Composer: William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Thomas Tomkins, Christopher Tye
Performer: Rose Consort of Viols, Clare Wilkinson
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Deux-Elles
Catalogue: DXL1129
Release: 2008
Size: 357 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Tallis: Salvator mundi: Salvator mundi
02. Tallis: O sacrum convivium
03. Tallis: Derelinquit impius: Derelinquit impius
04. Tye: Rubum quem: Rubum quem
05. Tye: In Nomine – “Beleeve me”: In Nomine – “Beleeve me”
06. Tye: In Nomine – “Re la re”: In Nomine – “Re la re”
07. Byrd: Plorans ploravit: Plorans ploravit
08. Byrd: In Nomine No. 3 a 5: In Nomine No. 3 a 5
09. Tye: I Lift My Heart to Thee: I Lift My Heart to Thee
10. Tye: In Nomine a 6: In Nomine a 6
11. Tye: Christ Rising Again from the Dead
12. Tallis: When shall my sorrowful sighing slake
13. Tallis: In Nomine No. 2: In Nomine No. 2
14. Tomkins: Oyez! Has Any Found a Lad?: Oyez! Has Any Found a Lad?
15. Byrd: Fantasia No. 1 a 6: Fantasia No. 1 a 6
16. Byrd: This Sweet and Merry Month of May: This Sweet and Merry Month of May
17. Tomkins: Pavan a 6: Pavan a 6
18. Tomkins: Galliard a 6: Galliard a 6
19. Tallis: Suscipe quaeso: Suscipe quaeso
20. Tye: In Nomine – “Rounde”: In Nomine – “Rounde”
21. Tye: In Nomine – “Saye so”: In Nomine – “Saye so”
22. Tomkins: Turn Unto the Lord: Turn Unto the Lord
23. Tomkins: In Nomine No. 1: In Nomine No. 1
24. Tomkins: Woe Is Me: Woe Is Me
25. Byrd: Praise Our Lord: Praise Our Lord
Clare Wilkinson’s pure Mezzo voice emerges from the mists of time in the opening antiphon by Talllis, sustaining and beautifully articulating the text. …the Rose Consort play in a sublimely unfussy, unfettered manner worthy of the music.
English music for a consort of viols presents a unique moment in the slow differentiation of vocal and instrumental genres. Viols played pieces drawn from the repertoire of vocal polyphony. In the Chapel Royal for which the composers represented here worked, such vocal pieces would have been sung unaccompanied. But when the music was performed outside of a church, in England’s vigorous amateur musical culture, various things could happen. A singer might take the top line, which tied into stylistic forces already afoot in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, or an all-instrumental performance could be attempted. Furthermore, sacred and secular music might not be sharply differentiated. These options are explored on this attractive British release, which also offers the listener a chance to contrast the styles of the four “Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal”: Thomas Tallis, Christopher Tye, William Byrd, and Thomas Tomkins; settings of the “In Nomine” tune by all four composers are included. Soprano Clare Wilkinson does a very good impersonation of an amateur vocalist, delivering a light, almost vibrato-less tone that makes her sound almost like another viol. The moods of the music are unusually varied thanks to the range of composition types included; there are madrigals, dances, dense Latin polyphony, simpler Anglican works, and the abstract In Nomines. The result is quite a lively disc of viol music in which something new is always happening, a bit of a surprise, perhaps, for those who love the “pure” viol consort sound, but just the thing for those who prefer concentrated melancholy in small doses. The album was recorded in a monastery, Forde Abbey, with superior results.