Christmas in Tudor England

 

Christmas in Tudor England

2021

 

New Recording off Signum Classics by Helen Charlston focuses on Elizabethan Christmas

 

A new recording off Signum Classics focuses on Christmas in Elizabethan times. By mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and viol consort Fretwork, it was released in July 2021.

 

 

The recording includes pieces by  William Byrd, Anthony Holbourne, Orlando Gibbons, and Martin Peerson.

Signum Classics description is as follows:

With celebrations confined strictly to the 12 days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the preceding Advent was regarded as a time of religious introspection, with music composed to mark both fasting and feasting. Byrd’s consort songs for voice and 5 viols encompass this range, from the joyous Out of the Orient Crystal Skies – ending with an exuberant ‘Falantidingdido’, a word whose meaning is lost to history – to his Lullaby, a ‘song of sadnes and pietie’ that became one of Byrd’s most enduringly famous songs.

In 2021, Fretwork celebrates its 35th anniversary. In the past three and a half decades they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged. In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works.

Acclaimed for her musical interpretation, presence and “warmly distinctive tone” (The Telegraph), Helen Charlston is quickly cementing herself as a key performer in the next generation of British singers. Helen won first prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition and was a finalist in the Hurn Court Opera Competition, and the Grange Festival International Singing Competition.

From Signum Classic webpage: 

https://signumrecords.com/product/an-elizabethan-christmas/SIGCD680/ 

2020

A Tudor Christmas, Trinity Boys Choir and L'Armonia Sonora

This recording presents music for Advent and Christmas from the Tudor and early Stuart periods but does not attempt to be a historical recreation, more an invitation to imagine the sound world of a period rich in musical expression. 

Pragmatism governed many musical practices of the time, either by the frequent re-working of musical scores or through the flexible use of voices and instruments, and this programme wholly embraces this virtue by employing varied accompaniments and by freely changing between instrumental and choral renditions. 

In 2018 the eight young voices of Trinity Boys Choir EIGHT and the viol consort L’Armonia Sonora performed much of this music in a Christmas concert in the Tudor Chapel at Ightham Mote in Kent and this environment seemed entirely fitting. The musicians and chamber organ were arranged comfortably on the altar side of the rood screen while the audience sat snugly in the small pews. The resulting intimacy allowed the voices and instruments to speak naturally, sensitively and directly.

Rondeau Records

2011

This beautiful CD contains 22 tracks, all with a Christmas theme, and all datable to when William Shakespeare was alive (1564-1616).

Early music played on reproduction instruments interspersed with period readings, including pieces by Campion, Holbourne, Lawes and Byrd.

Includes a booklet with lyrics and sources.

Track Listing:

1.All you that love good fellows/Carol for Innocent's Day (In sad and ashy weeds)/Hey for Christmas (Dargasons)

2."Rorate coeli" to the tune of Beggar Boy

3.Now Winter nights enlarge [Campion]

4.December (reading)

5."Jurie cam to Jerusalem" to the tune of Dulcina

6.Balulalow (ane sang of the birth of Christ)

7.Lully Lullay/Remember thou, O man

8.Sweet was the song

9.O than the fairest day (reading)/As it fell on a holie eve [Holbourne]

10.New Prince, New Pomp

11.All Sons of Adam

12.Oyle of Barley (Stingo)

13.Beat up a drum for Christmas reigns

14.St. Stephen's Day Carol (Robin)/Christmas is my Name (Now the Spring is come)

15.Tis Christmas Now [Lawes]

16.Christmas, his Masque (reading)

17.The New Year's Gift

18.Coventry Carol

19.The star song (reading)/New-yeers Gift [Holbourne]

20.Twelfe Night, or King and Queene

21.Adorna Thalamum tuum [Byrd]

22.In praise of Christmas (To drive the cold winter away),

2010

Stile Antico's newest program centers on Thomas Tallis's magnificent seven-part Christmas Mass, based on the festive plainchant Puer natus est ("A boy is born")

1 Videte Miraculum - Thomas Tallis
2 Audivi Vocem de Caelo - John Taverner
3 Rorate Caeli Desuper (Gradualia I, 1605) - William Byrd
4 Gloria (Missa Puer Natus Est) - Tallis
5 Tollite Portas (Gradualia I) - Byrd
6 Sanctus & Benedictus (Missa Puer Natus Est) - Tallis
7 Ave Maria (Gradualia I) - Byrd
8 Agnus Dei (Missa Puer Natus Est) - Tallis
9 Ecce Virgo Concipiet (Gradualia I) - Byrd
10 Magnificat - Robert White
11 Puer Natus Est - Plainchant
12 Verbum Caro - John Sheppard

Queen Elizabeth I of England spent much of her reign juggling to maintain her power and position and to keep England peaceful, prosperous and independent. 

