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.
Eccard When to the temple Mary went
or YouTube SSATBB
Eccard is mostly known for his role in developing the genre of the Lutheran chorale. This exquisite motet for Candlemas (2nd February), the presentation of Christ in the Temple, is a beautifully proportioned and restrained piece of enduring appeal. Despite its six-part texture, the motet's delicate harmonisation ensures that the words remain the focus.
Wilbye Flora gave me fairest flowers
or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
John Wilbye (c.1574-1638), possibly the greatest of English madrigalists, 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. 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.
Wilbye Love not me for comely grace
or YouTube SATB
This exquisite piece starts as if it were a Dowland song but builds by stages into luxuriant polyphony. Throughout, it displays Wilbye's acute sensitivity to text, mirroring the shift from cautionary scepticism to doting resolve. The closing phrase - 'love me still, but know not why' - suggests that love without a tangible reason is immune to logic and therefore eternal.
Bateson Phyllis Farewell
or YouTube SATB
This exquisite piece, published in 1604, has for some reason completely passed me by until now. Mostly homophonic, it is perhaps more like a canzonet than a madrigal, but the word-painting is beautiful. Its tone of resignation and pardon encourages a restrained, inward musical response: sustained lines, softened cadences, and a controlled melancholy typical of late Elizabethan and Jacobean madrigal expression.
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 and questionable musical standards, was probably a wretched place for so fine a musician. Weelkes's exquisite madrigals have often been compared to Wilbye's. The word-painting in this glorious madrigal is tremendous fun! Look out for 'hill', 'descending', 'ascending', 'running down', 'two by two', 'three by three', 'all alone', and 'Long (live fair Oriana)'.
Weelkes On the plains fairy trains
or YouTube SSATB
This 5-voice ballet is characterised by its light, dance-like rhythm and lively word-painting, notably at the phrase 'quickly, thick and threefold', where the voices enter in rapid succession to evoke a gathering crowd. A joyous depiction of Arcadian revelry to finish the evening!
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.
Eccard When to the temple Mary went
or YouTube SSATBB
Eccard is mostly known for his role in developing the genre of the Lutheran chorale. This exquisite motet for Candlemas (2nd February), the presentation of Christ in the Temple, is a beautifully proportioned and restrained piece of enduring appeal. Despite its six-part texture, the motet's delicate harmonisation ensures that the words remain the focus.
Wilbye Flora gave me fairest flowers
or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
John Wilbye (c.1574-1638), possibly the greatest of English madrigalists, 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. 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.
Wilbye Love not me for comely grace
or YouTube SATB
This exquisite piece starts as if it were a Dowland song but builds by stages into luxuriant polyphony. Throughout, it displays Wilbye's acute sensitivity to text, mirroring the shift from cautionary scepticism to doting resolve. The closing phrase - 'love me still, but know not why' - suggests that love without a tangible reason is immune to logic and therefore eternal.
Bateson Phyllis Farewell
or YouTube SATB
This exquisite piece, published in 1604, has for some reason completely passed me by until now. Mostly homophonic, it is perhaps more like a canzonet than a madrigal, but the word-painting is beautiful. Its tone of resignation and pardon encourages a restrained, inward musical response: sustained lines, softened cadences, and a controlled melancholy typical of late Elizabethan and Jacobean madrigal expression.
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 and questionable musical standards, was probably a wretched place for so fine a musician. Weelkes's exquisite madrigals have often been compared to Wilbye's. The word-painting in this glorious madrigal is tremendous fun! Look out for 'hill', 'descending', 'ascending', 'running down', 'two by two', 'three by three', 'all alone', and 'Long (live fair Oriana)'.
Weelkes On the plains fairy trains
or YouTube SSATB
This 5-voice ballet is characterised by its light, dance-like rhythm and lively word-painting, notably at the phrase 'quickly, thick and threefold', where the voices enter in rapid succession to evoke a gathering crowd. A joyous depiction of Arcadian revelry to finish the evening!
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.
Eccard When to the temple Mary went
or YouTube SSATBB
Eccard is mostly known for his role in developing the genre of the Lutheran chorale. This exquisite motet for Candlemas (2nd February), the presentation of Christ in the Temple, is a beautifully proportioned and restrained piece of enduring appeal. Despite its six-part texture, the motet's delicate harmonisation ensures that the words remain the focus.
Wilbye Flora gave me fairest flowers
or YouTube Also in the Oxford Book of English Madrigals SSATB
John Wilbye (c.1574-1638), possibly the greatest of English madrigalists, 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. 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.
Wilbye Love not me for comely grace
or YouTube SATB
This exquisite piece starts as if it were a Dowland song but builds by stages into luxuriant polyphony. Throughout, it displays Wilbye's acute sensitivity to text, mirroring the shift from cautionary scepticism to doting resolve. The closing phrase - 'love me still, but know not why' - suggests that love without a tangible reason is immune to logic and therefore eternal.
Bateson Phyllis Farewell
or YouTube SATB
This exquisite piece, published in 1604, has for some reason completely passed me by until now. Mostly homophonic, it is perhaps more like a canzonet than a madrigal, but the word-painting is beautiful. Its tone of resignation and pardon encourages a restrained, inward musical response: sustained lines, softened cadences, and a controlled melancholy typical of late Elizabethan and Jacobean madrigal expression.
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 and questionable musical standards, was probably a wretched place for so fine a musician. Weelkes's exquisite madrigals have often been compared to Wilbye's. The word-painting in this glorious madrigal is tremendous fun! Look out for 'hill', 'descending', 'ascending', 'running down', 'two by two', 'three by three', 'all alone', and 'Long (live fair Oriana)'.
Weelkes On the plains fairy trains
or YouTube SSATB
This 5-voice ballet is characterised by its light, dance-like rhythm and lively word-painting, notably at the phrase 'quickly, thick and threefold', where the voices enter in rapid succession to evoke a gathering crowd. A joyous depiction of Arcadian revelry to finish the evening!
