SKU: ST.EC54
Composed by John
Sheppard. Edited by
Magnus Williamson.
Library Volumes. Edited
by Magnus Williamson.
First published in 2012.
Pages: 304. Format:
Hardback. Dimensions
(mm): 324 x 247 x 29.
Choral Score. Stainer &
Bell Ltd. #EC54.
Published by Stainer &
Bell Ltd. (ST.EC54).
ISBN
9790220222023.
This
is an important addition
to the pair of
consecutive EECM volumes
of John Sheppard's Latin
compositions for the Use
of Salisbury published in
the 1970s. Although he
had evidently mastered
the forms of Mass and
votive antiphon, the
composer is at his most
characteristic in his
settings of the plainsong
melodies which form the
bedrock of the Sarum
liturgy. These account
for most of the contents
of this volume, together
with free-composed
settings of Biblical
texts and a small corpus
of devotional polyphony,
most of it fragmentary.
In general, textural
richness is cultivated in
preference to long arcs
of melisma, and perfect
time is favoured over
imperfect, creating a
directness of expression
that seems to typify
mid-Tudor polyphony. The
format of this volume
follows EECM's house
style for
post-Reformation
composers.