A Marriage of England and Burgundy

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

This is another disc to derive inspiration from the marriage in 1468 of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV and Richard III. The event fascinates performer–scholars... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Catalogue No: CDA67129
Label: Hyperion
Series: Early Vocal Music
Length: 75 minutes

Frye, W: Missa Sine nomine

Work length23:13

$5.50

$6.25

The Binchois Consort
Andrew Kirkman

I. Kyrie

Track length3:46

$1.10

$1.25

II. Gloria

Track length4:17

$1.10

$1.25

III. Credo

Track length4:42

$1.10

$1.25

IV. Sanctus

Track length5:46

$1.10

$1.25

V. Agnus Dei

Track length4:42

$1.10

$1.25

Busnois: Regina caeli I

Work length6:25

$1.10

$1.25

The Binchois Consort
Andrew Kirkman

Busnois: Regina caeli II

Work length3:37

$1.10

$1.25

The Binchois Consort
Andrew Kirkman

Frye, W: Missa Summe trinitati

Work length27:15

$5.50

$6.25

The Binchois Consort
Andrew Kirkman

I. Conditor Kyrie

Track length4:48

$1.10

$1.25

II. Gloria

Track length5:18

$1.10

$1.25

III. Credo

Track length5:53

$1.10

$1.25

IV. Sanctus

Track length5:57

$1.10

$1.25

V. Agnus Dei

Track length5:19

$1.10

$1.25

anon.: O pulcherrima mulierum / Girum caeli circuivi

Work length7:20

$1.10

$1.85

The Binchois Consort
Andrew Kirkman

anon.: Incomprehensibilia firme / Praeter rerum ordinem

Work length7:38

$1.10

$1.85

The Binchois Consort
Andrew Kirkman

About
Reviews
Explore

About

The celebrations surrounding the marriage in 1468 of Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV of England, and Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, constituted one of the undisputed pinnacles in the history of the Court of Burgundy. To judge from the extent and enthusiasm of surviving testimony, outstripping those of any similar 15th-century state occasion, this was the marriage of the century. It was also an opportunity for display on a grand scale with numerous musical events and celebrations. Although we don't know exactly what was performed, there is a manuscriptthe 'Burgundian Court manuscript'whose contents may well have been performed at ceremonies associated with the wedding. Some of the music from this manuscript, such as that by Antoine Busnois (an employee of the Court of Charles the Bold) is performed on this disc.

Reviews

2010

This is another disc to derive inspiration from the marriage in 1468 of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV and Richard III. The event fascinates performer–scholars because a manuscript of polyphony survives that can be very plausibly linked to these wedding celebrations (it's now kept in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels). After the Ferrara Ensemble's CD of mostly secular music came the Clerks' Group's mix of Masses from the manuscript (including Walter Frye's Flos regalis and Plummer's three–voice setting) and secular English songs. Now, with last year's Early Music Award–winners, the Binchois Consort, offering an all–sacred programme, four out of the five so–called 'Brussels' Masses (all in fact by English composers) are now available in fine performances.
It would be easy to insist on the fact that this programme is led by recent research. The attribution to Walter Frye of the anonymous three–voice Mass that opens this recording was made by Andrew Kirkman himself, and those of the two motets that conclude it to Busnois were proposed by Sean Gallagher (O pulcherrima/ Girum coeli) and Rob Wegman (Incomprehensibilia firme/Praeterrerum ordinem), all young scholars with impeccable credentials. Kirkman's notes are informative and detailed, but he's as concerned as his singers to drive home the music's purely aesthetic, chamber– musical qualities. As to Kirkman's attribution there's no doubt: listen to the sustained duets of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei, and there can be no doubt that the Mass is by a composer of the first rank; one has to agree that Wegman's attribution of Incomprehensibilia cries 'Busnois' out of the speakers: it could hardly be by anyone else.
Rightly Kirkman gently expresses doubts concerning O pulcherrima/ Girum coeli, – in fact it puts one very firmly in mind of late Dufay, and of his motet Ave regina coelorum in particular.
In some these are faultlessly judged and engaging performances. The music's nuances and details are very sensitively rendered, but so is the sense of larger–scale architecture and pacing; and Kirkman's long–standing commit–ment to Frye is particularly evident. The performances of Busnois' motets (both conjecturally attributed and firmly ascribed) are, at their best, equally exciting; but just occasionally there's the hint of strain in the higher voices' upper reaches and in the intricate tracery of O pulcherrima and Incomprehensibilia (particularly the latter, whose many sections do not quite flow together), and of the singers bracing themselves for the cross– rhythms of Regina coeli I. But these are details, and it's difficult to imagine more lucid or elegant performances. In a very short time, the Binchois Consort have established themselves as one of the very finest ensembles in the field.

A Marriage of England and Burgundy

Downloads

Contents

Download queue