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Musica Contexta - William Byrd: The Great Service in the Chapel Royal (2012)

Posted By: tirexiss

Date: 14 Mar 2023 17:03:09

This is an unusual recording of William Byrd's choral music for several reasons. First, it involves the Great Service, an Anglican work (nobody's first choice with the Catholic Byrd), and an amorphous and not terribly often recorded one at that. Second, the singers of Musica Contexta perform with a hypothesized period English pronunciation that may well be authentic but takes a bit of getting used to. The Service is filled out with organ versions of Byrd motets in an attempt to give it not its original form, but at least something of the flow it would have had in performance. And most unusual of all is the intrusion of instruments, in the form of the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, into the pristine world of Renaissance. This rests, as annotator Simon Ravens admits, on largely circumstantial musicology: the three cathedrals where manuscripts of the Great Service exist had cornetts and sackbuts in their collections, and the Chapel Royal would certainly have had them at its disposal. The work has been performed with organ accompaniment, but probably never with the Renaissance wind group heard here, which divides itself effectively into loud and soft subgroups. The recording in no way definitively solves the problem of how this work is to be performed, but it's defensible and well worth hearing for Byrd's admirers. The musical effect will largely depend on how you hear the music itself: did Byrd sign on emotionally to the Anglican service, or was he going through the motions? If the former, the instruments will underscore a grand manner in his music that was unique for his era. The engineering at London's St. John's Church is attractive, but it tends to overwhelm the texts, which are going to be hard enough in this reading for even native English speakers to understand.

AllMusic

Track List:

William Byrd (c. 1540 – 1623)

The Great Service in the Chapel Royal
Matins 29:50
[1] Constitues eos (prima pars)
Six-voice motet from Gradualia seu cantionum sacrarum, liber secundus (London, 1607)
[2] Venite
[3] Psalm 114. When Israel came out of Egypt
[4] Te Deum
[5] Benedictus
[6] Anthem. Sing joyfully unto God our strength
Communion 11:34
[7] Nunc scio vere (prima pars)
Six-voice motet from Gradualia seu cantionum sacrarum, liber secundus (London, 1607)
[8] Kyrie
[9] Prelude in C
Organ solo
[10] Creed
Evensong 25:49
[11] Hodie Simon Petrus
Six-voice motet from Gradualia seu cantionum sacrarum, liber secundus (London, 1607)
[12] Psalm 47. O clap your hands together, all ye people
[13] Magnificat
[14] Verse in C
Organ solo
[15] Nunc dimittis
[16] Anthem. O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth

Performers:
Musica Contexta
Simon Ravens, director
with
Steven Devine, organ
The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble

EAC Log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 16. December 2013, 11:49

Musica Contexta, Simon Ravens / Byrd - The Great Service

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TOC of the extracted CD

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Range status and errors

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Filename D:\temp\Music\CHAN_00789 - Byrd - The Great Service (Chandos)\Byrd - The Great Service.wav

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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

End of status report

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Musica Contexta William Byrd Classical Sacred FLAC CD-Rip Chandos 2012