Carver: O bone Jesu

Day 207

Robert Carver: O bone Jesu

The Sixteen

Harry Christophers

This is an astonishing piece.  Robert Carver was the pre-eminent Scottish composer of the Renaissance era. - indeed some commentators regard his as the most important Scottish composer of all time.

The motet is in 19 parts. So in many ways it is of the same tradition as Spem in Alium but to me it was, despite the complexity of the part writing,  more introverted and contemplative. The sound was simply gorgeous. Not much is known about the life and career of Carver, or indeed how much music he actually wrote in his long life.  But this one piece alone puts him in the company of some much more famous composers.