel Royal for some 40 years, composing under four monarchs with widely differing religious practices. His output encompasses early and late sixteenth-century English styles and his career reflects the religious upheaval and political change that affected church music of this period. He was among the first to set English texts for the rites of the Church of England and managed to avoid religious controversy despite quietly remaining a Catholic. During the reign of King Edward VI (1547-1553) it was mandated that the services be sung in English, and that the choral music be brief and succinct: 'to each syllable a plain and distinct note'. If Ye Love Me is the perfect example: mainly homophonic, but with brief moments of imitation. Like many early Anglican anthems, it is cast in ABB form, with the second section repeated.
Little is known about the English madrigalist John Bennet, whose first collection of madrigals was published in 1599. We’ll be singing two of his much-loved pieces:
Bennet All creatures now
This delightful piece is from The Triumphs of Oriana. Mostly homophonic, there are obvious instances of word-painting: an effervescent 'merry'-ness towards the start; hovering birds, with circling upper voices over a static lower-voice harmony; and an elongation of the word 'Long' (live fair Oriana) towards the end of the piece. The flowers 'themselves discover' means that they appear.
Bennet Weep O mine eyes
Weep O mine eyes (published in 1599) is a tribute to John Dowland, and quotes from the famous Flow my tears from his Lachrime Pavane (1596).
Morley Sing we and chant it
Thomas Morley (1557-1602) was a student of William Byrd and is known particularly as the master of the English madrigal style. His books of Canzonets, Madrigalls, and Balletts, published in the 1590s, contain a mixture of his own works as well transcriptions of pieces by Italian madrigalists. Morley's own lively, light style was taken up by other English composers and in 1601 he commissioned and published The Triumphs of Oriana, an anthology of madrigals by English composers in honor of the queen, Elizabeth I. Sing we and chant it advises us to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of friendship and youth. A lively ballet, it was directly influenced by Gastoldi's A lieta vita.
Campion Never weather beaten sail
Campion's songs are marked by an easy melodic flow, straightforward but sensitive musical and verbal rhythms, and a characteristic lightness of gait, derived in large part from his preference for monosyllables, and a sense that the sacred and secular are not far apart. Never weather-beaten sail, from Two Bookes of Ayres (1613) provides a telling example: its surface text professes a high degree of religious fervour for the afterlife, the breathlessly repeated refrain, O come quickly, O come quickly, reveals a soul more erotically earth- bound than it is letting on.
Suffolk-born John Wilbye is considered one of the greatest of English madrigalists. His style characterized by delicate voice-writing, acute sensitivity to text and the use of false relations between major and minor modes.
Wilbye Draw on sweet night
Melancholia was a popular concept in early seventeenth-century England, covering anything from minor annoyance and fear to sickness and depression. In the six-part Draw on, sweet night (1609) a work remarkable for its intense yet poised melancholy, Wilbye makes subtle use of a major-minor ambivalence to produce a work of expressive potency which has been described as the greatest of all English madrigals, with a complex but always lucid six-part counterpoint. The (anonymous) poet longs for night whose darkness reflects, and whose silence partly assuages, his melancholic feelings.
Wilbye Adieu sweet Amaryllis
A plaintive four-part piece of resigned pathos, from the composer's First Set of Madrigals (1598).
Vautor Sweet Suffolk Owl
Not much is known about the life of Thomas Vautor. His one published book of madrigals, Songs of Divers Airs and Natures (1619) was dedicated to the infamous George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, scandal-ridden courtier who was presumably Vautor's patron. Sweet Suffolk Owl is Vautor's best-known piece; there is much word painting - note the imitative 'te whit te whoo' and rolling quavers on 'rolls' - and sudden changes of texture. Towards the end the duple meter is interrupted by a section in 3 time - 'and sings a dirge for dying souls' - a possible quote from William Byrd's keyboard piece The Bells. 'Dight' means 'dressed'.
All music is in "The Oxford Book of English Madrigals" except those with other links below. The other links are not necessarily the same edition we will be using on the night and therefore there may be some slight differences.
