For many, the most immediately appealing aspect of this record is the stylistic range of the music presented. Fourteenth-century English music has had little attention paid to it, not unsurprisingly in view of the extreme scarcity of sources. In fact, not a single complete manuscript from that period has survived. The fifteenth century is better served, largely through the survival of the Old Hall Manuscript at one end and the "Eton Choirbook" at the other. From these two centuries, for much of which English music was held in high esteem by continental musicians, the Hilliard Ensemble have chosen a varied and exciting programme, from simple and essentially homophonic pieces to more ambitious works that require considerable vocal dexterity. Among the fourteenth-century pieces Alleluia: Hie est is a notable example of the latter category, and the virtuosity of the part-writing is strangely spiced with odd chromatic shifts. Perhaps the most ambitious composition from this earlier repertory is the double texted Thomas gemma/Thomas cesus, where the upper voices (each carrying a different text) are brilliantly interwoven while the lower two voices also form a pair in imitation of the upper ones. The fifteenth-century pieces are equally varied, from simple carols to John Plummer's votive antiphon Anna mater.
The Hilliard Ensemble's performances are consistently good and show a rare and sensitive understanding of the music, with crisp and lively rhythms in the more active pieces and carefullyshaped lines and well-calculated increases of tension in the more reflective ones. Their account of Doleo super te is a fine example of the sustained power and carefully-controlled expressive singing which they produce at their best, as well as a reminder of how much good and largely anonymous music survives from the period. This record, sensitively-produced and generously accompanied by texts, translations and helpful notes, is greatly to be welcomed.
-- Gramophone [7/1983] reviewing the original LP release
