The Eton Choirbook

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Release Date: 14th Feb 2020
Catalogue No: ELQ4840250
Label: Eloquence
Length: 2 hours 20 minutes

Davy, R: St Matthew Passion a 4

Work length41:47

$26.40

$36.00

Ian Partridge (tenor), Christopher Keyte (bass (vocal)), Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices, Choristers Of All Saints
Recorded: 1967-07-27
Recording Venue: Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead, London

Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Matthaeum

Track length1:41

$1.10

$1.50

Cum autem esset Jesus in Bethania

Track length1:40

$1.10

$1.50

Tunc abiit unus de duodecim, qui dicebatur Judas Scarioth

Track length0:48

$1.10

$1.50

Prima autem die azymorum accesserunt discipuli ad Jesum

Track length1:02

$1.10

$1.50

Vespere autem facto, discumbebat cum duodecim discipulis suis

Track length1:39

$1.10

$1.50

Coenantibus autem eis, accepit Jesum panem

Track length1:07

$1.10

$1.50

Tunc dixit illis Jesus: Omnes vos scandalum

Track length1:44

$1.10

$1.50

Tunc venit Jesum cum illis in villam, quae dicitur Gethsemani

Track length2:13

$1.10

$1.50

Tunc venit ad discipulos suos, et dixit illis: Dormite iam et requiescite

Track length1:51

$1.10

$1.50

Et ecce unus ex his, qui erant cum Jesu, extendens manum

Track length1:28

$1.10

$1.50

At illi tenentes Jesum

Track length4:12

$1.10

$1.50

Petrus autem sedebat foris in atrio

Track length2:31

$1.10

$1.50

Mane autem facto

Track length2:56

$1.10

$1.50

Jesus autem stetit ante praesidem, et interrogavit eum praeses

Track length1:20

$1.10

$1.50

Per diem autem solemnem consueverat praeses dimittere populo unum vinctum

Track length1:02

$1.10

$1.50

Sedente autem illo per tribunali, misit ad eum uxor eius

Track length0:46

$1.10

$1.50

Principes autem sacerdotum et seniores persuaserunt populis ut peterent Barrabam

Track length1:57

$1.10

$1.50

Videns autem Pilatus qui nihil proficeret

Track length1:27

$1.10

$1.50

Tunc milites praesidis suscipientes Jesum in praetorium

Track length1:18

$1.10

$1.50

Exeuntes autem, invenerunt hominem Cyrenaeum, nomine Simonem

Track length1:16

$1.10

$1.50

Tunc crucifixi sunt cum eo duo latrones

Track length2:30

$1.10

$1.50

A sexta autem hora, tenebrae factae sunt super universam terram

Track length2:19

$1.10

$1.50

Et ecce velum templum scissum est in duas partes

Track length1:58

$1.10

$1.50

Cum autem sero factum esset

Track length1:02

$1.10

$1.50

Josquin: Petite camusette

Work length1:39

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Josquin: Coeurs désolés

Work length2:14

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Josquin: La déploration sur la mort de Johan Okeghem

Work length4:03

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Josquin: Vive le roy

Work length1:00

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Josquin: El Grillo

Work length1:28

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Josquin: La Bernardina

Work length1:12

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Josquin: Baisiez moy

Work length1:36

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Josquin: Fortuna desperata

Work length1:36

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Josquin: Ave Maria

Work length6:24

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Lambe: Nesciens mater a 5

Work length4:29

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices, Choristers Of All Saints
Recorded: 1967-07-27
Recording Venue: Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead, London

Browne, J: Stabat Mater

Work length14:00

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices, Choristers Of All Saints
Recorded: 1967-07-27
Recording Venue: Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead, London

Nesbett: Magnificat

Work length8:15

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices, Choristers Of All Saints
Recorded: 1967-07-27
Recording Venue: Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead, London

Wylkynson: Salve Regina

Work length11:57

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices, Choristers Of All Saints
Recorded: 1967-07-27
Recording Venue: Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead, London

Cornyshe: Ave Maria, Mater Dei

Work length3:34

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices, Choristers Of All Saints
Recorded: 1967-07-27
Recording Venue: Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead, London

Fawkyner: Gaude rosa sine spina

Work length14:31

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices, Choristers Of All Saints
Recorded: 1967-07-27
Recording Venue: Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead, London

Dunstaple: O rosa bella

Work length4:24

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Dunstaple: Ave maris stella

Work length3:38

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Dunstaple: Alma Redemptoris Mater

Work length4:00

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Dunstaple: Sancta Maria succurre miseris

Work length2:57

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

Dunstaple: Veni Sancte Spiritus

Work length5:40

$1.10

$1.50

Grayston Burgess (director)
Purcell Consort Of Voices
Recorded: 1970-10
Recording Venue: St. John's, Smith Square

About
Explore

About

The first substantial survey of the Eton Choirbooks treasures on record, newly remastered, compiled and reissued on CD for the first time. Copied out between 1490 and 1502, the Eton Choirbook is the most substantial extant source of English liturgical polyphony from the late 15th and very early 16th centuries.

The architectural historian Nicholas Pevsner described the late-perpendicular style of buildings like the chapels of Eton and Kings College, Cambridge, as a union of practical, matter-of-fact spirit with a sense of mystery, and an almost oriental effusion of ornament. What we contemplate in these buildings we may hear mirrored by the music of the Eton Choirbook.

From the 1920s onwards attempts were made to perform and record pieces from the Eton Choirbook but they were hampered both by the technical demands of the music often as thrilling as it is rhythmically complex and metrically unstable and by its relative unfamiliarity to English cathedral choirs. Only in 1968 was a successful attempt madeby Argo to record a selection on two albums, which are united here.

The performers constituted an astute combination of an all-male choral foundation (from St Margaret Street in London) with the professional ensemble of the Purcell Consort of Voices, directed by their founder Grayston Burgess, who died in 2019. The first album documented the setting of the St Matthew Passion by Richard Davy and the second included a selection of motets compact (the Ave Maria of Cornysh and Nesciens Mater of Lambe) and spacious, most notably Brownes Stabat Mater and Fawkners Gaude Rosa. The singing is robust rather than ethereal, and the albums blazed a trail both for this repertoire and style of performance which has been emulated by many professional early-music groups during the past half-century.

Filling out this 2CD set is a third Purcell Consort of Voices album of 15th-century repertoire recorded by Argo and never previously issued complete on CD. The flowing polyphonic style of John Dunstable and the sublime reach of Josquin des Prez are surveyed with both sacred and secular, instrumental and vocal works; highlights include the courtly elegance of Dunstables O Rosa Bella and Josquins affecting tribute to his teacher in the Dploration sur la Mort de Okeghem.

'A very moving and beautiful presentation, and the level of choral and solo singing is quite extraordinary... The recorded sound is faultless.' Stereo Review, December 1969 (Davy)

'The performances are a model of how this music should sound; they are marvellously stylish and very courtly in "affect"... The sound is spectacular.' Stereo Review, October 1972 (Dunstable/Josquin) 'Burgess has clearly shot for the most gorgeous sound obtainable by his group and he has got it. O rosa bella... is one of the loveliest performances of this wonderful song I have ever heard.' High Fidelity, December 1972 (Dunstable/Josquin)

'The singing is robust, not ethereal or grisaille ... these recordings are in some ways the most successful of all Eton Choirbook issues.' Musical Times, May 1997

The Eton Choirbook

Downloads

Contents

Download queue