Songs of Angels
Music from Magdalen College (1480-1560)

Choir of Magdalen College Oxford
directed by Bill Ives

Programme Notes

The life of Mary Magdalen is recorded in the Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda), compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in 1275, where it is related that ‘every day at every hour canonical she was lifted up in the air by angels, and heard the glorious song of the heavenly companies with her bodily ears. Of which she was fed and filled with right sweet meats, and then was brought again by the angels unto her proper place, in such wise as she had no need of corporal nourishing.’ Mary’s daily assumption was witnessed on one occasion by a hermit, whom she told ‘every day I am borne aloft seven times by angelic hands, and have been found worthier to hear with the ears of my body the joyful jubilation of the heavenly hosts.’ By the ‘Songs of Angels’ Mary Magdalen found nourishment and redemption. The Vespers Hymn Collaudemus Magdalene lachrymas tells of another medieval legend where Mary, with Jesus on the cross, anointed his feet ‘which she washed clean with the river of her tears; she dried them with her hair, and earned mercy for her sins.’

The cult of Mary Magdalen perpetuated throughout the Western World, where she was considered, among other things, to be the patron saint of penitent sinners and a contemplative life. William of Wayneflete, bishop of Winchester, dedicated his Oxford foundation of 1458 to Mary Magdalen, and since the completion of the chapel and the foundation of the Choir in 1480, Magdalen College has been a centre of musical activity in Oxford. Magdalen is one of those very few foundations that was set up at the height of polyphonic composition in pre-Reformation England; a time when much of the music now found in the famous Eton Choirbook was being produced. The College employed eight singing-men, four chaplains and sixteen choristers with the Informator Choristarum (Instructor of the Choristers), and these numbers were well suited to meet the challenge of the newfangled large-scale polyphony composed by such masters as William Cornysh, John Brown, and Magdalen’s own Richard Davy.

The Choir at Magdalen seems to have held a unique position in sixteenth-century Oxford and during the heated years of the Protestant Reformation under Edward VI. The Choir at Christ Church (formerly Cardinal College), founded in 1526, never really recovered from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s fall from the King’s favour in 1530 (though it was to witness a re-birth under Mary I); New College (1379), a truly medieval foundation with three singing-men and sixteen choristers, was ordered to be disbanded in March 1553, nearly a year after the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, was shut down by the reformers. Magdalen, for some reason, flourished. The College accounts show that in 1551 the choir acquired no less than 70 compositions for the new English Rite, while more music was being copied for the Choir as late as in February 1553. The full complement of singing-men and boys was maintained throughout this period, and Thomas Cranmer himself seems to have had a hand in ensuring that the musical tradition at Magdalen continued.

This recording offers a survey of music that was either sung at Magdalen or written by Magdalen composers between 1480 and 1560; apart from the Chapel Royal, there are few musical institutions where this kind of project can be done with any sense of continuity. The reason for this is the nature of the surviving sources, and the fact that from the earliest days in Magdalen’s musical history the post of Informator Choristarum (Instructor of the Choristers) attracted some of the most eminent composers of the day. Nevertheless, the College did experience some teething pains in trying to keep their Informator in post for respectable period of time, many having resigned after no more than a year or two in office. Indeed, between 1481 and 1510, there were no less than ten changes in the post. This seems to be largely owing to the rather paltry stipend that was on offer – only 40s per annum, which, compared with other institutions was an insult! The College finances were then being drained by the construction of the Great Tower which began in August 1492; when the Tower was completed in 1509, a proper salary (initially £7 per annum, which was to rise to £9 by the 1550s) was allocated to the post of Informator and the post then gained some stability.

