John Sheppard's Libera nos, salva nos

Throughout September, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates the music of 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century England.



https://youtu.be/406oqiK3-x0

The wonderful English composer John Sheppard (c. 1515–1558) is one of my favourite composers of all time. His polyphony is extraordinary. He usually wrote for six voices: treble, mean, two countertenors, tenor, and bass (although today's piece is in seven voices), and his harmonies often were quite unusual for the 16th century. His enjoyment of dissonance can be heard in today's piece as well.

Some of Sheppard's English settings as well as some of his Latin settings can be found in the Drexel partbooks, a set of manuscript copies compiled by John Merro in the early part of the 17th century. Merro included sacred as well as secular works, and it is a terrific resource.

One of the Latin works by Sheppard included in the Drexel partbooks is his Libera nos, salva nos. Adam Binks says, "Without the proliferation of printing that came in later periods, and the constantly changing allegiances between Catholicism and Protestantism, it has proved difficult to date much of Sheppard’s music, and many of his Catholic works could have been from the reign of Henry or Mary, with no great variation in style between the two periods. . . . Sheppard’s Libera nos, salva nos contains a cantus firmus of the plainsong in the lowest voice part, beneath tranquil and measured polyphony." You can really hear the cantus firmus, which makes this an especially lovely and serene work.

My classical music post for today is John Sheppard's Libera nos, salva nos.

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