The Voice of the Turtle Dove, Sheppard, Davy, Mundy, The Sixteen, Harry Christophers

The unfolding events which made a martyr out of Thomas More and in no way caused his Utopia to disappear but rather to be widely read over the centuries did not correspond to the fate of the music of some of the pre-Reformation English composers. Much of their music sank into obscurity for centuries, sadly.

The Sixteen give us an enchanting look at three such composers in The Voice of the Turtle Dove (CORO 16119). Harry Christophers takes his customary place as director-conductor as they wend their way through eight works by the forgotten masters Richard Davy, John Sheppard, and William Mundy.

The Sixteen have addressed this period before in a good number of recordings. It was what brought them to notice in the early days of their existence and the present set shows they have by no means exhausted the repertoire. Each of the three composer get notable representation with a longer and several (sometimes interrelated) shorter works, some secular, mostly sacred, all ravishingly performed as well-crafted examples of English brilliance. We get antiphons, responsories, in all a memorable exploration of period counterpoint offering endlessly beautiful labyrinths of sound.

I am a novice of this period of English choral music. One need not be an expert to recognize the beauty of the works and luxuriate in their ravishing execution by the Sixteen. This is a real winner.

Stile Antico, Passion & Resurrection, Music inspired by Holy Week

One factor about early sacred vocal music that doesn't cease to fascinate my ears: generally the rhythmic structure of the music follows the text, so that meter is plastic, often irregular. Couple that with the intricate counterpoint and the sort of very pliable harmonic progressions that come across as the result of overlapping contrapuntal parts, and there is the recipe for music that feels liberating when listening from the present-day position.

Of course there's much more than that about early music that makes it interesting. And so when I turn to the latest offering by the a cappella vocal ensemble of Stile Antico, Passion & Resurrection, Music inspired by Holy Week (Harmonia Mundi), I find much to interest me, in fine performances.

It's a disk of English Renaissance choral works by some of the masters: Gibbons, Tallis, De Lassus, Taverner, Byrd, etc. England was producing some marvelous composers and music flourished.

For an added touch there are two settings of the poem "Woefully Arrayed". A period setting by Cornysh and then one written recently for Stile Antico by McCabe. It's a contrast that spices up the disk nicely.

This is state-of-the-art early music choral performance and all who love the period will find it of great interest, I would think.