5.0 out of 5 stars
heavenly beauty, October 14, 2010
This review is from: Cornysh: Stabat Mater (Audio CD)
Once upon a time, over a decade ago, a friend of mine gave me this disc, calling it an utter bore. I'd never heard of the composer, didn't know what to expect - but my friend's comment sure wasn't a very auspicious introduction. I put it on - and within the five first seconds, I was sent to heaven.
William Cornysh (1465-1523) was a Renaissance polymath, poet, dramatist (although only one poem of his remains, and no plays), actor and composer. From 1509 to his death (that was the reign of Henry VIII) he was Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal, one of the most prestigious positions at Court, and as such responsible for the musical and dramatic entertainments during big diplomatic events, such as the meeting of the Field of the Golden Fleece between Henry VIII and Francis I King of France in 1520.
Most of the religious works featured here come from the Eton Choirbook, one of the most important sources for late 14th Century and early 15th Century English sacred choral music (see Harry Christophers and the Sixteen's 5-CD collection, first recorded on the now-demised Collins Classics but now reissued on their own label Coro,
The Eton Choirbook Collection [Box Set]).
I'm no specialist of English Renaissance music, and I tend to bundle everybody from Dunstable to Byrd in a common category, although a century and a half divide them. But the music of Cornysh sounds to me to contain, to the highest degree, all that lovers of Renaissance choral music love (I think) in Renaissance choral music: the angelic voices, the sense of purity, the stratospheric flourishes of the child-like sounding sopranos, the caressing sensuousness also of those timbres, the elevation. According to the liner notes, the music offers evidence that Cornysh was seeking ways to get out of the "stylistic cul-de-sac" in which his more complicated music had brought him, and that pieces like Ave Maria (track 2) and Gaude virgo mater Christi (track 3) are more straightforward. That is assuming that these two compositions are later works, and I don't see why the more complicated music would have been a cul-de-sac. Far from a cul-de-sac, I think they open a gate to another dimension. Salve Regina, Magnificat and Stabat Mater are the three substantial pieces here, and it precisely their very floridness, their "fearsome ornaments and unusually wide overall compass" that makes them sublime. Play on, there can be no excess of such heavenly musicke.
The Tallis Scholars sing beautifully, their tenors and basses are caressing and their sopranos heavenly pure and angelic (and their countertenors are, obviously, somewhere in between). I've reviewed another Cornysh collection, by The Cardinall's Musicke under Andrew Carwood (
Latin Church Music); The Tallis Scholars are better.
Afterwards, I came back to my friend and asked him if he was deaf, crazy, or if he had just listened too casually, and played him the beginning again. He had to admit that he had listened too casually. I didn't return the CD, though.
TT 65:00. You might find this disc cheaper under its under entry:
William Cornysh: Stabat Mater.
And a post-script: when I first heard this disc, I thought Cornysh was unique. I've recently heard a selection of choral works from the Eton Choirbook, performed by The Sixteen under Harry Christophers (in fact it is what sent me back to this Cornysh disc), by Browne, Davy, Lambe, Cornysh (the short and not entirely significant Ave Maria) and Wylkynson:
Stabat Mater - Music From The Eton Choirbook or
Stabat Mater: Music from the Eton Choir Book. It turns out that Cornysh wasn't so unique: that very floridness seems to have been a shared stylistic featured of those late-15th Century days. This is cause for rejoice. That Meridian disc, recorded in 1982, was The Sixteen's first foray into the Eton Choirbook. Afterwards, in the mid-1990s, they recorded a large selection from it on 5 CDs from the now-demised Collins Classics label. That collection has been reissued on the ensemble's own label, Coro:
The Eton Choirbook Collection [Box Set]. More cause for rejoice. I've just bought it.
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