Luogo e data di registrazione		Oetkerhalle, Bielefeld (Germania) - settembre 1955 (Gibbons) Westminster Abbay, Langham Room, London (Inghilterra) - giugno 1962 (Morley)
	Original Editions		- Archiv Produktion | 14 056 APM | 1 LP | (p) 1956 | ANA | Gibbons (1-14) - Archiv Produktion | 14 300 | 1 LP | (p) 1964 | ANA | Morley (15-22)
	Edizione "Codex"		Archiv Produktion "Codex" | 453 166-2 | durata 62' 41" | LC 0113 | 1 CD | (p) 1996 | ADD | mono
	Executive Producer		Dr. Fred Hamel (Gibbons), Prof. Dr. Hans Hickmann (Morley)
	Recording Producer		Gerhard Henjes (Gibbons), Otto-Ernst Wohlert (Morley)
	Tonmeister (Balance Engineer)		Gerhard Henjes (Gibbons); Walther-Alfred Wettler (Morley)
	Cover		Jan van Eyck "Angel Concert" main altar (detail), S. Baro, Ghent
	Art Direction		Fred Münzmaier
	Note		Original-Image-Bit-Processing - Added presence and brilliance, greater spatial definition

ORIGINAL EDITIONS 1 LP - 14 056 APM - (p) 1956 1 LP - 14 309 - (p) 1964

Treasures from Archiv Produktion’s Catalogue A rare and valuable collection of documents is the pride of any library or archive. CODEX, Archiv Produktion’s new series, presents rare documents in sound from 50 years of pioneering recording. These recordings have been digitally remastered using original-image bit-processing technology and can now be appreciated in all the richness of their original sound-image. They range from the serene counterpoint of a Machaut, the intensely spiritual polyphony of a Victoria, to the imposing state-music of a Handel. For the artists on Archiv Produktion recordings, a constant aim has been to rediscover the musical pulse of past times and to recreate the spirit of past ages. In this sense each performance here - whether by Pro Musica Antiqua of Brussels in the 1950s, the Regensburg Domchor in the 1960s, or Kenneth Gilbert and Trevor Pinnock in the 1970s - made a vital contribution to the revival of Early Music in our time. CODEX highlights recordings that were unique in their day, many of them first recordings ever of this rare and remarkable repertoire, now appearing for the first time on CD. A special aspect of the history of performance in our century can now be revisited, as great moments from Archiv Produktion’s recording history are restored and experienced afresh. Dr. Peter Czornyi Director, Archiv Produktion GIBBONS & MORLEY: ANTHEMS · MADRIGALS · FANTASIES Qrlando, tenth and youngest child of William and Mary Gibbons, was born at Oxford in 1583 and baptized in St. Martin’s Church there on Christmas Day. He died at Canterbury in 1625. He derived his high skill and superb musicianship initially from his father who held an honoured appointment as one of a select band of Town Waytes, first in Cambridge, later in Oxford, before returning to Cambridge shortly after Orlando was born. Orlando Gibbons excelled in every known branch of composition and his works place him in the first rank of the great school of English contrapuntists: his vocal works are noted for true declamation and accentuation of words, and for expressive characterization of their meaning. 40 anthems are extant today, 15 are in the true polyphonic style (full anthems), which range from the heights of jubilation and worship in O clap your hands, Hosanna to the San of David and Lift up your heads, to the depths of penitential sorrow in O Lord, in thy wrath. The remaining 25 are verse anthems: Byrd experimented in this form but Gibbons must be given the credit for his pioneer work in this field. O Lord, I lift my heart to thee (à 5) is a full anthem in miniature, originally with treble viol and lute accompaniment, written for Leighton’s Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowful Soule, 1614: this and O Lord, how do my woes were the only anthems printed in his lifetime. Almighty and everlasting God (full anthem à 4) is a classic used regularly in Cathedral worship for over 300 years. At no point does the same word coincide in any two parts until the end. Gibbons’ work has fewer homophonic sections than most tudor composers. An organ part exists in Durham Cathedral Library; organ and/or viols were usual as an accompaniment which duplicated the voice parts. O Lord, increase my faith (full anthem à 4) is yet another example of contrapuntal skill combined with a profound expression of the text. Tudway’s transcription (1725), now in the British Museum, is the only source extant. [Incorrectly attributed to Gibbons, the piece is now known to be by Henry Loosemore (d. 1670).] This is the record of John (verse anthem à 5) is a narrative for solo countertenor (John I, vv. 19-23) divided into 3 sections, at the close of each of which the chorus repeats the final solo phrase, varying and developing it. The declamation is impeccable: