This is the debut ensemble of the Odyssean Ensemble, directed by the Master of Music at the Tower of London, Colm Carey. It's not clear whether that's where the album was recorded, but wherever it may have been, it's gorgeous, with brilliant individual voices keeping their integrity in a complex texture. The album, in fact, offers an ideal combination of performance forces and work performed. The Great Service of William Byrd, paired with some anthems (as likely would have been done in Byrd's time), is not often performed. ...
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This is the debut ensemble of the Odyssean Ensemble, directed by the Master of Music at the Tower of London, Colm Carey. It's not clear whether that's where the album was recorded, but wherever it may have been, it's gorgeous, with brilliant individual voices keeping their integrity in a complex texture. The album, in fact, offers an ideal combination of performance forces and work performed. The Great Service of William Byrd, paired with some anthems (as likely would have been done in Byrd's time), is not often performed. After you hear this performance, you'll feel there is no good reason for its neglect, but it may be that it doesn't fit into any of the conventional boxes of late Renaissance English sacred polyphony. It was written for the Protestant royal chapel (exactly when, and whether for Elizabeth I or James I is not clear), and is in English, but it does not have the usual limpid quality of Protestant service music. Instead, it is a big work, constantly polyphonic, but it does not have the...
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