It's hard to figure out from the included text and graphics what you're getting here. The album is titled Anthems & Canticles, but the majority of the pieces involved are neither of those, and in fact are not choral pieces at all. The booklet explains that the program is chosen to "show the amazing breadth and diversity" of the music of English composer Thomas Tomkins, but it hardly does that. Tomkins may have been best known as a composer of madrigals, virginal music, and large full anthems for the Anglican church, and ...
Read More
It's hard to figure out from the included text and graphics what you're getting here. The album is titled Anthems & Canticles, but the majority of the pieces involved are neither of those, and in fact are not choral pieces at all. The booklet explains that the program is chosen to "show the amazing breadth and diversity" of the music of English composer Thomas Tomkins, but it hardly does that. Tomkins may have been best known as a composer of madrigals, virginal music, and large full anthems for the Anglican church, and none of those genres is represented. Instead you get consort music, verse anthems with consort, and organ music: small-scale pieces in which subtle contrapuntal art is paramount. Or sometimes not so subtle. Sample the Fantasia XVIII à 6 for viols and note the purple harmonic clashes in which Tomkins reveled in both vocal and instrumental music. This consistency of technique makes the program hang together nicely even if verbal description fails, and the whole album has a dense but...
Read Less
Add this copy of Tomkins: Anthems & Canticles to cart. $34.60, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Opus Arte.
