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RUPERT DAMERELL (Counter-tenor)
SIMON BIAZECK (Tenor)
MATTHEW WOOLHOUSE (Tenor)
DAMIAN O'KEEFFE (Baritone)
"...the fine early music group. The performances were surely
exemplary..." (Musical Opinion).
The Burgundian Cadence is a virtuoso "a capella" vocal quartet specialising in the music, both
sacred and secular, of the 14th and 15th centuries. The members of this superb ensemble are all
former Oxford and Cambridge Choral Scholars who are well-known in the choir stalls of London's
foremost places of worship. They are exploring, currently, the influences on and of the English
composer John Dunstaple (1390 - 1453). They include in their concerts works from the Old Hall
Manuscript - an important collection of English music assembled around 1415 - and later works by
Dufay, Binchois, Ockeghem and other composers associated with the Court of Burgundy.
The Burgundian Cadence are currently looking at the work of John Dunstaple and his contemporaries
in England and Burgundy. They would be delighted to hear from anybody engaged in academic research
in this period, to talk about performance practice and to perform any new editions of material.
They are attempting to use authentic pronunciation whenever possible in their performances.
Although this is not an exact science, much work has been done, notably by Harold Copeman, for Latin
pronunciation. Other languages are covered in a most useful book (ed. T. McGee) under the title of
"Singing Early Music", published by Indiana Press.
The members of The Burgundian Cadence believe that improvisation and ornamentation was a
standard performing practice in choral music up to the high Renaissance. Evidence comes from
various keyboard arrangements of vocal works - Dunstaple's "O Rosa Bella", for example.
Musica Ficta, the bane of any music editor, is always a performance aspect that will raise
queries. Burgundian Cadence are taking the approach that the characteristic raising of the
seventh and fourth degrees of the scale may well extend further back than the immediate
cadential figuration. This allows for a fairly strict use of hexachord principles, with changes
of the hexachord on a temporary basis on a mi-fa.
A new work has been composed for the group by Robert Hugill, who was inspired at one of the group's concerts to write a setting for them of
the St Luke Passion, with interpolated poems by Carl Cook. Performances have taken place at the
British Music Information Centre, St. James's Church, Piccadilly, Westminster Abbey, Southwark
Cathedral and Lincoln Minster.
"An often beautiful and fascinating work".
(Robert Matthew-Walker, Musical Opinion)
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