Tallis If ye love me (or YouTube link) SATB
Thomas Tallis served in the Chapel Royal for some 40 years, composing under four monarchs with widely differing religious practices. His output encompasses early and late sixteenth-century English styles and his career reflects the religious upheaval and political change that affected church music of this period. He was among the first to set English texts for the rites of the Church of England and managed to avoid religious controversy despite quietly remaining a Catholic. During the reign of King Edward VI (1547-1553) it was mandated that the services be sung in English, and that the choral music be brief and succinct: 'to each syllable a plain and distinct note'. If Ye Love Me is the perfect example: mainly homophonic, but with brief moments of imitation. Like many early Anglican anthems, it is cast in ABB form, with the second section repeated.
Little is known about the English madrigalist John Bennet, whose first collection of madrigals was published in 1599. We’ll be singing two of his much-loved pieces:
Bennet All creatures now
This delightful piece is from The Triumphs of Oriana. Mostly homophonic, there are obvious instances of word-painting: an effervescent 'merry'-ness towards the start; hovering birds, with circling upper voices over a static lower-voice harmony; and an elongation of the word 'Long' (live fair Oriana) towards the end of the piece. The flowers 'themselves discover' means that they appear.
Bennet Weep O mine eyes
Weep O mine eyes (published in 1599) is a tribute to John Dowland, and quotes from the famous Flow my tears from his Lachrime Pavane (1596).
Morley Sing we and chant it
Thomas Morley (1557-1602) was a student of William Byrd and is known particularly as the master of the English madrigal style. His books of Canzonets, Madrigalls, and Balletts, published in the 1590s, contain a mixture of his own works as well transcriptions of pieces by Italian madrigalists. Morley's own lively, light style was taken up by other English composers and in 1601 he commissioned and published The Triumphs of Oriana, an anthology of madrigals by English composers in honor of the queen, Elizabeth I. Sing we and chant it advises us to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of friendship and youth. A lively ballet, it was directly influenced by Gastoldi's A lieta vita.
Campion Never weather beaten sail
Campion's songs are marked by an easy melodic flow, straightforward but sensitive musical and verbal rhythms, and a characteristic lightness of gait, derived in large part from his preference for monosyllables, and a sense that the sacred and secular are not far apart. Never weather-beaten sail, from Two Bookes of Ayres (1613) provides a telling example: its surface text professes a high degree of religious fervour for the afterlife, the breathlessly repeated refrain, O come quickly, O come quickly, reveals a soul more erotically earth- bound than it is letting on.
Suffolk-born John Wilbye is considered one of the greatest of English madrigalists. His style characterized by delicate voice-writing, acute sensitivity to text and the use of false relations between major and minor modes.
Wilbye Draw on sweet night
Melancholia was a popular concept in early seventeenth-century England, covering anything from minor annoyance and fear to sickness and depression. In the six-part Draw on, sweet night (1609) a work remarkable for its intense yet poised melancholy, Wilbye makes subtle use of a major-minor ambivalence to produce a work of expressive potency which has been described as the greatest of all English madrigals, with a complex but always lucid six-part counterpoint. The (anonymous) poet longs for night whose darkness reflects, and whose silence partly assuages, his melancholic feelings.
Wilbye Adieu sweet Amaryllis
A plaintive four-part piece of resigned pathos, from the composer's First Set of Madrigals (1598).
Vautor Sweet Suffolk Owl
Not much is known about the life of Thomas Vautor. His one published book of madrigals, Songs of Divers Airs and Natures (1619) was dedicated to the infamous George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, scandal-ridden courtier who was presumably Vautor's patron. Sweet Suffolk Owl is Vautor's best-known piece; there is much word painting - note the imitative 'te whit te whoo' and rolling quavers on 'rolls' - and sudden changes of texture. Towards the end the duple meter is interrupted by a section in 3 time - 'and sings a dirge for dying souls' - a possible quote from William Byrd's keyboard piece The Bells. 'Dight' means 'dressed'.
All music is in "The Oxford Book of English Madrigals" except those with other links below. The other links are not necessarily the same edition we will be using on the night and therefore there may be some slight differences.
