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CD Review

Madame d' Amours

Songs, Dances and Consort Music
for the Six Queens of Henry VIII

  • Catherine of Aragon:
  • Francisco de la Torre (fl. 1483-1504): Danza Alta
  • William Cornyshe (d 1523): Whines lyre or breth
  • Matthieu de Gascongne (fl 1517-18): Nigra sum
  • Anonymous:
  • My Lady Wynkefields Rownde
  • Adew Ie companye
  • Anne Boleyn:
  • William Cornyshe: Blow thi Home Hunter
  • Antoine de Fevin (c1470-1511/12): Adiutorium nostrum
  • Anonymous:
  • My Lady Carey's Dompe
  • La Gamba
  • Blame not my Lute
  • Jane Seymour:
  • Vincenzo Capirola (1474-after 1548): Ricercar
  • Anonymous:
  • Gentil Prince
  • En vr y amoure
  • King Harry VIII Pavyn
  • Madame d'amours
  • Duke of Somersett's Dompe
  • Anne of Cleves:
  • Jacobus Barbireau (1455-1491): Een Vroulic Wesen
  • Anonymous:
  • Ainxi bon youre
  • La danse de Cleves
  • Catherine Howard:
  • Henry VIII (1491-1547):
  • Quam pulchra es
  • Time to Pass with Goodly Sport
  • Anonymous:
  • Prince Edwarde's Pavyn
  • The Kynges Marke
  • Adieu Madame et ma mastres
  • Catherine Parr:
  • John Merbecke (c1505-c1585): A Virgin & a Mother
  • Hugh Ashton (1485-1558): Ashton's Maske
  • Anonymous:
  • Pavyn of Albart
  • Galliard
Jennie Cassidy, voice
Musica Antiqua of London/Philip Thorby
Signum Classics SIGCD044 74:59
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I found this one of the most satisfying of the year's early-early music offerings. It balances the rumbustious (not too many of those) with viol consort pieces and features the pure, vibrato-less soprano of Jennie Cassidy in many affecting songs.

There are things for everyone to learn from the scholarly and compendious notes by Philip Thorby. The multi-skills of the instrumentalists is a source of wonder and, again, the virtuosity is of a sort that does not seek to dazzle; cornetts and shawms are harder than they sound here.

I was tempted to compare the culture and musicianship of Henry VIII's court coexisting with his brutality - he was an accomplished instrumentalist, dancer and no mean composer - with those horrific, sentimental music-lovers who indulged themselves in the Nazi camps. One of Henry's unhappy wives, Catherine Howard, lost her head because of immorality with the court virginalist before her marriage to the King!

Signum is generally, as here, compendious in information provided and its booklets are a pleasure to handle. Texts and translations, of course, with details of every instrument and exactly who plays what on each track. The generous timing leaves you little spare from 1¼ hours! A winner.

Copyright © 2005, Peter Grahame Woolf

Trumpet

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