William Byrd
Gradualia (1607)
William ByrdÕs Gradualia (1607) have been placed Òamong the finest English works of all time.Ó By employing the single voices envisioned by the composer, our recording returns these virtuosic cries for justice and freedom to the perilous context of the clandestine liturgies for which they were composed. ByrdÕs musical rhetoric, a direct and sophisticated response to the suffering of a people living and dying under a brutally oppressive regime, is as searingly relevant today as it was when the works were notated with ink that flowed as copiously as the Catholic martyrsÕ blood ran within the walls of the Tower of London
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Reviews
Michael Noone, Director
Ensemble Plus Ultra
Grace Davidson, Sally Dunkley, Clare Wilkinson, Warren Trevelyan-Jones, Thomas Hobbs, Matthew Brook, Jimmy Holliday
Robert Quinney —Organ
Program
01 Circumspice Hierusalem
02 Fantasia
03 Why do I use my paper, ink and pen?
04 Ab ortu solis
05 Venite, comedite panem meum
06 Alleluia: Cognoverunt discipuli
07 Benedictus antiphon: Ego sum panis vivus
08 Magnificat antiphon: O quam suavis est
09 Hymn: Jesu nostra redemptio
10 Fantasia (BK13
)11 Introit: Nunc scio vere
12 Gradual: Constitues eos Principes
13 Alleluia (for St. PeterÕs Chains): Solve jubente Deo
14 Communion: Tu es petrus
15 Magnificat Antiphon: Hodie Simon Petrus
16 Magnificat Antiphon: Tu es Pastor ovium
17 Benedictus Antiphon: Quodcunque ligaveris
18 Ut re mi fa sol la (BK64)
19 Venite exultemus Domino