Writing over at Corpus Christi Watershed, the musician Charles Weaver relays some of his experience working through the books of the recusant Edward Paston (1550–1630), which translate the polyphonic (multi-voiced) compositions of Elizabethan England into arrangements for lute and a soloist.
Weaver writes:
What were these settings used for? They could have been merely for private devotion, to be sung in gatherings of like-minded souls eager for spiritual and musical consolation. Another intriguing possibility is that the sacred works could have been used liturgically at small and illicit Masses celebrated in recusant homes by intrepid Jesuits. Either way, the whole collection is deeply moving to me, since it represents a longing for a spiritual connection to the past in the face of incomprehensible liturgical and religious upheaval. The connections to the experience of aesthetically minded Catholics living today hardly need to be spelled out.
And then he embeds some of the performances in them. Here he is performing with his wife, Elizabeth.
JOHN TAVERNER (d. 1545) “In Nomine” • Charles & Elizabeth Weaver from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.
I’ve always thought that the Catholic music of this era, Thomas Tallis in particular, was ringed with sadness — a kind of witness to spiritual desolation and persecution, and a testimony to the believer’s call to God out of the depths of despair. I suppose the whole point of recusant spirituality is that you can’t be so explicit about your meaning. But hearing Weaver sing is like hearing my own prayer, transfigured. Go to CC Watershed for other examples.