Wisdom & Strength: Contemporary Sacred Choral Music by Delphian Records

Wisdom & Strength

Compline

1 Kerensa Briggs (b. 1991) Media vita [2:48]

2 Judith Ward (b. 1967) In manus tuas * [3:32]

Rachel Haworth, Rebekah Nieß er-Jones, Paul Bentley-Angell, Ben Rowarth solos Eucharist

3 Judith Ward Mass for St Mark – Kyrie * [1:47]

4 Judith Ward Mass for St Mark – Gloria † * [3:19]

Intonation: Piers Connor Kennedy

5 Sarah Cattley (b. 1995) Haec dies [4:38]

Hannah Ely, Fiona Fraser solos

6 Joanna Marsh (b. 1970) Worthy is the Lamb † [4:42]

7 Judith Ward Mass for St Mark – Sanctus & Benedictus † * [3:41]

8 Judith Ward Mass for St Mark – Agnus Dei † * [2:05]

9 Kristina Arakelyan (b. 1994) Christ, our Paschal Lamb † * [4:55]

Hannah Ely, Rebekah Nieß er-Jones, Chris Fitzgerald-Lombard solos

10 Judith Ward O clap your hands * [3:02] Siglo de Oro would like to thank Steve Brosnan for supporting this recording, Revd Peter Smith for allowing the recording to take place at Waltham Abbey, and the Abbey’s Director of Music Jonathan Lilley for his assistance.

Ely, Fiona Fraser, Rachel Haworth, Elspeth Piggott

Rebekah Nie ßer-Jones, Sophie Overin, Anna Semple alto

Paul Bentley-Angell, Chris Fitzgerald-Lombard, Oscar Golden-Lee tenor

Piers Connor Kennedy, David Le Prevost, Thomas Nie ßer, Ben Rowarth bass

on 23-25 January 2024 in Waltham

Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter 24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis 24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter Design: Drew Padrutt Booklet editor: Henry Howard Cover image: Jean Wimmerlin/Unsplash Session photography: William Coates-Gibson/Foxbrush Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK

The services which the Church of England celebrates on a typical Sunday have roots which are thousands of years old. During their existence, they have undergone changes both subtle and more dramatic. The musical content of these services is a living tradition, fed by the contributions of successive generations of composers. This recording celebrates some of the most recent of these contributions, eavesdropping on an imagined day of liturgical music, which progresses from the morning celebration of the Eucharist to Choral Evensong at the other end of the day. In parallel, the works featured represent a progression through part of the Church year: from Lent and Easter, through Ascension and Pentecost, to Trinity Sunday.

The celebration of a Sunday feast properly begins the night before. Accordingly, this recital begins with two motets associated with the office of Night Prayer, or Compline. The text of Media vita comes from a Lenten antiphon attached to the Nunc dimittis, which forms a frame around Simeon’s Song, a comment on the canticle’s acknowledgement of Christ’s mastery over life and death. Kerensa Briggs’s setting was commissioned by Siglo de Oro in 2015, for a project commemorating the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Tudor composer John Sheppard. Briggs cites the ‘expansiveness and intensity’ of Sheppard’s setting of this antiphon as influences on the motet. A low tessitura prevails, giving the sense of humanity trapped under the weight

of sin, struggling to free itself, until the impassioned cries of ‘morti’ break through towards the conclusion of the piece.

In manus tuas is a responsory which in the Use of Sarum also belonged to the office of Compline in Holy Week. This setting introduces the central figure of this recording: Judith Ward, an Oxfordshire-based choral conductor, teacher and composer. The opening section of this piece is plainchant-inspired and austerely textured. A sense of timeless ritual is extended in subsequent sections by the use of a quasiliturgical ‘call-and-response’ between the choir and a quartet of soloists.

