An Emerald in a Work of Gold - Music from
the Dow Partbooks
see end of review for track listing
The Marian Consort *
Rose Consort of Viols
rec. 10-13 January 2012, Chapel of All Souls College, Oxford. DDD
Texts and English translations included
DELPHIAN DCD34115 [72:49]
In 2011 I gave a warm welcome to a previous disc by The
Marian Consort (review).
On that occasion their programme comprised music from Spain’s Age
of Gold. Now, in collaboration with the Rose Consort of Viols, they turn
their attention to English music and, specifically, to music from the Tudor
age.
The source of all the pieces on this programme is a set of five partbooks
compiled by the Elizabethan scholar and bibliophile, Robert Dow (1553 -
1588). Into these partbooks Dow painstakingly copied a large number of pieces
of music, probably starting in 1581. Most of the music was by indigenous
composers but there were also a number of pieces by composers from continental
Europe. The selected compositions included Latin motets, English sacred
pieces and solo songs as well as a number of instrumental works. All this
information and much more is laid out in the extremely informative notes
which have been authored jointly by Rory McCleery, the director of The Marian
Consort, and John Bryan of the Rose Consort of Viols. The chosen programme
includes aspects of all these genres. What’s particularly interesting
is that McCleery and Bevan are convinced that Dow’s work was no academic
exercise but that he compiled these partbooks in order that he and his friends
might use them in music making for their own pleasure. In an age when CDs,
the internet, downloads and computer programmes such as Sibelius have made
music more accessible to us than to any previous generation it’s rather
humbling to think of someone going to such trouble in order to enjoy music.
And furthermore, it’s clear that these partbooks were inscribed meticulously:
the booklet illustration is a detail from Dow’s copy of Parson’s
Ave Maria and one can readily appreciate - and admire - the craftsmanship;
this may be a working document but it’s also a work of art. There
is a second example of Dow’s fastidious work inside the jewel case.
As will be seen from the track listing, several of the pieces - nine in
total - are instrumental items, played by the Rose Consort. In addition,
they provide the accompaniment in a further five pieces, which are solo
songs with viol accompaniment. I suppose I should come clean and say I’m
not the best person to judge these performances since viol consort music
is not the sort of repertoire to which I’ve ever felt drawn. However,
what I can say, I think, is that the performances here seem to me entirely
to justify the strong reputation that this ensemble has built up. Quite
a number of the pieces they offer are rather melancholy in nature but, sensibly,
they leaven the mixture with some rather livelier offerings, including the
piece by Ruffo and van Wilder’s Je file quand Dieu me donne de
quoy. I wonder if some of the pieces played by the viol consort are
actually vocal works. I’m thinking, for example, of Maillard’s
Ascendo ad Patrem meum, which is described in the notes as a motet.
It may be that Dow transcribed this piece intending it for instrumental
performance. On the other hand, we learn from the notes that the Tallis
piece, O salutaris hostia, appears in the partbooks with text against
every part yet here it is sung - very well - by soprano Emma Walshe accompanied
by four viols. In all probability some judicious programme building has
gone on overall with the pieces distributed amongst the various musicians
in much the same way that Robert Dow and his friends might have done.
In my review of The Marian Consort’s previous disc I wrote that the
singing “is very precise and controlled and the ensemble is well balanced.
One is left in no doubt that here is a group of singers who are used to
working with each other and who blend their voices and their musical natures
together as by instinct. There is a great deal to admire in the precision
of their tuning and the purity of tone.” There’s nothing on
this new disc to challenge that view. Though, as before, there were times
when I might have preferred the slightly fuller sound of, say, two voices
to a part the one-to-a-part approach brings its own rewards. A prime example
of this is to be found in the exquisite Ave Maria by Robert Parsons,
probably the best-known piece on the programme. On balance I prefer it sung
by a slightly larger group of singers - perhaps because that’s what
I’m used to hearing - but there’s no denying that five perfectly
balanced, poised young voices bring a rather special and very pleasing intimacy
to this music.
