The Clerkes of Oxenford, formed in 1961, were a pioneering early music vocal ensemble that influenced the sound of
the Tallis Scholars and other top English groups of recent times, either directly or indirectly through the teaching of their leader
David Wulstan. This 1976 recording of anthems and other church music by Orlando Gibbons has been reissued by France's Calliope label as part of an innovative "Empreintes" series surveying notable recording accomplishments year by year, not limited to early music. Church Music was indeed a recording that made a lot of people hear some great music in a whole new way, and it's wonderful to have it available once more. The music on this recording is accompanied by a small group of viols -- an unusual sound for those accustomed to hearing an organ in English sacred music of this period, but not out of keeping with the flexible practices of Gibbons' own time.
The Clerkes' sound isn't knock-your-socks-off beautiful; it was a mixed ensemble that tried to approximate the sound of a choir with boy singers on the top parts. But everything they do serves the music. Gibbons, an organist and composer active in the early seventeenth century, is best known for a single flawless madrigal, The Silver Swan. His music, like that of the best of the Italian madrigalists who preceded him, uses texture as an expressive device: he alternates between solo text declamation and fully polyphonic choral treatment in such a way as to highlight striking ideas in the text. This was as true of his church music as of his madrigals, and the Clerkes of Oxenford brought forth some beautiful examples here. Track 8, See, the word is incarnate, sets off its flourishes of choral rejoicing with images that are etched in the mind by solo setting; it's a major work that ought to be more often performed than it is. The New Grove Dictionary of Music specifically warns that Gibbons' "vitality and modernity [are] sometimes suppressed in ponderous ... performances by cathedral-style choirs." But that's not a problem for the Clerkes, who give Gibbons' church music the guts it needs. And the listener can understand every word they sing.
That's important, for no texts are included in the booklet for this CD. In fact, it doesn't include much of anything. There's an untranslated French description of the circumstances surrounding this recording, a one-paragraph biography of Gibbons together with a note regarding the reconstruction of the incompletely preserved anthem Praise the Lord, O my soul, and a bit of information on the Clerkes, mysteriously different in French and English. Various editorial errors in the booklet culminate in the misspelling of one of the track titles. It's too bad, for a more helpful and careful booklet would have made this a good starting place for anyone interested in learning about Renaissance music.