Mass for St Mark, while largely making use of a diatonic musical palette, incorporates a number of different styles, including imitative polyphony, plainchant and movements for organ and choir that are always sensitive to the liturgy. The tripartite Kyrie, a prayer which prepares the congregation for the Communion rite by seeking absolution, establishes a modal flavour. Its inner section, Christe eleison, is given a homophonic texture, in contrast to the more imitative outer sections. This unaccompanied, introspective movement is followed by the Gloria, which introduces the organ’s gently undulating accompaniment. A more reflective Qui tollis section harks back to the polyphonic masses of the Renaissance, before the propulsive organ accompaniment returns to carry the movement to its finale.

The Sanctus begins gently, building towards a climax of Hosanna, before a segue into the Benedictus, which again employs an imitative texture. This then gives way to a yet more forceful Hosanna which calls for full organ. In the Agnus Dei, the three sections progress from prayerful, largely unison choral singing to a more dramatic texture, as if gaining in confidence with each repetition of this prayer for deliverance, which is offered in the Eucharist during the distribution of communion.

Sarah Cattley’s Haec dies, a setting of an Easter Day antiphon, was commissioned by Caritas Chamber Choir. Its arresting opening has the sopranos establish the motif, appropriate for the resurrection, of a rising fifth. A deft key-change introduces an aleatoric section, in which the singers may proceed individually at their own pace, creating a wash of celebratory sounds in which motifs emerge and submerge. These ideas unify the piece, with the combination of the two providing a rapturous, alleuiatic conclusion.

The well-known Eastertide text Worthy is the Lamb receives an apocalyptic, double-choir treatment from composer Joanna Marsh. The organ opens proceedings with a lively fanfare figure, over which the singers move more slowly, with tectonic grandeur. An inexorable momentum drives the music forward, the two choirs alternating phrases. Towards the

end, the fanfare returns, grand and dissonant, frequently making use of chords with both a major and minor third. It is as if the vision from the Book of Revelation has come before us, at once triumphal and terrible.

In our imagined liturgy, Kristina Arakelyan’s Christ, our Paschal Lamb serves as the communion motet. The text emerges only gradually; at first the voices are wordless, before the ‘ah’ is recontextualised as the beginning of ‘alleluia’. This exordium then leads to the central motet text, sung alternately by the lower and upper voices of the choir. After a radiant climax, the alleluias gradually subside in rhapsodic fashion.

Joy bursts forth in Judith Ward’s O clap your hands, which takes the position of a ‘choral voluntary’ after the morning service. The idea of the voluntary after a church service came into being as the use of organs in church buildings became widespread in the fifteenth century, with the name implying a free or improvised piece. Ward’s piece exhibits this same sense of spontaneity, the lively syncopations establishing an ebullient mood, and frequent changes of metre suggesting irrepressible excitement.

Choral Evensong is the result of a sixteenthcentury liturgical experiment, which fused the monastic offices of Vespers and Compline together to create a single office of Evening

Prayer to balance that of Morning Prayer (or Matins). Its rubric that anthems may be included ‘in Quires and Places where they sing’ has given rise to centuries of musical creativity, and, together with its distinctive use of language, helped lead to this service’s status as the artistic jewel of the Anglican liturgy. It is often customary to begin with an introit, which here is a work by Marisse Cato: Flamed Tongue, a Siglo de Oro commission. The title refers to the flames which were seen as the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost, bestowing upon them the gift of tongues. Cato’s approach here is highly pictorial and imaginative, giving voice to the flickering flames, the rushing wind, and finally the world of dreams.

Judith Ward’s Responses follow in a long tradition of musical elaborations of what was originally a simple sequence of call-and-response prayers between priest and congregation. Early musical settings harmonised the congregational plainchant response. Ward’s setting follows the modern convention of freely responding to the mood of each response, unifying it under the umbrella of a bright A major tonality.

The Book of Common Prayer allows for all of the 150 Psalms of David to be recited over the course of a month, with a section of them appointed to each service of Morning

and Evening Prayer. The distinctive form of ‘Anglican chant’ evolved from this requirement: a way of singing which preserved vernacular speech-rhythm, with a ‘pointed’ text indicating changes of note. The heading of Psalm 59 gives its context: ‘When Saul sent men, and they watched the house in order to kill [David]’. This desperate plea for deliverance is given a suitably dissonant double chant by IndianAmerican composer Shruthi Rajasekar.

