The Peterhouse partbooks, a collection of music copied by Thomas Bull, were intended to supply a complete repertoire of polyphonic music for Canterbury Cathedral after its refounding by Henry VIII.
Interpretation
Blue Heron's performance uses women for treble parts, which was also done by William Byrd, a famous English musician, in mixed choirs during the 16th century.
Album & Artwork
The cover art for this album, featuring a trillium, evokes the Trinity, for whose feast the Missa Spes nostra by Robert Jones appears to have been composed.
Compositional Technique
The Peterhouse partbooks are missing their tenor book and several pages of the treble, meaning many pieces are incomplete.
Interpretation
The music on this album is performed with restored missing parts, recomposed by English musicologist Nick Sandon, who completed his dissertation on the Peterhouse partbooks.
Interpretation
The ensemble Blue Heron uses an early 16th-century English Latin pronunciation, which resembles how Americans might pronounce Latin by applying English vowel and consonant sounds.
Historical Context
During the English Reformation, many musical manuscripts were lost or destroyed, with some even being repurposed for mundane uses like wrapping paper or cleaning.
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