Hearing John Browne’s motets: registral space in the music of the Eton Choirbook
Fabrice Fitch is a musicologist and composer. He is the author of Johannes Ockeghem: Masses and models (Paris, 1997), and has published widely on the music of the 15th and early 16th centuries. He is currently preparing an Introduction to Renaissance polyphony for Cambridge University Press. f.j.fitch{at}durham.ac.uk
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Abstract |
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John Browne’s pre-eminence among the composers of the Eton Choirbook has been asserted in many works of reference. This study offers a detailed investigation into his handling of the antiphon form to which the manuscript is the most substantial witness. These readings of the music (which are also ‘hearings’) focus in particular on his large-scale, richly scored motets with trebles: O Maria salvatoris mater, Stabat mater and the six-voice Stabat virgo mater Christi. It is here argued that an important dimension of Browne’s work is a particularly sophisticated approach to the articulation of the Eton motets’ ‘panel structure’. This is achieved in a number of ways that effect both short- and long-term connections within the form. This discussion also expands on Hugh Benham’s remarks on the use of textural contrast within the style of the Eton composers as a whole.
Key Words: Eton Choirbook • John Browne • Fayrfax Manuscript • Richard Davy • William Lambe • William Cornysh
To Brian Ferneyhough, who introduced me to the music of the Eton Choirbook, on his 65th birthday