In the new service of Evensong, the chief canticles of Vespers and Compline were combined into the same service. This creates a narrative of revelation: after the Old Testament reading, the Magnificat interrupts with the words of Mary, heralding the New Testament that will follow, and the fulfilment of God’s promise to his people. Alison Willis’s setting of the Magnificat was originally written to sit alongside the Nunc dimittis by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, and was premiered in 2017. Its key – D♭ major –parallels the C# minor of Pärt’s, and the focus on choral sonority and syllabic text-setting also seem informed by Pärt’s distinctive style, as well as the use of long pedal tones in various voices.

The Nunc dimittis responds to the revelation of the New Testament reading which immediately precedes it with Simeon’s song of acceptance and farewell, having seen the promised light of the Saviour. Amy Summers,

a London-based composer and orchestrator, achieves this sense of mystical acceptance with a delicate and subtly shifting harmonic texture. The prevailing mood is of a gentle progress towards peace, with the piano dynamic only briefly yielding in the doxology.

O lux beata Trinitas is one of the most ancient hymns of the Church, traditionally ascribed to the fourth-century St Ambrose. Appropriately, Kerry Andrew’s setting begins with three voices, circling around each other to rest on a close cluster of notes. Gently insistent ostinatos are a feature of the piece, whether in the quietly rocking ‘unitas’ or the cascading melismas of the next section’s ‘lumen’. Later, this same idea will form the basis of an aleatoric section, gradually forming a vast, spacious outpouring of sound over which soloists intone the doxology, before the opening two-note ostinato returns, calmly retreating into warm dyads.

The final voluntary, once more by Judith Ward, is this disc’s only organ solo, a lively toccata also on a Trinitarian theme, Gloria tibi Trinitas. After a declamatory opening, a pattern of semiquavers is established, over which is quoted the titular plainchant melody. A more lyrical harmonisation of the tune follows, before the semiquavers return, at first fragmented, then spiralling into a dramatic, declamatory conclusion.

James Potter is a conductor and writer. He is Precentor and Director of Music at Magdalene College, Cambridge, alongside a portfolio of work including choir direction, teaching and new music.

Texts and translations

1 Media vita

Media vita in morte sumus: quem quaerimus adiutorem nisi te Domine qui pro peccatis nostris iuste irasceris?

Sancte Deus, sancte fortis, sancte et misericors salvator: amarae morti ne tradas nos.

‘Antiphona de morte’, sometimes attr. to Notker Balbulus (c.840–912)

2 In manus tuas

In manus tuas Domine commendo spiritum meum. Redemisti me Domine Deus veritatis.

Responsory at Compline

3 Mass for St Mark – Kyrie

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

4 Mass for St Mark – Gloria

Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Laudamus te. Benedicimus te.

Adoramus te. Glorificamus te.

Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.

Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.

Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe; Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris. Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

In the midst of life we are in death: whom shall we seek to help us if not you, Lord, who are rightly angry at our sins?

Holy God, holy and strong, holy and merciful saviour, do not give us over to bitter death.

Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.

Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis.

Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe. Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris.

Amen.

Who take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.

Who sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us.

For only you are Holy, only you are Lord, only you are Most High, Jesus Christ.

With the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, Lord God of truth.

5 Haec dies

Haec dies quam fecit Dominus; exultemus et laetemur in ea. Alleluia.

This is the day that the Lord has made: let us exult and rejoice in it. Alleluia.

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. We praise you. We bless you. We worship you. We glorify you. We give you thanks for your great glory.

Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.

Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father: Who take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

Easter antiphon, based on Psalm 118 (Vulgate 117): 24

6 Worthy is the Lamb

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, and glory and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

Revelation 5: 12, 9, 13 (KJV), compiled by Charles Jennens (1700–1773) for Handel’s Messiah

and translations

7 Mass for St Mark – Sanctus & Benedictus Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus. Dominus Deus Sabaoth:

Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini: Hosanna in excelsis.