Famous early Informatores at Magdalen included Richard Davy and John Mason. Davy held the post for a single term in 1491, during which time he may have composed his O domine celi terreque, which, according to a note in the Eton Choirbook, was written in a single day while at the College. Magdalen continued to acquire compositions by Davy after his departure, and in 1495 a certain Christopher Coke was paid 12d for repairing a music book containing five of his Masses and certain antiphons by him. Among the latter may have been his monumental setting of Stabat mater, which is generally regarded to be one of his finest works. By 1512 Davy is thought to have acquired a position at Fotheringhay College in Northamptonshire, where a number of Magdalen fellows and singing-men migrated, and where the composer may have stayed until his death in 1538. Mason served as Informator for two terms in 1508/9 and for three terms in 1509/10, having come to Magdalen either from Eton College or, more likely, from the household chapel of Lady Margaret Beaufort (both institutions had a John Mason on their books at the time). He then seems to have acquired a position in the household chapel of Thomas Wolsey, who maintained close links with Magdalen since his departure from the College in 1510, when he must have known the composer. Quales sumus O miseri is an unusual work for the period, and the text is particularly striking (see Nick Sandon’s translation below).

Aspice Domine by Jacquet of Mantua seems an odd addition to the list, but some justification for its inclusion can be made. A certain Master ‘Jacquett’ held the post of Informator at Magdalen from 1536 to 1539, and this must certainly be the same ‘Jacket’ that Thomas Morley mentions among the composers whose works were consulted for his Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke published in 1597. The spelling of ‘Jacquett’ in the Magdalen accounts seem to confirm that a foreigner held the post, but the most likely candidate, Jacquet of Mantua, at this time held the titular post of maestro di cappella at Mantua Cathedral. His status there was unusual, however, in that he had direct responsibility not to the cathedral or court but rather to a single patron, Ercole Cardinal Gonzaga (1505–63), Bishop of Mantua, papal legate to Charles V and ultimately president of the Council of Trent (see New Grove, 2nd Edition). So, arguably, he could very well have been employed elsewhere, although England seems rather far fetched. Nevertheless, the fact that one of his compositions – Aspice Domine – appears in the Peterhouse Part-books is suggestive. Peterhouse is our most important source of English church music from the 1520s and 1530s, and Nick Sandon has convincingly shown that some of the repertoire contained in the books probably originated from Magdalen College. Of the 72 compositions in Peterhouse, only two are by foreign composers, including Aspice Domine by Jacquet of Mantua. While this argument is far from water-tight, it is still quite probably that the work was performed in England in the 1530s if not at Magdalen itself.

Thomas Appleby succeeded ‘Jacquett’ in 1539, and held the post of Informator for three years. Appleby came to Magdalen from Lincoln Cathedral (John Longland, the then bishop, was a former fellow of Magdalen), and it was there that he returned in September 1541. Only two works survive by Appleby: a four-part Mass ‘for a mene’, and a Magnificat for men’s voice (the latter preserved in the Peterhouse Part-books). The Magnificat is somewhat stylistically disjointed and, at times, rather clumsy, but it does contain some fine sonorous writing in the full passages of the work, and the ‘esurientes’ verse is not unlike similar passages in the Magnificats of William Cornysh and Henry Prentes.

Magdalen’s most famous sixteenth-century composer is John Sheppard, whose life and career has generated much interest since the 1970s with research and performances undertaken at Magdalen by David Wulstan. Sheppard succeeded Appleby in Michaelmas 1541, left the College in the following year (when Thomas Preston, whose organ works are recorded here, stepped in), and returned in Michaelmas 1543, from which time he stayed until around March 1548 when the Reformation of the College was underway. Three of Sheppard’s works are included on this recording, each representing a different facet in his vast compositional output. Dum transisset sabbatum is typical of Sheppard’s hymn and respond settings, being through-composed with small cells of imitation to introduce new sections of text. The Lord’s Prayer dates from Edward VI’s reign, possibly from 1551 when much new music was being produced. The work survives only in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century sources, where the text is corrupted by the addition of the doxology ‘for thine is the kingdom and the power, to thee be all honour and glory for ever more, always so be it.’, a text that was introduced in Scottish prayer books in the 1630s, and even later in England. The words here have been restored to those which Sheppard would have known in the 1549 and 1552 prayer books. The plainchant on either end is from John Merbecke’s Book of Common Prayer Noted, published in 1550, the same year in which Merbecke is thought to have visited the College when supplicating for his doctorate.

