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When Fair with Her Firstborn began playing on my audio system, I could feel my excitement swelling with the music. The Tudor Choir is an incomparably fine classical ensemble that works magic with Renaissance repertoire, the sort of group that can provoke tears of joy on almost every cut. This is what great music is all about.

The Tudor Choir is a professional ensemble under the outstanding tutelage of Director Doug Fullington. I love the fact that this group flexibly moves from 8 to 40 singers, depending on the nature of the material presented. On this album, 20 incredibly talented angels lend their a cappella voices to this generous recording (almost 68 minutes!). With this relatively limited number of singers, each section (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) sings almost as one, with an execution that is extraordinarily precise.

Unlike the Tudor Choir's more recent release (An American Christmas, also reviewed on this site), which features the relatively rough and rustic sounds of early American music, Fair with Her Firstborn is seamless velvet and polished classical perfection. The music on this CD runs the gamut from medieval England's Sarum chants to Tudor polyphony to 20th-century carols. It's a great combination; the chants propel an ethereal, unworldly atmosphere, and the more contemporary carols provide an excellent counterpoint, providing a more modern, grounded context.

Most songs were unknown (to me), but all are breathtakingly beautiful in composition and presentation. The extensive liner notes consist of a 15-page pamphlet providing everything one could possible want to know about these magnificent selections. My favorite track is probably "In the Bleak Midwinter"; in the Tudor Choir's hands, this version is pure bliss.

So incredibly sweet! When the world is falling apart around us, sublime music like this enriches our lives in ways we cannot even count. Embrace Fair with Her Firstborn for the holiday season.

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2005)

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From the liner notes:

The Tudor Choir:
Doug Fullington, Director

Soprano:
Jennifer Fanning
Ann Glusker
Lisa Cardwell Pontén
Linda Strandberg

Alto:
Gretchen Hubbert
Laura Hutchinson
Linda Sabee
Marian Seibert
Mary Westburg

Tenor:
Leigh Anderson
Eric Banks
Jody Franich
Richard Greene
Mark Powell
David Stutz

Bass:
Peter Hunsberger
Joel Matter
Vernon Nicodemus
Cullen Stephenson
Manard Stewart

Recorded January 10-12, 1997
Kirkland, Washington
Producer: Brian Fairbanks
Recording Engineer: Rick Lyman

The music on this recording spans many centuries and includes 20th-century carols, Tudor polyphony, and chant from medieval England's Sarum rite. We have grouped the pieces by text rather than by style. Framed by a prologue and an epilogue, ("Out of your sleep" and "The blessed Son of God," respectively), the sequence begins with a proclamation of Christ's birth and follows with music for Annunciation (March 25), Nativity (December 25), and Epiphany (January 6). The responds and hymns of John Sheppard define these groupings. Sheppard's settings are an extension of Sarum chant, providing six-part polyphony for the choir's portions of the plainsong, leaving the cantors' passages unadorned.

As the central and most complex work included, Robert Fayrfax's votive antiphon "Eterne laudis lilium" summarizes the overall emphasis on the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus Christ. As preceding pieces focus on Mary and the Annunciation, and those following consider the conditions and ramifications of Christ's birth and life, the antiphon text first praises the Virgin and, by way of a detailed account of Christ's genealogy, follows with a reference to his death and the salvation of mankind.

We selected the carols not only for their words, but for their modality, which links them musically to the chant and Tudor polyphony. Indeed, several of the composers represented here were active in the Tudor revival during the early part of this century, including Vaughan Williams, Warlock, and Holst.

From the Web site:

The Tudor Choir is Seattle's professional vocal chamber ensemble--a professional choral arts organization, founded by Artistic Director Doug Fullington in 1993 and dedicated to historically-informed concert performances and recordings, with a repertory emphasis on Renaissance, early American, and English choral music. The choir maintains a flexible membership of between 8 and 40 singers depending on the repertory.

In addition to an annual subscription series of Renaissance polyphony presented in the Seattle area, where they are Artists-in-Residence at St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle, and a Resident Ensemble at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Medina, the Tudor Choir has performed with Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Mark Morris Dance Group. The choir has also performed in conjunction with Seattle Opera, recorded for Seattle Symphony Orchestra's "Musically Speaking" series and performed live on National Public Radio's "A Prairie Home Companion" broadcast. Doug Fullington and the Tudor Choir have established themselves as leading interpreters of early American music. Their Shapenote Album is regarded as the definitive professional recording of the shapenote genre and is regularly played on National Public Radio. Their recent Shaker album has reinforced this reputation, as will the new An American Christmas recording to be released on the Loft Recordings label in November 2004.

The Tudor Choir recently has won inclusion on two touring rosters Early Music America's National Star Spangled Season roster, in order to promote U.S.-based early music groups to U.S. presenters; and King County Arts Commission's Touring Arts Roster, promoting local groups to area presenters.

The Tudor Choir has cultivated relationships with a number of world-renowned conductors and has sung under the direction of Stephen Cleobury (King's College, Cambridge, England), Martin Haselböck (Vienna), Paul Hillier (Hilliard Ensemble, Theatre of Voices), Andrew Parrott (Taverner Choir) and Peter Phillips (The Tallis Scholars).

The Tudor Choir

Fair with Her Firstborn: Carols,
Chant,
and Polyphony for Christmas

Artist link

Track List