There is a song I’d like to perform with 2 singers and 4 instrumentalists, “Who made thee, Hob, forsake thy plow?” by William Byrd. My setting is here.
Ever wondered where to start with early music? I have taught music appreciation classes several times called Listening to Renaissance Music and Listening to Medieval Music. These songs will give you a quick overview into the types of early music recordings available. It is more available today than ever before.
In 1567, Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker published a translation of the Psalms in verse. You can read more about it at http://www0.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/The_Whole_Psalter_Translated_(1567) . Thomas Tallis wrote a collection of 9 tunes using the meters found in Parker’s verse, so that any psalm in the collection may be sung to one or more of the melodies.
The third tune was used by Ralph Vaughn Williams in his “Fantasy of a theme by Thomas Tallis”. Tallis used Psalm 2 as his example for that melody, but Psalm 23 would work with it also.
