Taverner: Missa Sancti Wilhelmi & Other Sacred Music

Featuring

Harry Christophers
The Sixteen
John Taverner

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Compositional Technique

In his setting of Dum transisset Sabbatum, Taverner reversed the usual procedure for respond settings by only composing polyphony for portions sung by the full choir, suggesting the choir at Cardinal College was skilled in polyphony.

Historical Context

Taverner was employed as an agent for Thomas Cromwell, who was commissioned by Henry VIII to survey monasteries prior to their dissolution.

Critical Reception

The claim that Taverner repented making 'songs to popish ditties' may be exaggerated, as it comes from an ardent Protestant writer, Foxe, forty years after Taverner's death.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Taverner's music represents the final development of the florid late-medieval English style, while also incorporating new continental aesthetic and technical features.

Composer Biography

John Taverner, the composer, was first documented in 1525 as a lay clerk at the collegiate church of Tattershall, an important musical establishment.

Composition History

Taverner was appointed Informator (choirmaster) at Cardinal College, Oxford, founded by Cardinal Wolsey, which had a choir of sixteen choristers and twelve 'clerkes skilled in polyphony'.

Recording & Production

For this recording of Dum transisset Sabbatum, the sectional divisions have been restored to present the work in its probable original form, as the traditional formal scheme had become obscured in later sources.