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PREVIEW: Renaissance Music from Scotland & England (Feb 2025)

Writer's picture: Markdavin ObenzaMarkdavin Obenza

SCOTLAND & ENGLAND

SATURDAY, FEB 1, 2025 at 7:30 PM

Holy Rosary Catholic Church

4139 42nd Ave SW, Seattle, WA


SUNDAY, FEB 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM

St. Mary the Virgin

2325 Union St, San Francisco, CA 


PROGRAM

NESBETT Magnificat 

MACMILLAN O Radiant Dawn 

TAVERNER Quemadmodum

CARVER “Gloria” from Missa Dum sacrum mysterium  

CAMPKIN Miserere

CARVER Gaude flore virginali 

MACMILLAN A Child’s Prayer

TAVERNER O splendor gloriae 


THERE ARE FEW POINTS OF ENTRY into Renaissance polyphony from Scotland. The main one is through the Carver Choirbook, one of Scotland’s only surviving sources of Renaissance polyphony. The choirbook, which curiously includes music from England, reveals Scotland’s style of polyphony represented by composer Robert Carver. Scotland’s sound is distinctive in its own right. Given the tense relationship between Scotland and England at the end of the 15th century, one wonders how the English pieces made it into Scotland’s choirbook. Nonetheless, what’s included is a sample of the height of English Renaissance polyphony at the time.


We place these Renaissance works against two contemporary composers for comparison: Alexander Campkin and James MacMillan. While these composers do not write strictly in a polyphonic style, their music evokes a similarly profound and sacred atmosphere to that of these Renaissance masters.


ABOUT THE PROGRAM


The Carver Choirbook, compiled by composer Robert Carver, is a 16th-century illuminated manuscript that contains Masses, Magnificats, motets and votive antiphons written in the elaborate High Renaissance compositions of the Eton Choirbook, one England’s most important illuminated manuscripts from the late 15th century. The majority of the works are by Carver himself. The others are either unlabeled or are by English composers, including John Nesbett and John Taverner.


A feature of the Carver Choirbook is the caricatures of human heads that appear throughout.

The figures are dressed in fashions or sport hairstyles that place them from around the early 16th century, helping date the manuscript. Some people suggest that some are representations of famous figures of the day: French kings Charles VIII and Louis XII or James IV of Scotland. Other figures are singing and are likely fellow choir members. Many have leaves on or near their heads, and it has been suggested that those could be copies of wood carvings from choir stalls.


It is unclear exactly how the English pieces made their way into the Carver Choirbook, especially knowing how complicated and tense England-Scotland relations were at the time. Some interesting speculations: Carver could have had access to a manuscript now lost to us, something similar to the Eton Choirbook, or maybe he befriended an English musician and chose his favorite learned pieces to be included in Carver Choirbook. In 1503, the 13-year-old princess Margaret (sister of Henry VIII), was wed to James IV, King of Scotland (21 years her senior). They were married by proxy in their respective cities. The Princess eventually journeyed to Scotland, where they were married in person with great pomp in Edinburgh. The massive mobile court that accompanied the princess most certainly included musical manuscripts and musicians, which could have made their way into the Carver Choirbook.


Unfortunately, we know very little of Robert Carver’s (c. 1485—1570) life. We know that he was a Scottish Canon regular and composer who spent much of his life at Scone Abbey. Carver joined the Augustinian community at Scone until about 1559, when the abbey was destroyed by Protestant Reformers. By examining examples of Carver’s signature found in a charter book for the abbey, we know he was also the scribe for the Carver Choirbook, which contains all of his surviving compositions, including the celebratory Marian motet Gaude flore virginali for five voices. Carver’s Missa Dum sacrum mysterium was composed in 1513 for the feast day of Saint Michael. In 1513, James IV was unexpectedly killed in the Battle of Flodden Field. In  hopes of easing post-battle political turmoil, a coronation mass was quickly held for his infant son, James V, not yet 2 years old. Carver’s Missa Dum sacrum mysterium was likely sung at the event, as it was close enough to the Feast Day of St. Michael.



No matter how the English motets made their way into the choirbook, they were equally impressive, especially John Nesbett’s (d. 1488) Magnificat. John Nesbett was a master of the Lady Chapel choir at Canterbury Cathedral between 1473 and 1487. His spectacular setting of the Magnificat for five voices also appears in the Eton Choirbook.



Influenced by Scottish traditional music, James MacMillan (b.1959) has written in a variety of forms: symphonies, piano concertos, operas, and a large amount of choral music. MacMillan is known for his spiritual and politically infused music. O Radiant Dawn (2008)—from the Strathclyde Motets (a collection of communion motets for various Sundays and feasts)—is the antiphon for December 21, one of the “Great O” antiphons which are used on the seven days approaching Christmas. MacMillan composed A Child’s Prayer as a tribute following the Dunblane massacre, where 16 school children and one teacher were killed at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996. 



English composer Alexander Campkin’s (b. 1984) career as a professional violist abruptly ended after a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis at age 17. He stopped playing the viola and instead focused on composition. Since his diagnosis, Campkin has risen to among the top contemporary composers while becoming an advocate for the inclusion of disabled musicians. Our program includes Campkin’s Miserere, his emotional response to Allegri's Miserere setting of the same text for off-stage soloists (SSA) and two on-stage choirs (SATB, STB). As the sections alternate, the piece gradually builds in intensity through a series of suspensions. The music intensifies as the first soprano soars to a high C on the words “Libera me de sanguinibus” (Deliver me from blood guiltless). 



Perhaps the music of John Taverner (c. 1490—1545), though he is not represented in the Carver Choirbook, was also present in Scotland at this time. He was one of the most important English composers of the first half of the 16th century. His music connects the complex, florid style of the Eton Choirbook composers of the late 15th century (e.g., William Cornysh, John Browne) with the simpler, imitative style of the later mid-16th century composers—Thomas Tallis and John Sheppard. O splendor gloriae represents Taverner’s later style. The systematic use of imitation reflects the gradual trend away from an abstract melismatic style. This prayer motet to Jesus (Jesus antiphon) and the Holy Trinity alternates passages for full choir with passages for solo voices. (Some speculate that the 2nd half of O splendor was written by Christopher Tye, on stylistic grounds.) Taverner probably composed Quemadmodum in his later years. Unlike his earlier florid style, the use of imitative counterpoint is overt. This motet, likely used for recreational purposes by Elizabethan musicians, was found in a wordless source with only a title. Our own alto Joshua Haberman (not singing on this program) set the first two verses of Psalm 42 to Taverner’s music.


- Margaret & Markdavin Obenza

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