Tallis If ye love me (or YouTube link) SATB
Thomas Tallis served in the Chapel Royal for some 40 years, composing under four monarchs with widely differing religious practices. His output encompasses early and late sixteenth-century English styles and his career reflects the religious upheaval and political change that affected church music of this period. He was among the first to set English texts for the rites of the Church of England and managed to avoid religious controversy despite quietly remaining a Catholic. During the reign of King Edward VI (1547-1553) it was mandated that the services be sung in English, and that the choral music be brief and succinct: 'to each syllable a plain and distinct note'. If Ye Love Me is the perfect example: mainly homophonic, but with brief moments of imitation. Like many early Anglican anthems, it is cast in ABB form, with the second section repeated.
Little is known about the English madrigalist John Bennet, whose first collection of madrigals was published in 1599. We’ll be singing two of his much-loved pieces:
Bennet All creatures now
This delightful piece is from The Triumphs of Oriana. Mostly homophonic, there are obvious instances of word-painting: an effervescent 'merry'-ness towards the start; hovering birds, with circling upper voices over a static lower-voice harmony; and an elongation of the word 'Long' (live fair Oriana) towards the end of the piece. The flowers 'themselves discover' means that they appear.
Bennet Weep O mine eyes
Weep O mine eyes (published in 1599) is a tribute to John Dowland, and quotes from the famous Flow my tears from his Lachrime Pavane (1596).
Morley Sing we and chant it
Thomas Morley (1557-1602) was a student of William Byrd and is known particularly as the master of the English madrigal style. His books of Canzonets, Madrigalls, and Balletts, published in the 1590s, contain a mixture of his own works as well transcriptions of pieces by Italian madrigalists. Morley's own lively, light style was taken up by other English composers and in 1601 he commissioned and published The Triumphs of Oriana, an anthology of madrigals by English composers in honor of the queen, Elizabeth I. Sing we and chant it advises us to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of friendship and youth. A lively ballet, it was directly influenced by Gastoldi's A lieta vita.
Campion Never weather beaten sail
Campion's songs are marked by an easy melodic flow, straightforward but sensitive musical and verbal rhythms, and a characteristic lightness of gait, derived in large part from his preference for monosyllables, and a sense that the sacred and secular are not far apart. Never weather-beaten sail, from Two Bookes of Ayres (1613) provides a telling example: its surface text professes a high degree of religious fervour for the afterlife, the breathlessly repeated refrain, O come quickly, O come quickly, reveals a soul more erotically earth- bound than it is letting on.
Suffolk-born John Wilbye is considered one of the greatest of English madrigalists. His style characterized by delicate voice-writing, acute sensitivity to text and the use of false relations between major and minor modes.
Wilbye Draw on sweet night
Melancholia was a popular concept in early seventeenth-century England, covering anything from minor annoyance and fear to sickness and depression. In the six-part Draw on, sweet night (1609) a work remarkable for its intense yet poised melancholy, Wilbye makes subtle use of a major-minor ambivalence to produce a work of expressive potency which has been described as the greatest of all English madrigals, with a complex but always lucid six-part counterpoint. The (anonymous) poet longs for night whose darkness reflects, and whose silence partly assuages, his melancholic feelings.
Wilbye Adieu sweet Amaryllis
A plaintive four-part piece of resigned pathos, from the composer's First Set of Madrigals (1598).
Vautor Sweet Suffolk Owl
Not much is known about the life of Thomas Vautor. His one published book of madrigals, Songs of Divers Airs and Natures (1619) was dedicated to the infamous George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, scandal-ridden courtier who was presumably Vautor's patron. Sweet Suffolk Owl is Vautor's best-known piece; there is much word painting - note the imitative 'te whit te whoo' and rolling quavers on 'rolls' - and sudden changes of texture. Towards the end the duple meter is interrupted by a section in 3 time - 'and sings a dirge for dying souls' - a possible quote from William Byrd's keyboard piece The Bells. 'Dight' means 'dressed'.
