Please note that music files that are linked to are not necessarily the same edition we will be using on the day and therefore there may be some slight differences.
Tallis If ye love me or YouTube SATB
Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) lived under the reign of five monarchs, a turbulent time in English political and religious history. During the reign of the Protestant 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, to a text from John 14: 15-17, is the classic example of these new English anthems: mainly homophonic, but with brief moments of imitation. It possesses unusual purity and simplicity and is a fine example of restrained pathos.
Ward Out from the Vale or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATBB
The text is a typical example of love-melancholy. Note the distinctive four-note descending patterns, providing a striking cascading effect - these are sometimes called L motives because of similarities with Dowland's Lachrymae (the famous 'Flow my tears'). Note also a wonderful F/F# dissonance on the word 'bitter'.
Wilbye Flora gave me fairest flowers or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
John Wilbye (c.1574-1638) spent most of his career at Hengrave Hall in Suffolk, home of the noble Kytson family. Almost his entire known output consists of two books of madrigals, published in 1597 and 1609. He is ranked as one of the greatest English madrigalists, able to absorb Italian influences within the framework of a subtle and introspective personal style.
Flora gave me fairest flowers is a brief and elegant masterpiece of understatement, with a transparent underlying eroticism: a first-person narrator bestows flowers upon a lady love, and a tryst in a meadow follows. It consists of three two-line couplets, with the music reflecting each nuance of the charming text.
Morley In every place or YouTube SATB
From Madrigals to 4 voyces (1594). A short but exquisite piece on the pains of love. Slow and delicate, note especially its plangent suspensions on 'and grief doth so torment me', a caressing motiv on 'gentle love' and a sweetly evocative 'O gentle love'.
Weelkes As Vesta was or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATTB
Thomas Weelkes was a colourful personality: as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography puts it, 'he was not the only disorderly member of the cathedral establishment, though in due course he would become its most celebrated'. Organist at Chichester Cathedral, he was in 1616 reported to the Bishop for being 'noted and famed for a comon drunckard (sic) and notorious swearer & blasphemer', although the cathedral, with its ill-disciplined choir questionable musical standards, was probably a wretched place for so a fine musician. Weelkes's exquisite madrigals have often been compared to Wilbye's.
I love the word-painting in this piece! Look out for 'hill', 'descending', 'ascending', 'running down', 'two by two', 'three by three', 'all alone', and 'Long (live fair Oriana)'. The musical architecture is ABCDCBA, based on contrasts of texture.
Weelkes To shorten winter's sadness or YouTube SSATB
This is a lively ballet. References to 'mumming' are probably to mummers' plays, some of which commemorate Plough Monday, the first Monday of Epiphany, celebrating the death of winter and the triumph of spring. The word means masking or concealing one's identity for a performance.
Please note that music files that are linked to are not necessarily the same edition we will be using on the day and therefore there may be some slight differences.
Tallis If ye love me or YouTube SATB
Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) lived under the reign of five monarchs, a turbulent time in English political and religious history. During the reign of the Protestant 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, to a text from John 14: 15-17, is the classic example of these new English anthems: mainly homophonic, but with brief moments of imitation. It possesses unusual purity and simplicity and is a fine example of restrained pathos.
Ward Out from the Vale or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATBB
The text is a typical example of love-melancholy. Note the distinctive four-note descending patterns, providing a striking cascading effect - these are sometimes called L motives because of similarities with Dowland's Lachrymae (the famous 'Flow my tears'). Note also a wonderful F/F# dissonance on the word 'bitter'.
Wilbye Flora gave me fairest flowers or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
John Wilbye (c.1574-1638) spent most of his career at Hengrave Hall in Suffolk, home of the noble Kytson family. Almost his entire known output consists of two books of madrigals, published in 1597 and 1609. He is ranked as one of the greatest English madrigalists, able to absorb Italian influences within the framework of a subtle and introspective personal style.
Flora gave me fairest flowers is a brief and elegant masterpiece of understatement, with a transparent underlying eroticism: a first-person narrator bestows flowers upon a lady love, and a tryst in a meadow follows. It consists of three two-line couplets, with the music reflecting each nuance of the charming text.
