The Marriage of England and Spain (by candlelight)

A programme of music celebrating English and Spanish music from the sixteenth century.

Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain were married in 1554. The union was short lived but the music written as a result of the joining of the two countries was rich and varied. Some of the repertoire was written with the joint choirs of the Chapel Royal and the Capella Flamenca in mind and the result is music architected on a grand scale with sumptuous textures in up to seven and eight vocal parts.

The programme includes a performance of Terrenum Sitiens by 'Edwardes' - probably Edward Hedley - from Magdalen College. This work is a dramatic setting of a procative and politically charged text on the massacre of Holy Innocents and its sole source is the Peterhouse Part Books. This will be the first public performance for 500 years.