The Rose and the Ostrich Feather, originally issued in 1992, was the first of a series of discs The Sixteen devoted to the Eton Choirbook, a collection of English church music likely copied out in the 1490s. The Sixteen, an expert small English choir, has now reissued these performances on the Coro label along with a variety of other music as part of a "Sixteen Edition." (There are actually 18 group members listed in the jacket material, but who's counting?) For a variety of reasons, this music has remained little known; ...
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The Rose and the Ostrich Feather, originally issued in 1992, was the first of a series of discs The Sixteen devoted to the Eton Choirbook, a collection of English church music likely copied out in the 1490s. The Sixteen, an expert small English choir, has now reissued these performances on the Coro label along with a variety of other music as part of a "Sixteen Edition." (There are actually 18 group members listed in the jacket material, but who's counting?) For a variety of reasons, this music has remained little known; the lack of a single composer who stands head and shoulders above the rest may be one impedance to the repertoire's popularity. In any event, The Sixteen give a good account of the music and present it in illuminating ways. Composers represented here include Robert Fayrfax, Richard Hygons, Edmund Turges, John Browne, and William Cornysh; there is one anonymous work. One characteristic of this choral repertoire is that works tend to be big and various, with large musical spaces filled...
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