Morley In every place or YouTube SATB
From Madrigals to 4 voyces (1594). A short but exquisite piece on the pains of love. Slow and delicate, note especially its plangent suspensions on 'and grief doth so torment me', a caressing motiv on 'gentle love' and a sweetly evocative 'O gentle love'.
Weelkes As Vesta was or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATTB
Thomas Weelkes was a colourful personality: as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography puts it, 'he was not the only disorderly member of the cathedral establishment, though in due course he would become its most celebrated'. Organist at Chichester Cathedral, he was in 1616 reported to the Bishop for being 'noted and famed for a comon drunckard (sic) and notorious swearer & blasphemer', although the cathedral, with its ill-disciplined choir questionable musical standards, was probably a wretched place for so a fine musician. Weelkes's exquisite madrigals have often been compared to Wilbye's.
I love the word-painting in this piece! Look out for 'hill', 'descending', 'ascending', 'running down', 'two by two', 'three by three', 'all alone', and 'Long (live fair Oriana)'. The musical architecture is ABCDCBA, based on contrasts of texture.
Weelkes To shorten winter's sadness or YouTube SSATB
This is a lively ballet. References to 'mumming' are probably to mummers' plays, some of which commemorate Plough Monday, the first Monday of Epiphany, celebrating the death of winter and the triumph of spring. The word means masking or concealing one's identity for a performance.
Please note that music files that are linked to are not necessarily the same edition we will be using on the day and therefore there may be some slight differences.
Tallis If ye love me or YouTube SATB
Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) lived under the reign of five monarchs, a turbulent time in English political and religious history. During the reign of the Protestant 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, to a text from John 14: 15-17, is the classic example of these new English anthems: mainly homophonic, but with brief moments of imitation. It possesses unusual purity and simplicity and is a fine example of restrained pathos.
Ward Out from the Vale or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATBB
The text is a typical example of love-melancholy. Note the distinctive four-note descending patterns, providing a striking cascading effect - these are sometimes called L motives because of similarities with Dowland's Lachrymae (the famous 'Flow my tears'). Note also a wonderful F/F# dissonance on the word 'bitter'.
Wilbye Flora gave me fairest flowers or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
John Wilbye (c.1574-1638) spent most of his career at Hengrave Hall in Suffolk, home of the noble Kytson family. Almost his entire known output consists of two books of madrigals, published in 1597 and 1609. He is ranked as one of the greatest English madrigalists, able to absorb Italian influences within the framework of a subtle and introspective personal style.
Flora gave me fairest flowers is a brief and elegant masterpiece of understatement, with a transparent underlying eroticism: a first-person narrator bestows flowers upon a lady love, and a tryst in a meadow follows. It consists of three two-line couplets, with the music reflecting each nuance of the charming text.
Morley In every place or YouTube SATB
From Madrigals to 4 voyces (1594). A short but exquisite piece on the pains of love. Slow and delicate, note especially its plangent suspensions on 'and grief doth so torment me', a caressing motiv on 'gentle love' and a sweetly evocative 'O gentle love'.
Weelkes As Vesta was or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATTB
Thomas Weelkes was a colourful personality: as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography puts it, 'he was not the only disorderly member of the cathedral establishment, though in due course he would become its most celebrated'. Organist at Chichester Cathedral, he was in 1616 reported to the Bishop for being 'noted and famed for a comon drunckard (sic) and notorious swearer & blasphemer', although the cathedral, with its ill-disciplined choir questionable musical standards, was probably a wretched place for so a fine musician. Weelkes's exquisite madrigals have often been compared to Wilbye's.
I love the word-painting in this piece! Look out for 'hill', 'descending', 'ascending', 'running down', 'two by two', 'three by three', 'all alone', and 'Long (live fair Oriana)'. The musical architecture is ABCDCBA, based on contrasts of texture.
Weelkes To shorten winter's sadness or YouTube SSATB
This is a lively ballet. References to 'mumming' are probably to mummers' plays, some of which commemorate Plough Monday, the first Monday of Epiphany, celebrating the death of winter and the triumph of spring. The word means masking or concealing one's identity for a performance.
