Time to pass in court circles there certainly was – and money to spend in the passing of it too! Lavish entertainments, revelry and dancing, pageants, music and the ritual of the hunt were known to Henry’s queen, Katharine; and all these culminated in the superlative splendours of the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520. This collection of vocal (and some instrumental) pieces is taken from a single manuscript, an early Tudor songbook in the British Museum, known as ‘Henry VIII’s Book’. It continues Eloquence’s exploration of music from the time of The Tudors and here receives its first release on CD.
WILLIAM CORNYSH: Blow thy horn, hunter
TIELMAN SUSATO: Pour quoy
CLAUDE GERVAISE: Allemande
WILLIAM CORNYSH: Whiles life or breath
PIERRE ATTAINGNANT: Tourdion
FLORENTIO MASCHERA: Canzona quarta RYSBYE: Whoso that will himself apply
HENRY VIII: Tho’ some saith that youth ruleth me
TIELMAN SUSATO: Saltarelle
ANONYMOUS: Instrumental Consort
ANONYMOUS: Time to pass with goodly sport
JOHN COOPER: I have been a foster
ANONYMOUS: Let us not that young man be
TIELMAN SUSATO: Le cueur est bon
TIELMAN SUSATO: Entré du fol
HENRY VIII: If love now reigned
HENRY VIII: The time of youth
ANONYMOUS: And I were a maiden
FLORENTIO MASCHERA: Canzona seconda
CLAUDE GERVAISE: La volunté
WILLIAM CORNYSH: Adieu, mes amours
WILLIAM CORNYSH: Fa la sol
ANONYMOUS: Hey trolly lolly lo
TIELMAN SUSATO: La mourisque
St. George’s Canzona
John Sothcott, director
FIRST RELEASE ON CD
Recording Producer: Peter Wadland
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Recording Location: Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead, London, UK, 11, 12 March & 8 May 1972
Remastering Engineer: Paschal Byrne (Audio Archiving Company)
‘[a] most attractive record’ Gramophone