Hymn: Virginis Proles - Thomas Tallis - Antiquum Documentum - Ornamented Polyphony

Описание: An excerpt from our upcoming Vespers, Compline and Salve according to the Use of Sarum. Link to service (premiering on Thursday, 4th January 2024 at 4:45pm):
   • Vespers, Compline and Salve according to t...  

Here we present a contrafactum of Tallis' "Quod chorus vatum," set to "Virginis Proles, Opifexque Matris," a text for Virgin martyrs. In the Use of Sarum, the original text, Quod chorus vatum, was the hymn at First Vespers on the feast of the Purification (Candlemas). The practice of creating contrafacta, that is, singing one song to the tune of another, was an established practice by this point, with examples being found in many medieval manuscripts, both sacred and secular. Latin tudor music was widely adapted at the Reformation to suit the new parameters in which composers were working, with many well-known Latin polyphonic works adopting English texts. As John Milsom notes, fragments of an English contrafactum of Tallis' anthem "Gaude gloriosa" survive to this day, as do examples of contrafacta of works by Aston and Tavener in the Wanley partbooks. Whilst rare, there exist examples of contrafacta of secular songs to suit liturgical purposes, too. There are equally many stylistic borrowings from partsong, i.e., from secular works in sacred Tudor music. Given the fluid nature of these compositions, we can therefore conclude that this practice of changing the text to suit the liturgical season is plausible, even if not documented in extant primary sources. [1]

[1]: Milsom, John. “Songs, Carols and ‘Contrafacta’ in the Early History of the Tudor Anthem.” Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, vol. 107, 1980, pp. 34–45. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/766113. Accessed 1 Jan. 2024.

About the service:

The Use of Sarum was the predominant liturgy used in the South of late-Medieval England. It traces its history back to the Norman conquest, and is very similar to various Northern French uses. Henry VIII suppressed the other English uses, and Sarum briefly became the only English Use, until 1549 when Henry's heir, Edward VI replaced it wholesale with a series of increasingly Reformed prayer books. Sarum enjoyed a short-lived resurgence under Mary I until Elizabeth I suppressed it again in favour of the Prayer Book. Many aspects of this reconstruction will be familiar to fans of choral evensong: the Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis and anthem at BCP evensong being drawn from Vespers, Compline and the Salve respectively. This service reconstructs a service from around the middle of Henry VIII's reign; the earliest composer is John Sutton who flourished around the late fifteenth century. We will be performing his setting of the Salve Regina for seven voices, as found in the Eton Choirbook. Nicholas Ludford's (d. 1557) six-part Magnificat "Venerabilis and Benedicta Es" is taken from the Caius Choirbook, and is in a similar style to the Sutton. The Vespers office hymn is a contrafactum of a setting by Thomas Tallis (d. 1585) to the same plainsong melody with organ verset (also by Tallis). The Compline office is a realisation by Antiquum Documentum director, Alexander Trowell, in the style of how it is thought late Medieval choirs would have improvised polyphony.

This is the second in a series of liturgical reconstructions by Antiquum Documentum in which we attempt to make sense of Reformation-era polyphony by placing it back in its original context. The first was a choral evensong according to the 1560 Liber Precum Publicarum (Latin Prayer Book) featuring music by Tallis, Weelkes and Morley amongst others. We hope these will be useful and visual examples of what services might have looked like 400 plus years ago. We use the revenue made in our concerts to fund these sorts of events, but any further contributions would be greatly appreciated.

Please check out our YouTube for more videos and follow our Linktree, for information regarding donations, upcoming events, contact and much more: https://linktr.ee/antiquum.documentum

Credits:

Officiant: The Rev’d Max Kramer
Precentor: The Rev’d Laurence Price
Virger: Harry Spain
Thurifer: Edward Parker-Sunderland
Acolytes: William Allen, Sam Cherry,

Antiquum Documentum:
Soprano: Maddy Bellotti, Lois Heslop
Mezzo-Soprano: Cosima Clara Gilhammer Veronica Tarka
Tenor: Joshua Clough, Jarek Jankowski*, Alexander Trowell*
Baritone: John Morshead
Bass: Edward Gaut† Daniel Greenway

Rulers of the choir
† Organist

Videography: Jonathan Tanner, Edward Gaut
Editor: @EdGaut

Artwork: Alina Jankowki, Jarek Jankowski (adapt. Edward Gaut)

Liturgy compiled by Jarek Jankowski.

With thanks to William Renwick (McMaster University, Emeritus) and Matthew Cheung Salisbury (Worcester College, Oxford) for their expertise and guidance.