Anne Boleyn's Songbook (2015)

performed by Jacob Heringman (lute), Kirsty Whatley (harp), Alamire (choir, chorus), David Skinner (conductor)
composed by Anonymous, Antoine Brumel, Antoine de Févin, Claudin de Sermisy, Jean Mouton, Josquin Des Prez, Loyset Compère

The small British choir Alamire, mixed-gender and adult, has shown adaptability and intelligence in matching their skills to a variety of unusual programs. They have a sound with some meat on it, and it rarely flags intonationally. The real news, however, is the repertoire, some of which is performed here for the first time in nearly five centuries. The subject matter is indeed a songbook, probably owned by the second of Henry VIII's wives, although it bears the notation "Mistress" Anne Boleyn and thus apparently dates from ... Read More

The small British choir Alamire, mixed-gender and adult, has shown adaptability and intelligence in matching their skills to a variety of unusual programs. They have a sound with some meat on it, and it rarely flags intonationally. The real news, however, is the repertoire, some of which is performed here for the first time in nearly five centuries. The subject matter is indeed a songbook, probably owned by the second of Henry VIII's wives, although it bears the notation "Mistress" Anne Boleyn and thus apparently dates from the years before her marriage to the king. Unearthed and identified by musicologists in the late 20th century, it may have been the product of her travels in Europe as a young woman. The songbook includes both sacred and secular pieces, by Josquin and other leading continental composers, apparently copied out by someone in Boleyn's retinue; this is just what one would have expected from a young woman on an early version of the Grand Tour. These Netherlandish and French pieces,... Read Less