The Anglican Choral Tradition
Andrew Gant, "O Sing Unto the Lord, A History of English Church Music"
The past truly is a foreign country.
Choral music barely existed outside the high church cathedrals from the height of the reformation, when the monks in Eversham Abbey broke off their evensong in the middle of the Magnificat's 'Deposuet potentes' ('He hath put down the mighty'), until Wesley's enthusiasm and the Oxford Movement’s embrace of hymns ancient and modern.
Traditional psalm singing in the parish churches was considered so marginally religious that it was restricted to before and after the service when the vicar was out 'putting on the habit'.
Sumptuous reproductions of the pivotal music highlight the influences of the sacred and profane, continental and insular trends, and political pressure on the development of the Anglican choral tradition.
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