The wonderful seven-part setting of Libera nos seems to date from Sheppard’s mature period in the mid 1550s, when the composer seems to have regained some sort of connection with Magdalen. He was certainly in Oxford by April 1554, when he supplicated for his DMus, having ‘laboured in that faculty for twenty years continuously and composed many vocal works.’ On 15 December following, the Magdalen accounts report a payment of 20s made to a Master ‘Sheperde pro quibusdam canticis’ (‘for certain songs’). Six months later he seems to have had a run in with the College authorities (the recent suggestion that the following incidents refer to ‘Sheprey’ a fellow of Magdalen at the same time, is unreliable). On 2 June 1555 a Master Sheppard was accused of having kept a certain poor boy in chains and permitted him to stay overnight against the provisions of the statutes; he was ‘convicted on this charge by his own confession ... [and] punished by deprivation of his commons for one week’ as the statutes demanded. The matter, however, was not settled with that: two weeks later Master Sheppard was again accused, and here we are provided with more detail:

On the fifteenth of June Master Sheppard (was) accused before the lord President for having wretchedly chained a certain poor boy and forcibly dragged him [traheret] from Malmesbury as far as Oxford, which cruel deed brought no small disgrace upon the college.

Sheppard, having stopped in Faringdon (halfway between Oxford and Malmesbury), boasted that ‘he was the first officer of Magdalen College after the President’; this ‘arrogance and boasting’, it was claimed, cast disgrace upon the Vice-President for that year, Master Tainter. On the same day the President issued an injunction to Sheppard, stating that ‘he should conduct himself more modestly towards the vice-president, and that he should wholly abstain from insulting and quarrelsome words and odious comparisons in the presence of the officers.’ There is no evidence that Sheppard had any dealings with the chapel at this time (apart from the College purchasing certain of his works), so it would appear that he was simply a guest, and, as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, a highly distinguished lodger (this may explain Master Sheppard’s boasts concerning his importance). One can further suggest that Sheppard, during these months, was simply acting as an agent for the Chapel Royal, and, in particular, operating as a scout for new singing-men and boys for Mary’s household, if not for Magdalen itself.

Sheppard’s first setting of the Libera nos is among his finest achievements. The text appears in the College statutes, not among the form and order of worship in the chapel, but in the section dealing with the prayers, orisons, etc., to be said by the Fellows and Scholars of the College. Accordingly, every member of College, upon rising in the morning and before retiring in the evening, was instructed to recite the ‘antiphon of the Trinity’ Libera nos together with certain prayers. This is a text, therefore, that would have been on the lips and in the minds of all within the College precincts, and it may well be that the two settings by Sheppard were among the last tributes to Magdalen that the composer produced.

David Skinner

Texts and Translations

[1] Vespers Hymn Collaudemus Magdalene lachrymas

Collaudemus Magdalene
Collaudemus Magdalene lachrymas et gaudium:
Sonent voces laude plene de consensu cordium,
Ut concordet philomene turturis suspirium.

Iesum querens convivarum turbas non erubuit:
Pedes unxit lachrymarum fluvio quos abluit,
Crine tersit, et culparum veniam promeruit.

Suum lavit mundatorem rivo fons immaduit,
Pium fudit flos liquorem in ipsum refloruit::
Celum terre dedit rorem, terra celum compluit:

In predulci mixtione nardum ferens pisticum,
In unguenti fusione typum gessit mysticum:
Ut sanetur unctione unxit ergo medicum.

Pie Christus hanc respexit speciali gratia:
Quia multum hanc dilexit dimittuntur vicia:
Christo quando resurrexit facta est prenuncia.

Gloria et honor Deo qui paschalis hostia
Agnus morte pugna leo victor die tertia
Resurrexit cum tropheo mortis ferens spolia. Amen.

Let us praise the tears and joys of the Magdalene; let our voices full of praise resound from the agreement of our hearts, that the sigh of the nightingale may be in concord with that of the turtledove.

Seeking Jesus, she did not blush at the crowds of guests; she anointed his feet, which she washed clean with the river of her tears; she dried them with her hair, and earned mercy for her sins.

She bathed him who cleansed her; the fountain was watered by the stream; the flower poured forth a goodly liquor, and flowered again into it; the heaven gave dew to the earth, the earth rained on the heaven.

