“Salve Regina à 7”.
Composed by: John Sutton (Late-15th-Century).
Sung by: Antiquum Documentum.
Available on YouTube
Location:
One of the largest collections of Late-Mediæval or Early-Renaissance music in England is the Eton Choirbook, containing copies of Late-15th-Century music for the use of the Choir of Eton College, where the Manuscript remains.
This book contains remarkable examples of English polyphony at its most florid and elaborate, unchallenged in the complexity or length of its lines until the brief re-flowering of The Use of Sarum under Queen Mary, from 1553 to 1558.
The Eton Choirbook contains a Passion setting, nine
settings of The Magnificat, and fifty-four other pieces,
the majority of which are Marian Antiphons, one such
example being this setting of the Salve Regina, by
John Sutton, his only extant work. [1]
Little is known about Sutton, although he was a
Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1476, and was
a Fellow of Eton College in 1477, perhaps until 1479.
The “Cantus Firmus” for this composition is the “Libera Nos”, an Antiphon which was recited daily by students at many educational institutions, including Magdalen and Eton. [2] [3]
Other works are based on this same Plainchant, such as
the settings of “Libera Nos” by John Sheppard, also in 7-Parts. Sutton’s 7-Part “Salve” fits in to a Canon of lavishly-scored works in the Eton Choirbook, with works such as
Robert Wylkynson’s 9-Part “Salve” and 13-Part “Jesus
autem transiens”/“Credo in Deum à 13” existing in
the same Manuscript. [1]
About the Service: The Use of Sarum was the predominant Liturgy used in the South of Late-Mediæval England. It traces its history back to the Norman Conquest, and is very similar to various Northern French Uses.
King Henry VIII suppressed the other English Uses, and Sarum briefly became the only English Use, until 1549 when Henry’s heir, Edward VI, replaced it wholesale with a series of increasingly Reformed Prayer Books.
Sarum enjoyed a short-lived resurgence under Queen Mary I until Queen Elizabeth I suppressed it again in favour
of the Prayer Book.
Many aspects of this reconstruction will be familiar to fans of Choral Evensong: The “Magnificat”, “Nunc Dimittis”, and Anthem, at Book of Common Prayer Evensong, being drawn from Vespers, Compline, and the “Salve”, respectively.
This Service reconstructs a Service from around the middle of Henry VIII’s reign; the earliest composer is John Sutton, who flourished around the Late- 15th-Century.
