THE
P RTAL
August 2016
Page 23
Music Review
Taverner: Missa Mater Christi
sanctissima & Western Wynde Mass
Robert Macneil’s CD of the month
Once again the Choir of Westminster Abbey, under the direction of James O’Donnell, live up
to their excellent reputation with a wonderful performance, not on this occasion in the Abbey but in St
Alban’s, Holborn, the hidden gem between the City of London and the West End.
This CD features Taverner’s Missa Mater Christi sanctissima, bringing to life an often forgotten about
early sixteenth century work and his magnificent Western Wynde Mass. These wonderful masterpieces
from sixteenth-century England show Taverner at his very best. The English composer and organist, John
Taverner, 1490-1545, is regarded by many as one of the most important English composers of his era.
In 1526, Taverner was appointed by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey as the first Organist and Master of the
Choristers at Christ Church, Oxford. The college had been founded the previous year by Cardinal Wolsey,
and was then known as Cardinal College. In 1531 the college was suppressed, but refounded in 1532 by
Henry VIII, as King Henry VIII’s College. Then in 1546, following the break with Rome, Henry VIII, who
had acquired great wealth through the dissolution of the monasteries in England, refounded the college as
Christ Church.
Taverner’s Western Wynde Mass, the second section of the disk, is most unusual in that it is based on a
popular secular song of the time with the lyrics ‘Westron wynde, when wilt thou blow, The small raine down
can raine. Cryst, if my love were in my armes, And I in my bedde again!’ In Taverner’s Mass the theme tune
appears in each of the four parts, and is repeated nine times in each section.
As always with Hyperion the Notes that accompany the CD, these by Jeremy Summerley, the conductor
and Director of Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford, make excellent reading and are to be highly commended.
Taverner: Missa Mater Christi sanctissima & Western Wynde Mass - Hyperion Records - CDA68147 - www.hyperion-records.co.uk
Marriage...a Sacrament ... continued from page 18
Of course, in the midst of all this democratic fury
it emerges that Anglican bishops planned to ignore
votes and canons at will if the latest statements of the
bishops of Ottawa and Niagara are to be credited.
In statements before the recount, bishops Chapman
and Bird revealed that they planned to “move forward”
with the solemnizing of homosexual marriages
regardless of the outcome of the General Synod. These
and other Canadian bishops, it appears, had decided in
advance that they would simply ignore the democratic
principle if the vote did not go their way. One wonders
if this applies to conservative bishops who may want
to ignore the latest re-counted vote.
Likely not, but who would know in this miasma
of politically correct democratic authoritarianism
which now governs the Anglican Church of Canada.
All that we can be certain of is that the dictatorship
of relativism is on the march and Canadian Anglicans
are proudly in the bus, following the parade on the
wide road leading . . . where?
The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
THE ORDER OF MASS
Divine Worship: The Missal
in accordance with the Roman Rite
Ordinariate Mass cards with
the Order of Mass from
Divine Worship: The Missal
are now available
Prices including UK delivery:
£1 for a single copy, £3.50
for 10, £14 for 50, £26 for
100, £48 for 200
Overseas enquiries: email mass.
[email protected]
for postage costs
To order, please send your name and address with your
cheque, made payable to Ordinariate OLW to:
Mass Cards, Ordinariate OLW,
24 Golden Square, London W1F 9JR