English Choral Music

The choral tradition of English cathedrals and universities is famous the world over. Through the centuries on the British Isles an immense storehouse of musical treasures have been composed: beautiful sounding choral settings which, in the meantime, have come to enjoy a great popularity on the European continent.

For the collection of "English Choral Music. Motets and Anthems from Byrd to Elgar" Richard Mailänder and Christopher Robinson, the editors, have compiled 40 outstanding motets and anthems from the 16th to the 19th centuries. In Germany and elsewhere in Europe these four- and five-part settings, whether a cappella or with obbligato organ, are especially suited for services or church concerts. The composers of the golden age of English music, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons are represented in this collection, as are the baroque masters Henry Purcell and William Boyce and, among other composers from the 19th century, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Charles Villiers Stanford, Charles Hubert Parry and Edward Elgar. A supplementary CD, performed and recorded by the Figuralchor Cologne, is also available.