John Sheppard - Cantate Mass: The Sixteen
Two discs and only 4 of 20 tracks are the Cantate mass - there's also a good range of motets including many of Sheppard's best known pieces, such as the Christmas motet Verbum caro factus est and the beautiful Libera nos. If you need convincing of Sheppard's genius, just listen to the Amen of Jesu salvator saeculi, redemptis - taken individually some of the lines sound positively 20th century in their modernity, and in combination it takes your breath away - it's hard not to say 'he can't do that!' - but he does. Perhaps the only criticism is that the Sixteen underplay the clashes so they aren't quite as shocking as they could be. Even so, probably the best introduction to Sheppard now on the market.
Caleb Simper’s Music
The Story of the Crucifixion (1905)
This mini-cantata, a Lenten devotion, has words by the Reverend Thomas Blackburn (Rector of Woodville, Adelaide, Southern Australia). Unlike the longer works there are no congregation hymns - it consists of short choruses interspersed with solos and is only 16 pages long. In the publicity blurb it was described as: 'although more pretentious than The Story of the Cross, contains no difficulties an average choir cannot easily overcome'.
Watch this space for a MIDI file of the Story of the Crucifixion.
An interesting detail on our copies of The Story of the Crucifixion is a hand overstamp
above the publisher's name (Weekes), saying CALEB SIMPER, Kilbirnie, BARNSTAPLE -
this may indicate that our copies were obtained directly from Simper.