The Sixteen • Treasures of Tudor England (CD)

All of the music from The Choral Pilgrimage 2008

The turbulent years of Reformation and religious change in England presented composers working for the church with the continual challenge of having to adapt to rapidly changing musical requirements. Although little is known about the personal religious affiliation of composers such as Christopher Tye, Robert Parsons and Robert White, their Latin music represents by far the most interesting and significant musical thought of its time.

From Tye’s wonderfully idiosyncratic Mass Euge bone and his deeply penitential Peccavimus cum patribus nostris, to Parsons much-loved Ave Maria with its soaring expansive phrases and the powerful five-voice Lamentations of White, each one of these works is a real gem, waiting to be discovered by a wider audience.

The Sixteen
Harry Christophers director