The 'Edwarde' to whom Terrenum sitiens regnum is ascribed in the Peterhouse partbooks is probably the Edward Hedley who was a singer in the choir of Magdalen College, Oxford in the 1530s. This, his only known composition, is exceptional both for its subject matter - the massacre of the Holy Innocents - and for its refrain form which relates it more to the carol and responsory than to the votive antiphon. Walter Erle's outstandingly successful career as a courtier to Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth (traced in some detail in the introduction to this edition) enabled him to found a dynasty of substantial landed gentry that survives to the present day. His chief musical talent seems to have been as a keyboard player, but this short votive antiphon in honour of one of the five wounds of Jesus shows fluency and an understanding of the vocal medium; it may have been sung by a small group of chamber singers rather than by a larger ecclesiastical choir. For five voices: SATTB. xvi + 27 pages. |