Bearing right spikenard in a very sweet mixture, in the melting of the ointment she carried the type of a mystery therefore, that she might be cured by anointing she anointed the physician.

Mercifully did Christ look on her with special grace: Because he loved her much her sins are forgiven;
When Christ rose she was made the advance messenger.

Glory and honour to God, who as the Paschalis sacrifice the Lamb victorious in death, and as a lion in combat, on the third day rose with the trophy, bearing the spoils won from death. Amen.

Translation by Leofranc Holford-Strevens

[2] Stabat mater, Richard Davy (d. 1538)

Stabat mater
Stabat mater dolorosa
Iuxta crucem lacrimosa,
Dum pendebat filius.
Cuius animam gementem,
Contristantem et dolentem,
Pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater unigeniti.
Que merebat et dolebat
Dum videbat et gerebat
Penas nati incliti.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,
Matrem Christi si videret
In tanto supplicio.
Quis non potest contristari,
Piam matrem contemplari
Dolentem cum filio.

Eia mater, fons amoris,
Vim doloris
Fac, ut tecum lugeam.
Fac ut ardeat cor meum
In amando Christum Deum,
Ut sibi complaceam.

Stabat mater, rubens rosa, luxta crucem lacrimosa,
Videns fere criminosa
Nullum reum crimine.
Et dum stetit generosa dolorosa,
Plebs tunc canit clamorosa:
Crucifige, crucifige.

O quam gravis ella poena
Tibi, virgo poene plena,
Commemorans preamoena in mestitiam.
Color erat non inventus
In te, mater, dum detentus
Stabat natus, sic contentus ad debellandum Sathanam.

Per hec, nata preamata, natum tuum, qui peccata
Delet cuncta perpetrata,
Deprecare dulciflue,
Ut, nostra tergens ingrata, in nobis plantet firme grata,
Per quem dando prelibata,
Prestet eterna requie.
Amen.

The Mother of sorrows was standing in tears at the foot of the cross, while her son hung there. Through her groaning heart, as she bore his sorrow and suffering, a sharp sword passed.

O how sorely afflicted was that blessed Mother of the only-begotten son. How she grieved and how she suffered to see and to contemplate the pain of her noble son.

Who is the man who would not weep, to look upon the Mother of Christ in such great torment? Who can not feel her sorrow, if he thinks upon this loving Mother grieving together with her son?

O Mother, fount of all love, make me feel the keenness of that sorrow, that I may grieve with you. Make my heart burn with love for Christ my God, that I may be pleasing to him.

The Mother stood, a blushing rose, in tears at the foot of the cross, as she saw him, who was guilty of no crime, undergo a criminal’s fate. At as she stood with full heart grieving beside her son, the crowd shouted raucously: ‘Crucify him, crucify!’

O how grievous was the pain you suffered, virgin full of sorrows, when you recalled former joys now all turned to lamentation. All the life drained from you, Mother, while your son stood constrained there, gladly bearing his pain that Satan might be overthrown.

By these merits, most beloved lady, beseech your son, who takes away all the sin that we have committed, with sweet and gracious prayers, that, wiping away all our stain, he might plant firmly in us the gifts of grace, and might fulfil in us what they promise in our eternal rest. Amen.

[3] Quales sumus, John Mason (fl. 1500-30)

Quales sumus
Quales sumus, O miseri,
Properantes ad portas inferi,
Quatriduani fetentes,
Ut te laudare presumamus,
O Maria, cum siamus
Non audiri delinquentes?

Sed in arcto constituti,
In labore lateris et luti,
Insudantes gemiscimus.
Consolatricem miserorum
Et refectricem laborum,
Te deposcimus

Ut oculos misericordes
Ad nos convertas et sordes
Peccatorum amoveas,
Scelerumque soluto vecte,
Iesum sequentes recte
Vermiculos ne despicias.

Israel celum non respicit,
Nam terrena pulvis perficit;
Hinc desperans confunditur.
Quare pro nobis deprecare
Ad hunc qui lapides mutare
In Abraham filios dicitur

Ut Israel oculos erigat
Ad celum et deum sitiat
Sicut cervus aquarum fontes,
Ut, de Pharaonis imperio
Erepti tandem durissimo,
Mare transeamus insontes.