8 Mass for St Mark – Agnus Dei Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

9 Christ, our Paschal Lamb

Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus, alleluia. Itaque epulemur in azymis sinceritatis et veritatis, alleluia.

Communion for Easter Day, based on I Corinthians 5: 7–8

10 O clap your hands

O clap your hands together, all ye people:

O sing unto God with the voice of melody. For the Lord is high, and to be feared: he is the great King upon all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us: and the nations under our feet. He shall choose out an heritage for us: even the worship of Jacob, whom he loved.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord:

Hosanna in the highest.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

Christ is sacrificed for us, our Paschal lamb, alleluia. And so let us feast on the unleavened bread of purity and truth, alleluia.

God is gone up with a merry noise: and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.

O sing praises, sing praises unto our God: O sing praises, sing praises unto our King.

Psalm 47: 1–6 (Book of Common Prayer)

11 Flamed Tongue

They were all with one accord, in one place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as if a rushing wind.

I’ll pour out my spirits ’pon all flesh.

And how we hear every man in our own tongue.

Prophecy, dreams.

Text compiled by Marisse Cato using fragments of Bible verses discussing the Day of Pentecost and its fulfilment as prophesied in the Old Testament.

12 Responses I

O Lord, open thou our lips:

And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

O God, make speed to save us:

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Praise ye the Lord:

The Lord’s Name be praised.

13 Psalm 59

Deliver me from mine enemies, O God: defend me from them that rise up against me.

O deliver me from the wicked doers: and save me from the blood-thirsty men. For lo, they lie waiting for my soul: the mighty men are gathered against me, without any offence or fault of me, O Lord. They run and prepare themselves without my fault: arise thou therefore to help me, and behold.

Stand up, O Lord God of hosts, thou God of Israel, to visit all the heathen: and be not merciful unto them that offend of malicious wickedness.

They go to and fro in the evening: they grin like a dog, and run about through the city. Behold, they speak with their mouth, and swords are in their lips: for who doth hear? But thou. O Lord, shalt have them in derision: and thou shalt laugh all the heathen to scorn. My strength will I ascribe unto thee: for thou art the God of my refuge.

God sheweth me his goodness plenteously: and God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.

Slay them not, lest my people forget it: but scatter them abroad among the people, and put them down, O Lord, our defence. For the sin of their mouth, and for the words of their lips, they shall be taken in their pride: and why? their preaching is of cursing and lies. Consume them in thy wrath, consume them, that they may perish: and know that it is

God that ruleth in Jacob, and unto the ends of the world.

And in the evening they will return: grin like a dog, and will go about the city. They will run here and there for meat: and grudge if they be not satisfied.

As for me, I will sing of thy power, and will praise thy mercy betimes in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.

Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for thou, O God, art my refuge, and my merciful God.

Glory be to the Father: and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

14 Magnificat

My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.

For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

For he that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations. He hath shewed strength with his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat:

and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things: and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel: as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:

world without end. Amen.

15 Nunc dimittis

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: according to thy word.

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation: which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

to be a light to lighten the gentiles: and to be the glory of thy people Israel. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:

world without end. Amen.

16 Responses II

The Lord be with you: And with thy spirit.

Let us pray: Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us: And grant us thy salvation.

O Lord, save the King: And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Endue thy ministers with righteousness: And make thy chosen people joyful.

O Lord, save thy people: And bless thine inheritance.

Give peace in our time, O Lord: Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God.

O God, make clean our hearts within us: And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of your faithful people by the sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things and evermore to rejoice in his holy

comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

Biographies

O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed: give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that

17 O lux beata Trinitas

O lux beata Trinitas, et principalis Unitas, iam sol recedit igneus, infunde lumen cordibus.

Te mane laudum carmine, te deprecemur vespere: te nostra supplex gloria per cuncta laudet saecula.

