I Fagiolini

The Caged Byrd – music for voices, viols and harpsichord from a time of persecution

I Fagiolini with Concordia (viols) and Sophie Yates (virginals)

The CD includes two works which commemorate the martyrdom of Jesuit priest Edmund Campion. ‘Deus venerunt gentes’ is a large-scale piece which uses a psalm text lamenting the death of the chosen to lament (by analogy) the death of Campion. ‘Why do I use my paper, ink and pen’ features almost treasonable verses which were not published at the time:

“My soveraigne Liege behold your subiects end,
your secret foes do misinforme your grace:
who in your cause their holy lives would spend
as traytors dye, a rare and monstrous case,
the bloudy wolfe condemnes the harmles shepe
before the dog, y whiles the sherherds slepe.”

“These moving pieces for an exiled people – the view the Elizabethan Roman Catholics took of themselves – make sense of Byrd in a way that collections by genre often fail to do.” BBC Music Magazine

Rejoice, rejoice
Deus venerunt gentes
Laudibus in sanctis (part 3)

 

Buy from Amazon or Chandos

Chandos
CHAN 0609
Released 1999