Et, licet hostes seviant,
Hos Maria non operiant,
O domina,
Sed sevitiam removeant,
Ut ereptos hos deleant
Claustra tunc infernalia.

Et sic, virtutibus fecundi,
Ad celestia mente mundi
Properemus, O Maria,
Ut post finem vite, iocundi
Christo iuncti, letabundi
Una cantemus alleluia.

What are we, O wretches, hurrying to the gates of hell, stinking after four days, that we dare to praise thee, O Mary, since we know that sinners are not to be heard?

But, narrowly confined, toiling with bricks and clay, sweating, we groan. We beg thee, comforter of the wretched and refresher of labours,

To turn thy merciful eyes towards us and remove the transgressions of sinners, and not to despise (as they deserve) the worms seeking to follow Jesus after committing their sins.

Israel does not look towards heaven, and (since dust is the fate of earthly things) is thrown into despair. Intercede therefore with him who is said to turn stones into sons of Abraham

So that Israel may raise here eyes to heaven and thirst for God ‘as the hart pants after the water-brooks’, and so that we, snatched at the last from the most cruel tyranny of Pharaoh, may cross the sea without harm.

And, although enemies rage, O Mary, let the seas not conceal them, but wash away their fury, so that then the confines of hell may destroy these plunderers.

And thus, rich in merit, O Mary, may we hasten to heaven with a pure mind, so that after life’s end, happily united with Christ, as one we may sing ‘Alleluia’.

(Translation by Nick Sandon)

[4] Aspice Domine, Jacquet of Mantua (1483-1559)

Aspice, Domine, quia facta est desolata civitas plena divitiis.
Sedet in tristitia domina gentium;
Non est qui consoletur eam, nisi tu, Deus noster.

Behold, O Lord, how the city full of riches has become desolate.
She sits in mourning;
there is no one to comfort her except for you, our God.

[6] Magnificat & antiphon

Magnificat antiphon: Inclita sancte Marie Magdalene

Inclita sancte Marie Magdalene solemnia
Suscipat alacriter pia mater ecclesia.
Ave sancta deo digna.
Ave dulcis et benigna.
Optine nobis gaudia que possides cum gloria.

Loving Mother Church is swift to stir up the renowned rites of St Mary Magdalen. Hail, saint worthy of God, hail, sweet and kind one; obtain for us the joys that you possess with glory.

(Translation by Leofranc Holford-Strevens)

Magnificat

Magnificat anima mea Dominum. Et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo,
Quia respexit humilitatem ancille sue, ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes.
Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est, et sanctum nomen eius.
Et misericordia eius a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.
Fecit potentiam in brachio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.
Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles.
Esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes.
Suscepit Israel puerum suum, recordatus misericordie sue.
Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, Abraham et semini eius in secula.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper:
Et in secula seculorum. Amen.

My soul doth magnify the Lord; and my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.
For He hath regarded the loneliness of His handmaiden.
For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me: and Holy is His name.
And His mercy is on them that fear Him, throughout all generations.
He hath shewed strength with His arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat; and hath exhalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering His mercy hath holpen His servant Israel.
As he promised to our forefathers; Abraham and His seed forever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be:
World without end. Amen.

[8] Dum transisset sabbatum, John Sheppard (d. 1558)

Dum transisset Sabbatum, Maria Magdalene et Maria Iacobi, et Salome emerunt aromata, ut venientes ungerent Iesum. Alleluia.

Et valde mane una sabbatorum veniunt ad monumentum orto iam sole. Ut venientes ungerent Iesum. Alleluia. Gloria patri et filio, et spiritui sancto. Alleluia.

When the sabbath was past Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Jesus. Alleluia.

And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun, that they might come and anoint Jesus. Alleluia. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. Alleluia.

[9] Pater noster, Sheppard

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Amen.

[10] Libera nos, Sheppard

Libera nos, salva nos, iustifica nos. O beata Trinitas.

Free us, save us, forgive us. O blessed Trinity.