The stunning Dow Partbooks were designed for use around the table – in 1581 (in his late twenties) Robert Dow began to write out all his favourite music into five manuscript partbooks for his dinner guests to sing and play from, as they enjoyed his wine and his company. Singing from partbooks is very different from the way singers normally perform today but this is the way famous composers such as William Byrd and their friends actually experienced their own music. And so, more than 400 years later, we sing in the same way – in beautiful facsimiles produced by the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music at Oxford University.
Byrd in the Hand concert program selected from:
Anonymous Hey down, sing ye now after me
William Byrd Christe, qui lux es et dies | In resurrectione tua, Domine | Laetentur coeli | Lullaby, my sweet little baby | Ne irascaris | O Lord, make Thy servant Elizabeth | Tristitia et anxietas
William Mundy Sive vigilem
Robert Parsons Ave Maria | O bone Jesu
Thomas Tallis O sacrum convivium
“Mr Tayler” Christus resurgens
Robert White Christe, qui lux es et dies | Exaudiat te | Lamentations a 5 (parts I & II)
Performances will include a chance for the audience to read and sing from manuscript notation. Join Antony and the singers throughout William Byrd’s anniversary year.