there is a remarkable cadenza figure at the end of the first solo. The viols have a five-part texture throughout. Organ parts exist at Durham, Peterhouse and Tenbury so it must be concluded that either or both forms of accompaniment were used. Thus Angels sung and O my love are two of the 16 tunes Gibbons wrote for Wither’s Hymnes and  Songs of the Church, 1623. In their original state these tunes consist of treble and bass only: it is conjectural whether the inner parts were of the elaborate character found in Dowland’s tunes. In 1612 Gibbons published The First Set of Madrigals and Mottets of 5 Parts: apt for Viols and Voyces. This set of 20 is unique in its lack of frivolity and in the ethical nature of the lyrics. What is our life is a dignified setting of the poem by Sir Walter Raleigh. The solemnity of “Our graves that hide us ...” is mirrored in a chromatic progression of sustained chords which is as daring as it is effective. The contrapuntal web which follows arrives at a homophonic climax with “Thus march we playing” with a final climax at “Only we die in earnest ...”. The silver Swan corresponds in form to the lute-song. Rhythmically and melodically the lower parts preserve their independence but the Cantus has the leading part. The Ayre is further defined by the repetition of the second strain of music to the third strain of words. Use is made of the augmented fifth to paint the phrase “O death, come close my eyes”: this interval is commoner in his secular than in his church music. The Golden Age of English viol music was from 1600-25: Gibbons was more prolific in this field than most of his contemporaries. Some 43 works are extant, including six Fantasies à 2. Nine fantasies à 3 were published c.1620 and 15 others are in MS at Dublin. Here the set of nine is represented by Fantasies I & II à 3. These are in one movement and have a fugato, imitative texture, always with independent rhythms between the parts. The Fantasy à 4 is one of two extant in MS at Christ Church: this is in three contrasted and continous sections. The first In Nomine was written by Taverner (c. 1495-1545) from his Missa Gloria tibi Trinitatis. Gibbons use this Sarum plainchant as the cantus firmus in four fantasies. The In Nomine à 5 has the cantus firmus in Viol 2. The other viols weave imitative melodies which gradually increase in rhythmic movement to the final close. Gibbons, Weelkes and Dering each wrote a setting of the Cries of London. Gibbons’ setting is extant in three different sets of MS part books (one of which is dated 1616) and a separate tenor part. It is in two sections: “God give you good morrow” and “A good sausage, a good, an’ it be roasted”. This lengthy composition embodies a great variety of “cries” by street vendors, beggars and a Town Crier, together with their traditional associated melodies: in many cases these melodies are preserved nowhere else. This is a composition designed in a humorous vein. The setting is for five viols which maintain a contrapuntal texture, with the voices duplicating the respective viol parts as they enter in quick succession. It is only at the final cadences of each of the two sections that all the voices are used together. The form of the work is similar to that of the In Nomine, the sustained cantus firmus being in the second viol part. Frederick Hudson, 1956 A composer of the generation previous to Gibbons, Thomas Morley modelled his light songs and madrigals closely on the style of Marenzio, Gastoldi, and their contemporaries. Two of his publications were issued with Italian as well as English words, and after his five popular books of canzonets, madrigals, and balletts he edited two anthologies of Italian secular pieces with English words, thus bringing the total number ofthese concealed imports to 150. No transformation of a musical idiom from one country to another, from one language to another, can be sure of absolute success. There are subtle problems of rhythm, accentuation, and cadence that militate against a musical metamorphosis of this kind. Yet, within his limitations, Morley achieved what few of his contemporaries could have done: he brought into the solid, worthy, but somewhat provincial English polyphony a breath of fresh, warm air from the south; a lightness and freedom of pulse that inspired many other English composers to try their hand at the new fashion, in many instances with remarkable results. Without Morley’s pioneering madrigal books, the flair for this type of composition might never have existed in England except perhaps for isolated attempts. He, as composer, printer, editor, and author, saw to it that the madrigal and its allied forms became a living part of the musical scene. (from notes by Denis Stevens, I964)