THE SPIRITS OF ENGLAND & FRANCE

Volume 4

Missa Caput and the story of the Salve regina

Gothic Voices / Christopher Page

ANONYMOUS Missa Caput interspersed with The story of the Salve regina

1 Pange lingua, cor letare [2'56]

2 Kyrie ‘Deus creator omnium’ [5'39]

3 Gloria [4'53]

4 In nigrorum monachorum [3'04]

5 Credo [5'40]

6 Ecce ciphus ponderosus [3'48]

7 Sanctus [5'02]

8 Mira fuit quam videbat [2'16]

9 Agnus Dei [4'42]

10 Dum transiret Jhesu Christi [2'55]

11 ANONYMOUS Salve regina [2'22]

12 ANONYMOUS Jesu for thy mercy [2'16]

13 SMERT & TROULUFFE Jesu fili Dei [2'48]

14 ANONYMOUS Make us merry [1'58]

15 ANONYMOUS Nowell, nowell, nowell, this is the salutacion of the aungell Gabriell [3'20]

16 ANONYMOUS Clangat tuba [5'13]

17 ANONYMOUS Alma redemptoris mater [6'15]

18 ANONYMOUS Agnus Dei OLD HALL MANUSCRIPT [2'23]

The English anonymous fifteenth-century Missa Caput at the centre of this disc is probably the most significant work from the period. It was copied all across Britain and the Continent and was largely responsible for the universal adoption of the ‘parody Mass’ technique and of today’s standard fourpart choir arrangement. It is a work of great stature and beauty, in this performance interspersed with a curious Latin poem which describes how two small boys composed the Salve regina antiphon while languishing in Hell.

Also represented here are six fifteenth-century carols, and an exquisite Agnus Dei from the Old Hall Manuscript. ‘A fascinating disc with superbly informative and enticing notes by Christopher Page’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘At last, for the first time in over thirty years, we can hear this glorious work … an absolute model of what these things should be’ (BBC Record Review)

‘A very special achievement … music of the very highest order, seldom recorded. Essential listening!’ (Gramophone)

Hyperion Records CDH55284