Deo Patri sit gloria, eiusque soli Filio, cum Spiritu Paraclito, et nunc, et in perpetuum. Amen.

attr. to St Ambrose (340–397)

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Siglo de Oro is one of the leading British vocal ensembles of its generation. The group is recognised internationally for its golden tone, fresh interpretations and innovative programming. Since its acclaimed debut at the Spitalfields Festival in 2014, Siglo de Oro has performed all over the UK, Europe and North America, recorded five albums for Delphian Records, and broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3.

hotel-based opera, Found and Lost, and has an ongoing association with the charity Multitude of Voyces, whose mission is to promote the work of underrepresented composers.

In the 2024–5 season, the group will take up a three-concert residency at Wigmore Hall, as well as giving concerts across the UK and in Canada, the USA and Finland.

www.siglodeoro.co.uk

O blest Trinity of light, and primal Unity, now the fiery sun is sinking, pour light into our hearts.

May we pray to you with morning song, may we pray to you in the evening: may our suppliant hymn of glory praise you throughout all ages.

Glory be to God the Father and to his only Son, with the Spirit, the Comforter, both now and forever. Amen.

Siglo de Oro’s previous recordings with Delphian range from fifteenth-century music written for Milan Cathedral (DCD34224), to new pieces for choir and saxophone composed for the group (Drop down, ye heavens, DCD34184). Amongst these albums was the world premiere recording of a late-Renaissance mass by Hieronymus Praetorius (Missa Tulerunt Dominum meum, DCD34208), released in 2018, which was BBC Music Magazine’s Choral and Song Album of the Month. Siglo de Oro’s most recent recording, The Mysterious Motet Book 1539 (DCD34284), reached number 9 in the UK specialist classical chart, and was one of Music Web International’s Recordings of the Year for 2022.

Siglo de Oro has long been committed to performing contemporary music. The ensemble has regularly commissioned new works, including pieces by Kerensa Briggs, Owain Park, Ben Rowarth and Marisse Cato. Siglo de Oro gave the first performance of Emily Hall’s

@siglodeorovocal

Patrick Allies is a conductor and musicologist based in London. He began his musical education as a chorister at the Temple Church and sang in Gloucester Cathedral Choir before taking up a choral scholarship to study music at King’s College London. Patrick went on to postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge where he was a member of Jesus College Choir.

In his role as artistic director of the Londonbased vocal ensemble Siglo de Oro, Patrick has made five acclaimed recordings with Delphian Records of music from the Renaissance to the present day. Under Patrick’s direction, the group has taken up invitations to perform in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Malta, Canada and the USA.

Biographies

Patrick is currently conductor of Imperial College Chamber Choir, the flagship choir of Imperial College London. In addition to directing the choir in its regular services and concerts on the college’s South Kensington campus, Patrick has led the choir on international tours to Estonia and Finland, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong.

Alongside his work as a conductor, Patrick is a doctoral student in music at the University of Oxford. Patrick’s research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, involves fifteenth-century choirs and their performance spaces.

subsequently graduated with first-class honours. During his final year at the RCM Simon was Organ Scholar at St Paul’s Cathedral, where he regularly accompanied and directed the world-famous choir, and gave recitals on the renowned Willis organ. In 2012 Simon moved to Southwell, Nottinghamshire, where he spent seven years as Assistant Director of Music at Southwell Minster. Here he directed the Minster’s girls’ choir and the Minster Chorale, and played the organ for all services, recordings, tours and broadcasts. In 2022 Simon took up his post at Southwark Cathedral, where he is the principal accompanist for services and concerts.

Simon Hogan is the Sub-Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral, a post which he combines with being Organist to the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and a portfolio of freelance work throughout the UK.

Simon was a chorister at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, and it was during this time that he started learning the piano and organ, developing a passion for cathedral music which has stayed with him to this day. Following organ scholarships at Bristol and Salisbury Cathedrals, he moved to London in 2008 to study organ performance at the Royal College of Music, where he

Simon has studied organ performance with Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin, Daniel Cook, David Graham, Robert Quinney and Colin Walsh. He studied conducting with Paul Brough and Peter Stark and harpsichord with Terence Charlston. Simon is in popular demand as a recitalist, and as principal organist for JAM – an organisation which commissions and performs new music for brass, organ and choir by leading contemporary composers – he has enjoyed working with some of the country’s finest ensembles, including the BBC Singers, Gesualdo Six and Onyx Brass.