Realizing that marriage to anyone at all would make the crown subject either to a foreign power or to a domestic faction, she skillfully warded off all suits, whether they were tendered as peace offerings or as passionate proposals (in some cases both happened at once). 

She had to balance, too, the antipathies between Catholics and Protestants in her realm: as the daughter of Henry VIII she was herself a Protestant and recoiled at the idea of bowing to papal authority, but she also knew from experience that the persecution of Catholics could lead to bloody insurgency. 

Happily, in the field of music – especially music for Christmas, a treasured tradition for hundreds of years – a truce seemed to hold...


WILLIAM BYRD (1543-1623)
Prelude and Voluntary

THOMAS RAVENSCROFT (c.1582-1635)
Remember, O Thou Man

WILLIAM BYRD
From Virgin’s Womb this Day did Spring

ANTHONY HOLBORNE (c.1550-1602)
As it fell on a Holie Eve
The Cradle
The Night Watch

WILLIAM BYRD
O magnum mysterium
Vidimus stellam
Puer natus est

ANONYMOUS (c.1600)
Gentil Madonna

ANONYMOUS (c.1600)
Sweet was the Song the Virgin Sung

JOHN BULL (c.1562-1628)
A Gigge: Dr. Bull’s My Selfe

THOMAS MORLEY (1557-1602)
Fantasia La sampogna

WILLIAM BYRD
Out of the Orient Crystal Skies

ANONYMOUS (c.1600)
ELIZABETHAN DANCE SUITE
Pavan of Albarti
Gallyard
Allemana d’Amor

WILLIAM BYRD
Fantasy a4

SHEARMEN & TAILORS CAROL (1591)
Lully, Lulla

TOBIAS HUME (c.1569-1645)
Harke, Harke
A Mery Conceit: The Queens delight

ANONYMOUS (mid 17th century)
Divisions on Greensleeves

TRADITIONAL WAITS’ CAROL (1642)
The Old Year Now Away is Fled

2004

Imagine yourself in the fine surroundings of the Great Hall of Christ Church, with a programme of Tudor sacred and secular music including music by Henry VIII, one of Christ Church's founders, and choral works by Taverner and others associated with Christ Church during it's first century.

1 Pastime with Good Company
2 Coventry Carol
3 Rorate Coeli
4 Consort No. 3
5 Christe Jesu, Pastor Bone
6 Consort No. 3
7 This Is the Record of John
8 Ave Maria
9 Remember, O Thou Man
10 Consort No. 12
11 While Shepherds Watched
12 From Virgin Pure This Day Did Spring
13 Consort No. 2
14 Laudate Nomen
15 O Nata Lux
16 Magnificat a 4
17 Sweet Was the Song the Virgin Sung
18 Quid Petis O Fili
19 Consort No. 13
20 Hosanna to the Son of David

Gift of Music

1990

Beautiful performances ... consummate musicianship. I
recommend this recording without reservation (Viola da Gamba Society of America).

1 This Is the Record of John, Anthem for Voices
2 Christe Qui Lux a 4, for Instrumental Consort No. 3
3 Sing Unto God, for 2 to 5 Voices & Organ
4 Upon My Lap
5 Fantasia a 5, for Instrumental Consort in C Major
6 O Ye Little Flock, Verse Anthem for 4 & 6 Voices
7 Browning a 5, for Instrumental Consort ('The Leaves Bee Greene')
8 Sweet Was the Song the Virgin Sung
9 The Cradle, for Consort
10 Almighty God, Which By the Leading of a Star (The Starre Anthem)
11 Lullaby, My Sweet Little Baby, Madrigal for 5 Voices (Ssatb) & Viols
12 In Nomine a 5, No.2, for Viols, MB28
13 See, the Word Is Incarnate, Anthem for Voices