In Robert Wylkynson’s “Salve regina” from the Eton Choirbook we find a brilliant example of the English love of extravagant sonority, here with a rich nine-voice texture.
Wylkynson chooses nine voices to represent the nine types of angels (Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels) which are then represented in the illuminated ‘S’ for Salve for each voice part in the original manuscript.
- Content: The collection focuses on late 15th-century English sacred music, featuring 67 votive antiphons (prayers to the Virgin Mary) and 24 Magnificat settings.
- Survivorship: It is one of only three large choirbooks to survive from early-Tudor England, having miraculously escaped destruction during the Reformation.
- Style: The music is known for its complex, florid style, often using extensive melodic lines (melismas) and rich, varied textures.
- Context: Created for the daily services in Eton College Chapel, it provides a vivid, firsthand look at the sophisticated liturgical music of the time.
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