The Mysterious Motet Book of 1539

Siglo de Oro / Patrick Allies

DCD34284

In the late 1530s, Milanese composer Hermann Matthias Werrecore assembled a collection of sacred music and sent it across the Alps to the publisher Peter Schoeffer in Strasbourg. In making the journey from staunchly Catholic Milan to newly Protestant Strasbourg, the repertoire in question became cross-confessional. What was the purpose of publishing a motet book in a German imperial city where Latin choral singing no longer took place? Siglo de Oro have collaborated with Dr Daniel Trocmé-Latter (University of Cambridge) to showcase works from this puzzling volume, setting motets by Nicolas Gombert, Jacquet of Mantua, Jacques Arcadelt and Adrian Willaert alongside less familiar names such as Simon Ferrariensis and the enigmatic Johannes Sarton. The resulting recording exhibits the combination of meticulous musicological research and finely crafted, sonorous singing that their previous Delphian albums have led us to expect.

‘compelling and glowing’ — Operalogue, October 2022,

Drop down, ye heavens: Advent antiphons for choir & saxophone

Siglo de Oro / Patrick Allies; Sam Corkin

DCD34184

Siglo de Oro’s recording debut highlights the saxophone’s natural kinship with the human voice, as well as the endless expressive possibilities which this versatile instrument stimulates in the imaginations of modern composers. Its athletic vigour launches Will Todd’s O Wisdom, the first of eight newly commissioned settings of the Advent antiphons in English which form the backbone of this recording. Elsewhere the instrument soars above the voices’ urgent prophecy and imploration, while the choir is heard unaccompanied in glowing renditions of sixteenth-century polyphony – works by Pierre Certon, Antoine de Mornable, Michael Praetorius and Josquin des Prez, whose music complements the atmosphere of quiet expectancy proper to Advent.

‘Invigorating … hits you with its character and depth’

— Gramophone, December 2016

Christmas in Puebla

Siglo de Oro and instrumentalists / Patrick Allies DCD34238

By the early 1620s, when Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla migrated from Cádiz what is now Mexico, the colony was an important and wealthy outpost of the Habsburg Empire, keen to maintain the religious and musical customs of its mother country. At the cathedral of the young, thriving city of Puebla de los Ángeles he had at his disposal a sizeable body of men and boys who not only sang but also played instruments – including guitars, sackbut, dulcian, and simple percussion such as the cajón. Siglo de Oro’s programme explores the rich sound-world of this time and place, evoking a Mass at Christmas Eve to include a number of villancicos – energetic, dance-like pieces whose captivating mixture of Mexican, Afro-Hispanic and Portuguese influences would have invigorated even the most sober churchgoer.

‘11 singers of clarity and colour glitter and glow … a sonic festive feast … The addition of local dance rhythms brings a rustic earthiness to Renaissance Mass from Mexico’ — Choir & Organ, December 2020,

Music for Milan Cathedral: Werrecore – Josquin – Gaffurius – Weerbeke

Siglo de Oro / Patrick Allies

DCD34224

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Milan Cathedral acted as a magnet to many of the finest composers of the time. Yet the Cathedral’s maestro di cappella for almost thirty years, Hermann Matthias Werrecore, is almost completely unknown to us today. In this first recording of any of his sacred music, six motets are presented alongside works that Werrecore knew, drawn mostly from the holdings of the Milan library during his tenure there. Siglo de Oro’s act of rediscovery – hot on the heels of their premiere recording of a mass by Hieronymus Praetorius – reveals the exceptional quality of the music, and Patrick Allies directs them in performances of extraordinary flair.

‘To portray effectively such ranges of polyphonic textures is really exciting: this is a hugely impressive disc in both programming and performance’ — Gramophone, February 2020

Wisdom & Strength: Contemporary Sacred Choral Music