musica Dei donum
CD reviews
"Henry VIII on Tour - Music from Tudor royal progresses"
Ensemble Pro Victoria; New Vocal Ensemblea
Aileen Henry, harpb; Toby Carr, lutec; Magnus Williamson, organd
Dir: Toby Ward
rec: March 5 - 7, 2024, Lyddington (Rutland), St Andrew's Church; April 12, 2024, Newcastle, St Nicholas's Cathedrald
Delphian Records - DCD34335 (© 2025) (63'09")
Liner-notes: E; lyrics - translations: E
Cover & track-list
Spotify
anon:
A galyardb;
Beata viscerad;
La bounetteb;
The kynges maskeb;
William CORNYSHE (1465-1523):
Ah, the sighsc;
Trolly lolly;
Robert COWPER (?-1539/40):
Fare well my joy;
HENRY VIII (1491-1547):
En vray amourec;
William MORE (?-1565):
Levavi oculos meos;
Dionisius PRIORIS (?-c1514):
Dulcis amica Dei;
William RASAR (fl c1515):
Missa Christe Jesua;
John REDFORD (c1500-1547):
Felix namque Id;
Felix namque IId;
John TAVERNER (c1490-1545):
Audivi vocem de coelo;
Philippe VERDELOT (fl c1500-c1530):
Sancta Maria virgo virginum;
John WHITE (1509/10-1560):
Galliard I, II, IIId;
Philip VAN WILDER (c1500-1554):
Sancte Deus
[EPV] Fiona Fraser, Áine Smith, soprano;
Lissie Paul, Anna Semple, contralto;
Matthew Farrell, David McGregor, alto;
David De Winter (solob, James Robinson, tenor;
Gavin Cranmer-Moralee, Humphrey Thompson, baritone;
Piers Connor Kennedy, Stuart O’Hara, bass
[NVE] Alessia Lotto, Bridget Tiller, Isabella Wickham, soprano;
Laura Oldfield, Emogene Shaw, Isabel Thomas, contralto;
Timothy Cranfield, James Watson, Michael Winter, bass
It is generally known that Henry VIII was very musical. He attracted some of the finest performers and composers, and collected a large number of instruments. He also acted as a composer: some secular pieces are attributed to him (although he seems only to have written the text of the best-known of them, Pastime with good company), and he also composed two masses, which have been lost. The Ensemble Pro Victoria has been exploring the musical world of the Tudors in recent years, resulting in a disc with music by Robert Fayrfax, and a disc with the title "Tudor Music Afterlives". I have not heard either of them, so this third recording is my first acquaintance with their approach to the repertoire.
The booklet includes a lengthy and interesting essay by Magnus Williamson about the world of Henry VIII and his activities in relation to the music that is performed here. That is especially useful for those listeners who are not familiar with English history and society of Henry's time. One thing that is especially relevant here, is that the King's year was divided into two halves. From November to early summer he resided in a few houses, where he celebrated the main feasts of the ecclesiastical year, from Advent to Trinity Sunday (the Sunday after Whitsun). In the second half he crossed the country, as is expressed in the title of this disc. "Long-distance progresses with set-piece royal entries into the major regional cities helped kings to win hearts and minds but became less frequent after 1485" (booklet).
This difference between the two halves of the year is relevant with regard to music: in the first half the music was performed by the Chapel Royal. "Most of the thirty gentlemen and ten boys of the Chapel Royal were stood down during progress season: only a select number of musicians, centred on the ‘Riding Chapel’ of six men and six boys, attended the king on his travels." One of the places where Henry stayed during the travel season was Windsor Castle, whose musical establishment, the St George's Chapel, was of first-class quality, including leading composers, and choristers who were to make a career as church musicians.
Each day started with a mass, and therefore the main work in the first half of the programme is the Missa Christe Jesu by William Rasar, which is for five voices and entirely written in duple meter. The title seems to refer to the source of the musical material on which it is based, but it could not be identified. It may have been a motet that is lost. Rasar became a chorister at St George's Chapel in 1499 and entered the choir of King's College in Cambridge as a clerk in 1510. As was common in English masses, the Kyrie is not set.
