Taverner Missa Corona Spinea

 Day 22

Taverner Missa Corona Spinea

The Sixteen

Harry Christophers

The music of John Taverner was on the syllabus for my B.Mus degree and I do remember hearing one of the masses (I think it must have been the Western Windye mass) and one of the settings of Dum transisset sabbatum. My main memory is of very high notes in the top line.

That is certainly a feature of this mass, which probably dates from about 1525-1530. It was written for Cardinal Wolsey's choir at (what is now) Christ Church College Oxford, which was thought to be the best choir in England at the time. Indeed there is speculation (probably without much foundation) that Henry VIII, who may well have heard the mass, was jealous of Wolsey's choir and this is some way contributed to Wolsey's downfall. 

My mental association of Taverner with high voices is certainly borne out by this mass. The treble part is extraordinary high. It is not so much the occasional high note, but the fact that the music lies very high for bars on end (accepting that the concept of a bar is a bit of an anachronism when talking about about music of this era). Indeed there is a lively musicological debate about precisely what pitch this music should be sung at - it is certainly high, but how high?  If you want to see how academic debate can descend into point scoring and bitchiness see some of the discussion  on line about the validity of using measurements of historic organ pipes to determining the pitch of music in the 16th century!

To my non expert ear this music is a clear bridge between the medieval eraand the polished renaissance polyphony of Palestrina which I referred to on Day 8. It has the rough edges and surprising harmonic abruptness of medieval music but you can also see the move towards longer and more lyrical lines. The rhythms are more varied and in this particular mass there is a great variety of texture from the full six voices through to the parts with only two or three voices. I say six voices but towards the end Taverner splits first the top line and then the top two lines into two/four voices in an effect known as Gymel. The effect is astonishing - rather like solo instruments emerging from an orchestral texture in much later music.

This is fascinating music and I enjoyed listening to it. I have to admit though the effect of all of those high notes was a bit overwhelming. Perhaps in the echoing acoustic of a cathedral it would have been easier to absorb - this is not really the sort of music to listen to in one's living room.  How the singers managed to maintain such consistency of tone in such difficult music I have no idea. To perform the whole thing live must be a huge undertaking particularly if boy trebles are used for the top line, as they would have been in Taverner's day.  This recording used women's voices for the top line, and very splendid they were too.