The Amen at the end of Parsons’ Ave Maria is wonderful; a luxuriously
extended musical leave-taking. This programme also contains another fine
Amen, this one coming at the end of Non me vincat, Deus meus by Nicholas
Strogers. He is a very obscure figure - an Englishman - and to the best
of my knowledge I’ve never heard any of his music before. This piece
is his sole surviving motet and the only copy of it is to be found in Robert
Dow’s collection. Thank goodness he recorded it in his books for it
is a very good piece and even if the ending can’t quite match the
finis achieved by Parsons - few can - it is nonetheless both extended
and exquisite.
Returning to Robert Parsons, he is one of several composers represented
on this disc by settings of words from Psalm 119. His Retribue servo
tuo is a noteworthy piece and it’s performed here with no little
urgency by Rory McCleery and his colleagues. Other composers who took their
inspiration from this psalm include Nathaniel Giles in Vestigia mea dirige,
and Robert White, whose Justus es, Domine, is a piece in seven parts
which impressed me very much. It’s very expressive and White uses
the seven voices at his disposal to vary the textures imaginatively. It’s
an outstanding piece and it’s served very well indeed by The Marian
Consort.
In the various solo songs, which include something of a rarity in the shape
of an Italian madrigal by Byrd, the solo parts are taken by individual members
of the consort. All acquit themselves very well, singing their solos with
fine expression and immaculate technique. In fact the entire programme demonstrates
immaculate technique on the part of both singers and instrumentalists. In
this sort of music, with one singer or player to each part, the musicians
are exposed to merciless scrutiny but it seems to me that all come through
this scrutiny with flying colours.
The recordings were made in a place which is new to me as a recording venue,
the Chapel of All Souls College, Oxford. That’s highly appropriate
because Robert Dow was a student there in the 1580s and, we are told, was
the college’s bursar of laws between 1585 and 1587. I have never been
in this chapel but it sounds to have good acoustics and to be on a fairly
intimate scale. Paul Baxter has produced another of his fine recordings
in this venue, which may be new to Delphian: the sound is clear, true and
expertly balanced.
Robert Dow’s partbooks, which are now housed in the library of Christ
Church, Oxford, were designed for practical use - as on this recording -
but have come down to us as a work of scholarship and craftsmanship. It’s
very pleasing that this fine album breathes fresh, twenty-first century
life into his dedicated work.
John Quinn
A fine album that breathes fresh, twenty-first century life into the dedicated
work of a Tudor scholar.
Track listing
William MUNDY (c 1528 - c 1591) Sive vigilem* [2:36]
Nicholas STROGERS (fl. 1560 - 1575) A doeful deadly pang [1:39]
Nicholas STROGERS In Nomine a 5 No. 2 [3:07]
? Robert MALLORY (d. 1572) Miserere a5 [1:49]
Nathaniel GILES (c 1558 - 1634) Vestigia mea dirige* [5:31]
Robert WHITE (c 1538 - 1574) In Nomine a 5 [3:15]
William BYRD (1539/40 - 1623) O Lord, how vain [4:54]
Robert WHITE Justus es, Domine* [8:00]
Christopher TYE (c 1505 - 1572/73) In Nomine (‘Follow
Me’) [2:57]
Thomas TALLIS (c 1505 - 1585) O salutaris hostia [3:03]
Robert PARSONS (c 1535 - 1572) Retribue servo tuo* [8:35]
Anon Come, Holy Ghost [3:19]
Vincenzo RUFFO (c 1509 - 1587) La gamba [1:24]
William BYRD La verginela [2:16]
Anon (‘Roose’) Dum transisset Sabbatum* [3:26]
Jean MAILLARD (fl. 1538 - 1570) Ascendo ad Patrem meum* [2:57]
Nicholas STROGERS Non me vincat, Deus meus* [4:21]
Philippe VERDELOT (1480s - c 1530) Madonna somm’acorto
[2:09]
Philip van WILDER (c 1500 - 1553) Je file quand Dieu me donne
de quoy [1:20]
Philip van WILDER Pour vous aymer j’ay mis toute ma cure [1:48]
Robert PARSONS Ave Maria* [4:12]
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