35. Thomas Tomkins - Anthems (1620's)

Recording

Title: Cathedral Music by Thomas Tomkins
Performers: Choir of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Roger Judd (organ)
Diirector: Christopher Robinson
Year: 1989
Length: 1 hour

Review

This might just be what heaven sounds like... which would be quite boring after a while. This is not to say that Tomkins isn't good, as he is, Thomas Tomkins is a really good sacred music composer, this is one of the best albums we have been having lately of sacred choral music.

A particular highlight goes to the appropriately mournful Then David Mourned but so many choral albums in quick succession do take their toll, this is something to be digested slowly and this is one of the albums that it is worth checking out.

From checking out to adding to your iPod or CD collection goes a step, so you should try it our first and then get it... I'm stuck with the Cd however... the sacrifices I do for blogging. Still, pretty good choral music, and fortunately I am having a pause on chorales for three albums now.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Tomkins wrote madrigals, keyboard music, consort music, anthems, and liturgical music. Stylistically he was extremely conservative, even anachronistic: he seems to have completely ignored the rising Baroque practice around him, with its Italian-inspired idioms, and he also avoided writing in most of the popular forms of the time, such as the lute song, or ayre. His polyphonic language, even in the fourth decade of the 17th century, was frankly that of the Renaissance. Some of his madrigals are extremely expressive, with text-painting and chromaticism worthy of Italian madrigalists such as Marenzio or Luzzaschi.

He was also a prolific composer of verse anthems, writing more than any other English composer of the 17th century except for William Child. These pieces were highly regarded at the time, and are well-represented in contemporary manuscript collections. Fortunately for the survival of his music, his son Nathaniel edited most of it and published a huge collection of it (titled Musica Deo Sacra) in 1668, after his death; much of it otherwise would have been lost during the Civil War.

When David Heard: