Parsons - Sacred Music
The Cardinall's Musick / Carwood
Hyperion CDA67874

Release date October 2011

Little is known of Robert Parsons (c1535 - 1572). The few references to him are found mainly in records relating to the Chapel Royal, where he was appointed as a Gentleman in 1563. Less than nine years later appears the note: ‘Robt. Parsons was drowned at Newark upon Trent the 25th of Januarie, and Wm Bird sworne gentleman in his place the 22nd of Februarie following’. His surviving music consists of nine pieces in Latin, two Services in English, two anthems in English and some secular songs and instrumental pieces. The inclusion of his Ave Maria in the Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems in 1978 has led to many recordings of this well-loved motet, but the rest of his work has been sadly neglected – so who better to champion his cause than Andrew Carwood and The Cardinall’s Musick, winners of Gramophone’s ‘Recording of the Year’ in 2010 for the concluding volume of their Byrd series, and specialists in music of this era. Stylistically Parsons falls somewhere between Sheppard and Byrd. His nine Latin pieces and two English anthems fit neatly onto this CD, and the magical serenity of Ave Maria (the final track here) can be experienced in the disc’s opening item, Domine, quis habitabit? and the motet Credo quod redemptor. However, the stirring muscularity of much of the other music reveals Parsons to be an accomplished composer with, as Andrew Carwood puts it, ‘an enjoyment of symmetry and development... [and] a remarkably sophisticated understanding of dramatic potential’. Thus Retribue servo tuo progresses in each of its two sections from a trio of voices to full choir – very exciting when given the rhythmic propulsion it receives here. The opulent and substantial Magnificat, probably the earliest work on the disc, uses a traditional alternation of plainsong and polyphony and is scored for six voices. However, the most dramatic work is O bone Jesu, taking an unusual text and setting it for varied forces culminating at several points in full-choir invocations of Christ. Over its twelve-minute length the tension builds and recedes, climaxing in a marvellous, full-blooded final ‘Amen’. Andrew Carwood’s intelligent but very readable booklet essay and the committed singing throughout make this disc another winner for the Cardinall’s Musick.

Anne McAlister