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| Cardinall's Musick at St Peter & St Paul Church Stondon Massey |
The Cardinall’s Musick under
their music director Andrew Carwood gave two concerts at Stondon Massey Church
as part of their ‘Byrd Tour 2012’ on Sunday (2 September).
The eagerly anticipated event was one of the highlights of a year-long
programme celebrating William Byrd’s Latin work and the successful recording
cycle by the internationally known Choir.
The first concert included the Mass for Three Parts and the second a
number of Byrd’s motets. Cardinall’s
Musick’s members’ voices blended together in an extraordinary and powerful way
filling every corner right up to the belfry with the most beautiful sound. The Mass was interspersed with the Propers
for Lady Mass from Christmas to the Purification and performed as a sequence
without applause ending ‘Ite missa est’ (‘The Mass is ended’). In the audience one or two were visibly moved
by the music and many bought copies of the Cardinall’s CDs including a
recording of ‘The Great Service’ which is not on general release by Hyperion
Records until 1 October.
During the period between the
two concerts – a prolonged interval for some who attended the whole event –
Andrew Carwood spoke about William Byrd in context of anti-Catholicism which
was sweeping the country at the time.
The music of the middle period of his life (1580s) is darker and perhaps
reflects a time when he was under house arrest on suspicion of involvement in
the Throckmorton Plot (to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and place Mary Queen of
Scots on the throne). Byrd knew the
ringleader, Thomas Paget. A year later,
in 1585, Thomas Tallis, his good friend and fellow composer was dead (“and
music dies”). Byrd appears to come out
of his mid-life crisis through his friendship with the Petre family. While other composers and Catholic
sympathisers fled the country Byrd stayed.
He moved to Stondon Massey by the mid-1590s in semi-retirement where he
began to write his very best and joyful music.
Andrew Carwood believes that ‘The Great Service’ was a farewell piece to
his colleagues in the Chapel Royal Choir.
Although Byrd remained a member of the Gentlemen his visits were far
less frequent.
The central work in the second
concert was the Propers for The Annunciation.
Concerts in which conductors turn round and engage with the audience are
always appreciated. Andrew Carwood is
both informative and entertaining. One
of the shorter pieces in the second concert was ‘Dileges Dominum’ (known to
Anglicans as the ‘Summary of the Law’).
It is a Canon in which the first sings a number of notes, but is
followed by the second who sings the notes in reserve: a kind of mirror musically. Byrd clearly intended this in the mirroring
the words “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”.
Andrew Carwood commented on
the lovely acoustics the church has.
The focus of local organisers
is inevitably turned 180 degrees towards the audience: ensuring that those who
came had an enjoyable time and knew where to go for refreshments (in addition
to the complex car parking arrangements at the small church). Some who attended had never heard music of
William Byrd. Others were seasoned
aficionados and knowledgeable about Byrd and his music. We met someone who had just completed a
dissertation on William Byrd – and had come from Dublin to be in Essex on a
kind of pilgrimage. Some had travelled
many miles to Stondon while others were members and supporters of local choirs
including the Stondon Singers. Someone
gave me an old newspaper cutting of Stondon Place, Byrd’s home (although
subsequently rebuilt), which was for sale at that time for (wait for it!)
£55,000.
The queue outside the church
before the first concert stretched the entire length of the path to the
gate. The event was advertised as two
concerts but for many was an enriching and spiritual occasion.
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