Libera nos, salva nos II (John Sheppard) – The Gesualdo Six

‘Libera nos, salva nos’ by John Sheppard (second setting) The Gesualdo Six directed by Owain Park This track comes from The Gesualdo Six’s first album, ‘English Motets’, a programme linking two hundred years of music from medieval and Tudor England – available here: “Weavers of rich and plangent aural tapestries, The Gesualdo Six meld style and substance with beguiling sure-footedness. An auspicious debut.” – BBC Music Magazine “The fine-grained texture of solo voices allows us to savour the amazing harmonic pungency of English sacred music, which at times seems almost modernist. It is a wonderful achievement.” – The Telegraph - - - Libera nos, salva nos, justifica nos, O beata Trinitas. Free us, save us, defend us, O blessed Trinity. - - - About the music John Sheppard’s two settings of ‘Libera nos, salva nos’ were both likely written during his tenure as Informator Choristarum at Madgalen College, Oxford, where the statues decreed that this text be recited twice a day. Sheppard’s second setting of this text, and its heartfelt prayer for salvation from the blessed Trinity, contains short melismas which give the text clarity and urgency, reminding us that this is an intercession whose pleas have not yet been answered. ‘O beata Trinitas’ stands apart for its lovely, descending contour, and a doubling of note values here stretches each of the yearning phrases to their limit, both delaying and intensifying the music’s inexorable conclusion. [Programme note: Owain Park © 2018] - - - The Gesualdo Six | Owain Park