Catalogue

Summary:

Gramophone Award 2016: winner – Early Music

“The Western Wynde Mass nicely contrasts with The Tallis Scholars’ recording, being incisive and brisk where Peter Phillips’s reading is smoother and more leisurely. Parrott is perhaps more persuasive in conveying its pacing…the sound recording successively juggles a wide range of distributions, from harpsichord to choir, with no apparent discontinuity.” – Gramophone, Editor’s Choice

“Two English choral masterpieces, superbly sung.” – The Guardian

“Taverner was evidently the first Englishman to use secular music as a liturgical source, and it gives the piece a breezy, buoyant quality that comes through here with fetching immediacy.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Andrew Parrott and his Taverner Choir & Players turn to music of their namesake alongside works by his contemporary King Henry VIII, an exceptionally musical monarch, and two composers of the previous generation, William Cornysh and Hugh Ashton. With Taverner’s Western Wind mass as its corner-stone, this recording takes its lead from the unashamedly secular character of that work and ventures beyond the chapel door to explore the parallel world of courtly vernacular song and instrumental music.

Tracklist:

ANON. (early 16th c)
1. The western wynde (0:38)
Taverner’s cantus firmus
Uri Smilansky (recorder)

CHANT
2. Kyrie (Rex sempiterne) (1:46)
Taverner Choir

JOHN TAVERNER (c. 1490–1545)
3. Gloria [Mass ‘The Western Wynde’ (a4)] (6:37)
Taverner Choir

ANON. (early 16th c)
4. My lady Careys dompe (2:18)
Steven Devine (harpsichord)

JOHN TAVERNER
5. Credo [Mass ‘The Western Wynde’ (a4)] (7:07)
Taverner Choir

HENRY VIII (1491–1547)
6. If love now reynyd (II) (a3) (1:36)
Taverner Consort (mute cornett, 2 sackbuts)

CHANT
7. Preface (Sursum corda / Vere dignum) (1:41)
Charles Daniels (tenor), Taverner Choir

JOHN TAVERNER
8. Sanctus [Mass ‘The Western Wynde’ (a4)] (7:28)
Taverner Choir

ANON. (early 16th c)
9. My lady Wynkfylds rownde (0:57)
Kirsty Whatley (harp)

JOHN TAVERNER
10. Agnus [Mass ‘The Western Wynde’ (a4)] (7:26)
Taverner Choir

ANON. (?late 15th c)
11. O blessed lord, how may this be (a2) (1:36)
Emily Van Evera (soprano), Charles Daniels (tenor)

WILLIAM CORNYSH the younger (†1523)
12. Yow and I and Amyas (a3) (5:50)
Emily Van Evera (soprano), with Charles Daniels, Robert MacDonald

HUGH ASTON (c. 1485–1558)
13. A Hornepype (4:16)
Steven Devine (harpsichord)

ANON. (early 16th c)
14. Wher be ye my love? (a3) (5:59)
Emily Van Evera (soprano), Taverner Players (2 viols)

WILLIAM CORNYSH the younger
15. Fa la sol (a3) (6:58)
Taverner Players (mute cornett, viol, harp)

HENRY VIII
16. Taunder naken (a3) (2:20)
Taverner Players (shawm, 2 sackbuts)

JOHN TAVERNER
17. Audivi vocem de caelo (a4) (3:29)
8th (and final) respond at Matins of All Saints [text: after Matthew 25:6]
Taverner Choir

18. In nomine (2:42)
Transcription from the Benedictus of the Mass ‘Gloria tibi trinitas’
Steven Devine (harpsichord)

19. Dum transisset sabbatum (I) (a4) (7:01)
3rd (and final) respond at Easter Matins [text: Mark 16:1]
Taverner Choir

ANON. (early 16th c)
20. Westron wynde (0:46)
Emily Van Evera (soprano)

ANON. (arr. A.P.)
21. Western winds (a2) (0:50)
Song tune and cantus firmus combined
Gawain Glenton (mute cornett), Uri Smilansky (viol)

Total Duration: 79:20

Recording: 13–15 July 2015, Church of St Michael & All Angels, Summertown, Oxford
Producer and engineer: Adrian Hunter