The English Madrigal School - John Wilbye & Thomas Morley

 

Miraculous Love's Wounding!

The English Madrigal School

Madrigals Of John Milbye and Thomas Morley

The Deller Consort / Alfred Deller, Director

Cover Design: Ronald Clyne

Vanguard Everyman Classics STEREOLAB SRV-157 SD

April Cantelo - Soprano

Elileen McLoughlin - Soprano

Alfred Deller - Counter-tenor

Wilfred Brown - Tenor

Gerald English - Tenor

Maurice Bevan - Baritone

From the back cover: THOMAS Morley, who "did shine as the Sun in the Firmament of our Art, and did first give light to our understanding with his Praecepts", was born (probably in London) about 1557, and lived in the city almost exclusively until his death in 1603. Ravenscroft's tribute to him, quoted above, was not an isolated one; Morley's renown as a composer was enhanced in his forties by the publication of A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practical Musicke, while his social status was enhanced by the grant of a royal licence to print music and music-paper. Thus, while the earlier entries in the parish registers of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate describe him as 'musician', the later ones firmly insist on the term 'gentleman'. His first important professional appointment was at St. Paul's Cathedral, where he became organist in, or shortly, before, 1591. in the following year he was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and it was about this time that he began to compose, edit, and publish the nine volumes of songs and instrumental music that have since placed him in the front rank of the Elizabethan madrigalists.

The compositions chosen for this disc afford a sampling of his principal madrigalian publications, which began with the Canzonets or Little Short Songs to Three Voyces of 1593 and reached a peak in 1597 with the volume of Canzonets or Little Short Aers to Five and Sixe Voyces, a great landmark in Morley's career. Notable in Morley's madrigals are his wit and the freshness and spontaneity of his melodic lines. The elegaic Hark, Alleluia shows Morley in a more serious vein, commemorating the death of a music-loving courtier, Henry Noel.

To Tovey, John Wilbye is the "classic" among madrigal composers. There is no need to question this considered opinion in the face of the 65 madrigals by Wilbye that now survive, for their quality is uni- formly high and their reputation well deserved. If there is a question. it is the slightly baffling one concerning Wilbye's generous life-span of 64 years and his consequently sparse average output of one madrigal per year. He was born in 1574 at Diss in Norfolk, and by his eight- eenth year he had entered the service of Sir Thomas Kytson of Hengrave Hall, a stately Elizabethan manor (still standing today) situated not very far from Bury St. Edmunds. There he lived and worked, apart from occasional visits to his master's town house in London, until 1628, when he removed to Colchester to serve Lady Rivers, the daughter of Sir Thomas Kytson. Wilbye died in 1638, a man of considerable means, with landed property in his birthplace and around Bury St. Edmunds. He is mentioned by Henry Peacham in The Compleat Gentleman along with a select handful of English composers as "in- ferior to none in the world... for depth of skill and richness of conceit."

In his six-part madrigals. Wilbye reaches fabulous heights of tech- nique and inspiration. The sensitive declamation of Ah, cannot sighs is a model of its kind, while the transition in Stay, Corydon from solemn antiphony to rapid imitation not only matches the conceit of the lyric but also makes for a satisfying musical balance. In Draw on, sweet night, Wilbye has penned a masterpiece beyond compare. in which sustained beauty of line is more than matched by harmonic richness and variety of texture. – Notes by Denis Stevens

About the Performance

Critics and public alike have received with joy the Vanguard-Bach Guild discs of Alfred Deller and the Deller Consort, for their his- toric revelation of the beauties of vocal music in the English Golden Age and the Renais- sance. Alfred Deller is the world's foremost exponent of the counter-tenor voice, and in the words of Musical America. "A great musician and a distinguished musical scholar." He formed the Deller Consort in 1948, of solo artists, themselves notable in English musical life, dedicated to the performance of madrigals with perfection of tone. style and ensemble. Of the Deller Consort in Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah, the Musical Quarterly reported. "The singing is always moving and at times becomes unbearably beautiful. It is artistic creation of the highest order... the magical quality that can come only from a stylistically correct approach brought to life by true musical understanding and fervor."

Now Is The Month Of Maying - The First Booke of Balletts to Fine Voyces, iii (1595)

In Dew Of Roses - Madrigalls to Foure Voyces... the First Booke, vii (1594)

Shot, False Love, I Care Not - The First Booke of Balletts to Fine Voyces, ii (1595)

Miraculous Love's Wounding! - The Frist Booke of Canzone's to Two Voyces vii (1595)

Hark, Alleluia Cheerly - Canzonets or Little Short Aers to Fine and Sixe Voyces, xxi (1597)

Arise, Get Up, My Dear - Canzone's or Little Short Songs to Thee Voyces xx (1593)

Leave This Tormenting - The First Booke of Balletts of Fine Voyces, xix (1595)

I Go Before, My Darling - The First Booke of Canzone's to Two Voyces, v (1595)

Say, Gentle Nymphs - Madrigalls to Foure Voyces... the First Booke, xx (1594)

Good Morrow, Fair Ladies - Canzone's or Little Short Songs to Three Voyces, vi (1595)

The First Set of English Madrigals, xi (1598)

The Second Set of Madrigals, xvi (1609)

The Second Set of Madrigals, xxv (1609)

The Second Set of Madrigals, xxx (1609)

The Second Set of Madrigals, xxxii (1609)

The Second Set of Madrigals, xxxi (1609)

The First Set of English Madrigals, xviii (1598)