Search - Sheppard, Ravens, Musica Contexta :: Midnight Mass for Queen Mary Tudor

With the restoration of Catholicism under Queen Mary Tudor, English composers returned to writing the luxuriant choral music common during most of Henry VIII's reign. John Sheppard's Cantate Mass is one of the finest sacred works to have survived from Tudor England; Simon Ravens and his choir have reconstructed around it an entire Midnight Mass for Christmas as it might have been celebrated during Mary's reign. In addition to solid performances of the Cantate Mass and of Sarum chant (specific to England during the Middle Ages), we get a fascinating version of the Old Testament lesson for Christmas Mass, specially set by Sheppard for two tenors, and the composer's most famous work, the jubilant Christmas respond "Verbum caro" with its thrilling final chord. --Matthew Westphal