Old Etonian songs at the first-ever English Music Festival

SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 2.30pm *The Eton Choirbook*
"standing at the crossroads of the Renaissance"
TONUS PEREGRINUS sing music from the Eton Choirbook
in Sutton Courtenay Church, Oxfordshire
http://www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/bookings.html

plainchant: Nesciens mater
William, Monk of Stratford: Magnificat
plainchant: Nesciens mater
Richard Davy: St Matthew Passion, the Trial before Pilate
John Browne: Stabat mater
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John Browne: Jesu, mercy, how may this be?
Richard Davy: St Matthew Passion, the Crucifixion
Robert Wylkynson: Jesus autem transiens / Credo in Deum

TONUS PEREGRINUS
Rebecca Hickey / Helen Ashby / Kate Ashby
Kathryn Oswald / Polly Jeffries
Tom Cockett / Steve Jeffes / Ross Buddie / Alexander Hickey
Francis Brett / Cheyney Kent / Nick Flower
Antony Pitts

Education, Devotion, Charity - Eton College was founded in the
early 1440s by Henry VI with these three aims in mind.  The
founder's prayer was short and to the point: "Domine, Jesu
Christe, qui me creasti, redemisti, et preordinasti ad hoc quod
sum; tu scis quæ de me facere vis; fac de me secundum voluntatem
tuam cum misericordia.  Amen." [*translation below]  Under the
rule of Henry VII, who claimed the monarchy for the Tudors in
1485, the music of what we call the Eton Choirbook was collected
and copied into one giant manuscript which, unlike so many
others, has survived the ravages of history (or at least, 126 of
the original 224 leaves have).  By the time Eton was founded
English music was already well-known for its originality and
exuberance - one Continental poet described its influence on
Dufay and others:

"For they have a new method
Of making fresh harmony
In music both high and low
In artifice and interruption and nuance
And have adopted the English
Habit and followed Dunstable
Because of which wonderful delight
Makes their song joyful and remarkable."

So if you loved the sweet harmony of John Dunstaple (recorded by
TONUS PEREGRINUS on Naxos 8.557341) or relished the simple beauty
of the anonymous English Passion setting of an earlier generation
(recorded by TONUS PEREGRINUS on Naxos 8.555861), then you'll be
blown away by the heights of musical ecstasy reached in the Eton
Choirbook - breathtakingly analogous to the Perpendicular style
of English architecture.

The composer of the six-part setting of 'Stabat mater dolorosa',
John Browne, was almost certainly a boy at Eton in the late 1460s
and then seems to have gone on to New College, Oxford; while
Richard Davy, the composer of the St Matthew Passion (the first
Passion setting not written by Anonymous) was Master of the
Choristers at Magdalen College, Oxford in the 1490s.  Robert
Wylkynson was Master of the Choristers at Eton itself and wrote
an extraordinary 13-part canon on the final page of the Eton
Choirbook... READ MORE AT:
http://www.tonusperegrinus.co.uk/EtonChoirbook.html

There's a credit card booking line for the English Music Festival
on +44 (0)20 7241 8953 (open Monday-Friday 0930-1730)
or a booking form can be downloaded from
http://www.tonusperegrinus.co.uk/emfbookingTP.pdf,
printed out and sent, along with a cheque, to:
Ethel Beaumont
The English Music Festival
c/o EFDSS
Cecil Sharp House
2 Regent's Park Road
London NW1 7AY
UK

directions to Sutton Courtenay:
http://www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/directions.html

*translation: O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast created and redeemed
me and hast foreordained me unto that which now I am; thou
knowest what thou wouldst do with me; do with me according to thy
will, in thy mercy. Amen.