Ely Cathedral Choir - Tye: 3 Masses (1999)

It’s safe to say that you haven’t really heard these glorious and monumental masterpieces of English polyphony until you hear them performed in the place where their composer likely heard them: amid the splendid beauty and wonderful resonance of the 650-year-old Lady Chapel at England’s Ely Cathedral. And what better choir to sing them than Ely’s own, the modern descendant of the choir that Tye himself directed in the mid-1500s. Although Tye’s music is not as well known today as that of his contemporary Thomas Tallis, that is largely due to the fact that very little of his work survives intact. On the strength of these fine sacred works, we can only imagine what other treasures will forever remain hidden behind the numerous but frustratingly fragmentary parts that do exist. In terms of sheer beauty, the Mass “Euge bone” may be unsurpassed among the great 16th-century liturgical choral works. Not much can adequately be said in words to describe music that, along with its full-textured fabric of rich colors and skillfully interwoven melodic lines, conveys such a sense of spirituality–of existing in some ethereal form somewhere just beyond the realm of earthly endeavor. The choir is exceptional, especially the treble voices, who sing with a perfectly tuned, warm tone that projects without ever becoming harsh or overly bright. The Lady Chapel acoustics are an important part of the performance, and the engineers manage to give the sound plenty of room to fully open while preserving the detail of the inner lines. The “Western Wind” mass, based on a 16th century English song, is perhaps Tye’s best-known large liturgical work, notable for its ingenious use of the song tune and for its harmonic variety. The Peterhouse Mass, so-called because it’s contained in a source known as the Peterhouse partbooks, is interesting for its placement of the “mean” (usually an alto voice part) as the highest voice, giving it a marvelously darker overall “flavor” than the other two works. You can count on one hand the number of recordings devoted to Tye’s music. This one is a more than welcome addition to the catalog, and should be heard by everyone who wants to experience some of the glory of Ely and the spiritual essence of Tye’s unfairly neglected art.