The Gyffard Partbooks II

This volume, the second of two devoted to the 16th-century ‘Gyffard’ partbooks, typifies the collection as a whole in the wide variety of liturgical types and compositional procedures on display. There are Jesus Mass propers built on plainsong cantus firmi, Mass ordinaries based on ‘squares’, Magnificat settings freely composed or using the canticle tone or its faburden, antiphons in honour of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, the setting of a tract (virtually unprecedented in the history of English polyphony), prayers, and even office responds masquerading as votive antiphons. The composers include Alcock, Bramston, Hoskins, Johnson, Knyght, Mundy, Sheppard, Henry? Stoning, Tallis, Whytbroke, Van Wilder, Wright and Anon.