Among the other sacred works are pieces by foreign masters. Music from the continent came to England partly in the way of gifts. Sancta Maria virgo virginum by Philippe Verdelot, for instance, was part of a diplomatic gift of a collection of music, commissioned by the city of Florence, and now known as the Newberry-Oscott Partbooks. Dulcis amica mea by Dionisius Prioris (New Grove has Johannes as his Christian name) is included in a choirbook copied on the Continent but given to Henry VIII while Prince of Wales, probably by Anne, Duchess of Brittany and wife of King Louis XII; Prioris was a singer in the French king's chapel.
Henry also had foreign musicians and composers at his court, among them Philip van Wilder, who took the position of head of the secular musical establishment of the royal household, a post later described as 'Master of the King's Musick'. Sancte Deus is one of the relatively small number of sacred works in his oeuvre. One of the musicians at Henry's court was the blind harpist William More, who also composed some music, such as the motet Levavi oculos meos.
This also explains why some items in the programme are played on the harp. This is an especially interesting aspect of this recording, as over the years I have seldom heard English music in recordings of harp music. Its role seems to be more or less overlooked. The pieces Aileen Henry plays here were originally intended for keyboard. Historically very little music was specifically written for the harp; harpists played music intended for keyboard or plucked instruments such as the lute.
These instrumental pieces bring us to the secular part of the programme. They reflect Henry's "pastime with good company". The historian and chronicler Edward Hall described how Henry passed his time with hunting, singing, dancing, and playing instruments. Many pieces performed at Henry's court are included in the so-called Henry VIII Book (preserved at the British Library). This also includes pieces by foreign composers. En vray amours is a tune of continental origin, which was arranged by Henry himself. William Cornyshe is mainly known as a composer of sacred music, but he was also an actor, poet and dramatist; Trolly lolly may have been written for a play. Ah, the sighs has been preserved in two different versions; here we get the one for voice and lute. Robert Cowper was a clerk in the choir of King's College, but may also be the singer of the same name who was in the choir of Henry's grandmother Margaret Beaufort.
Henry's collection of instruments also included keyboard instruments: virginals, clavichords and regals. Therefore the programme includes some keyboard works, played at the organ. These may not have been suitable for the instruments in the collection, except the regals. Two pieces on Felix namque, the offertory at Lady Mass throughout the summer months, are of the pen of John Redford, considered the first English organ virtuoso.
The exploration of the musical world of Henry is a compelling undertaking, and musically well worth the effort. Many pieces included here either appear on disc for the first time or at first in the version performed here. That makes this disc a substantial addition to the discography. The liner-notes are very helpful by putting the music in its historical and social context. It is regrettable, though, and hard to understand that the performers stick to a modern pronunciation of the texts in the vernacular.
As I said, it is the first time I heard the Ensemble Pro Victoria. When I started I was rather disappointed and that concerned the performance of Rasar's mass. There is quite some vibrato in several of the voices. Later I heard other pieces, which were mostly not entirely free from it, but there it was mostly hardly disturbing. It seems that the vibrato comes from singers of the New Vocal Ensemble. "[The mass] retains some of the traditional textural contrasts between full sections and more soloistic writing in 'counter-verses' for reduced voices. This enables us to imagine a scenario in which members of the king's riding chapel (here represented by Ensemble Pro Victoria) sang the more demanding solo passages, but were joined in the full sections by members of one of Henry's host institutions (represented here by Newcastle University's New Vocal Ensemble) which ranged from grand collegiate foundations to more modest churches and households." Toby Ward should have disciplined them in this respect or chosen a different ensemble.
The rest of this disc is much better, and the singing and playing is generally very good. The role of harp and organ is particularly interesting; Redford's pieces are not often performed, and the harp - as I indicated - does not appear often in recordings of English music. Given the repertoire and the historical context this is a disc that is worth to be investigated. It is a shame that it can't be recommended without reservation.
Johan van Veen (© 2025)
Relevant links:
Ensemble Pro Victoria
New Vocal Ensemble
Toby Carr
Aileen Henry