Byrd: The Great Service & English Anthems Alamire, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts & Stephan Farr

• William Byrd (1540 - 1623): The Great Service:
• 1 Byrd: The Great Service: I. Venite 05:18
• 2 Byrd: The Great Service: II. Te Deum 09:36
• 3 Byrd: The Great Service: III. Benedictus 09:10
• 4 Byrd: The Great Service: IV. Kyrie 01:04
• 5 Byrd: The Great Service: V. Creed 05:27
• 6 Byrd: The Great Service: VI. Magnificat 09:46
• 7 Byrd: The Great Service: VII. Nunc dimittis 05:12
• Clarifica me pater I:
• 8 Byrd: Clarifica me pater I 01:58
• O God the Proud are Risen Against Me:
• 9 Byrd: O God the Proud are Risen Against Me 02:47
• Out of the Deep:
• 10 Byrd: Out of the Deep 04:41
• O God Whom our Offences:
• 11 Byrd: O God Whom our Offences 04:03
• Clarifica me pater II:
• 12 Byrd: Clarifica me pater II 01:55
• Arise O Lord Why Sleepest Thou?:
• 13 Byrd: Arise O Lord Why Sleepest Thou? 03:35
• How Long Shall Mine Enemies:
• 14 Byrd: How Long Shall Mine Enemies 03:15
• Exalt Thyself, O God:
• 15 Byrd: Exalt Thyself, O God 04:07
• Clarifica me pater III:
• 16 Byrd: Clarifica me pater III 02:35
• O Lord Make Thy Servant Charles:
• 17 Byrd: O Lord Make Thy Servant Charles 02:43
• Total Runtime 01:17:12

Info for Byrd: The Great Service & English Anthems

Alamire, under the direction of David Skinner, complete their survey of the choral works of William Byrd to mark the composer's 400th anniversary with this landmark recording of The Great Service and seven anthems. Emerging from centuries of obscurity, Byrd's Great Service, first revived in the early twentieth century, represents a pinnacle of English choral music. This recording commemorates the centenary of it's modern debut in 1924. With intricate polyphony and poignant text settings, Byrd's masterful use of ten voices reveals his unparalleled skill in capturing the essence of the Anglican liturgy. Complemented by seven anthems, thisalbum offers a comprehensive exploration of Byrd's rich, spiritual, and historical musical contributions.

"Alamire’s version emerges as the most distinguished among the chamber choirs, being the only one to field the vocal resources adequate to reflect surviving evidence regarding full, verse, and antiphonal (decani and cantoris halves of the choir alternating) passages in contemporary performances. The ecclesiastical choirs exude a different ethos and timbre. They are of course more authentic in performance (and in numbers), but it has been argued that since treble voices in Byrd’s day could last until boys were towards the end of their teens, they would not have sounded dissimilar to those of the adult females in mixed chamber choirs of today. As ever, choice lies with the customer. You would be well served by Alamire and, within an appropriate level of engagement with the text for the singing of Anglican liturgical music in the Elizabethan Church, you will find consummate artistry giving forth a simmering account of Byrd’s sublime music." (Richard Turbet)

Stephen Farr, organ
Alamire
His Majesty's Sagbutts & Cornetts
David Skinner, conductor

Alamire
boasts some of the finest consort singers in the world under the directorship of David Skinner. Inspired by the great choral works of the medieval and early modern periods, the ensemble expands or contracts according to repertoire and often combines with instrumentalists, creating imaginative programmes to illustrate musical or historical themes. The ensemble was formed in 2005 by three friends and early music experts: David Skinner, Rob Macdonald and Steven Harrold.

Performing extensively throughout Europe and the USA, the consort recorded a number of award-winning CDs for Obsidian Records. In 2015 they received the coveted Gramophone Award (Early Music) for ‘The Spy’s Choirbook’, while ‘Anne Boleyn’s Songbook was nominated for a BBC Music Award, and was CD of the Year (Choral & Song) in Australia’s Limelight Magazine. ‘Thomas Tallis: Songs of Reformation’ highlighted new fascinating discoveries about a musical collaboration between the composer and Queen Katherine Parr, and was widely covered by the UK media including BBC Breakfast television.

Alamire now record for the Inventa label, the first release being the polychoral works of the northern German composer Hieronymus Praetorius.

David Skinner
(DPhil, Oxon) is Fellow and Osborn Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and artistic director of Alamire. His research has centred around music institutions, manuscripts and composers of 16th-century Europe, and is particular specialism is music and the Reformation in England. A large portion of his doctoral thesis was published in the Roxburghe Club volume The Arundel Choirbook (Arundel: Duke of Norfolk, 2003), and he has since published a number of music editions, facsimile volumes, and articles. as well as more than 30 commercial recordings (awards including Gramophone, BBC Music, Limelight, Times CD of the Year, and others). Dr Skinner’s recent publications include The Anne Boleyn Music Book: Facsimile with Introduction, DIAMM Facsimiles 6 (London: Royal College of Music, 2017), and ‘‘Deliuer me from my deceytful ennemies’: A Tallis Contrafactum in Time of War’, Early Music (Oxford University Press, 2017). The latter project, in which Queen Catherine Parr was identified as the author of a contrafact of Tallis’s grandest antiphon Gaude gloriosa dei mater, received wide media coverage including all major broadsheets, BBC 4 Today Programme and BBC Breakfast News. As a presenter he has worked extensively for BBC radio, appearing in and writing a variety of shows on Radio 3 and 4. He acted as music advisor for the Music and Monarchy series on BBC 2 with David Starkey, and was Music Consultant for the recent BBC4 documentary on the history of Evensong with Lucy Worsley. He is currently General Editor of the prestigious Early English Church Music series (The British Academy: Stainer & Bell) for whom is is completing a new edition of Tallis’s Latin church music.

Stephen Farr
is Director of Music at St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, and at Worcester College, Oxford, posts which he combines with a varied career as soloist, continuo player, and conductor. He was Organ Scholar of Clare College, Cambridge, graduating with a double first in Music and an MPhil in musicology. He then held appointments at Christ Church, Oxford, and at Winchester and Guildford Cathedrals.

A former student of David Sanger and a prizewinner at international competition level, he has an established reputation as one of the leading recitalists of his generation, and has appeared in the UK in venues including the Royal Albert Hall (where he gave the premiere of Judith Bingham’s The Everlasting Crown in the BBC Proms 2011); Bridgewater Hall; Symphony Hall, Birmingham; Westminster Cathedral; King’s College, Cambridge, St Paul’s Celebrity Series and Westminster Abbey: he also appears frequently on BBC Radio 3 as both performer and presenter.

He has performed widely in both North and South America (most recently as guest soloist and director at the Cartagena International Music Festival), in Australia, and throughout Europe.

He has a particular commitment to contemporary music, and has been involved in premieres of works by composers including Patrick Gowers, Francis Pott and Robert Saxton; he also collaborated with Thomas Adès in a recording of Under Hamelin Hill, part of an extensive and wide-ranging discography.

His concerto work has included engagements with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and the London Mozart Players; he made his debut in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 2005. He has also worked with many other leading ensembles including the Berlin Philharmonic (with whom he appeared in the premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s Weltethos under Sir Simon Rattle in October 2011), Florilegium, the Bach Choir, Holst Singers, BBC Singers, Polyphony, The English Concert, London Baroque Soloists, City of London Sinfonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wallace Collection, Endymion Ensemble, the Philharmonia, Academy of Ancient Music, Britten Sinfonia and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Booklet for Byrd: The Great Service & English Anthems