Hymns, Psalms, Antiphons and other Latin Polyphony

This is an important addition to the pair of consecutive EECM volumes of John Sheppard’s Latin compositions for the Use of Salisbury published in the 1970s. Although he had evidently mastered the forms of Mass and votive antiphon, the composer is at his most characteristic in his settings of the plainsong melodies which form the bedrock of the Sarum liturgy.

These account for most of the contents of this volume, together with free-composed settings of Biblical texts and a small corpus of devotional polyphony, most of it fragmentary. In general, textural richness is cultivated in preference to long arcs of melisma, and perfect time is favoured over imperfect, creating a directness of expression that seems to typify mid-Tudor polyphony. The format of this volume follows EECM’s house style for post-Reformation composers.