The Sixth Element

This is the first recording from the distinguished Choir of Chichester Cathedral on Regent, and celebrates the 400 years since Weelkes’s death with a varied programme of his music, performed in the building where he was Organist and ‘informator choristarum’ (Master of the choristers) for many years, presenting repertoire written for both domestic and sacred performance. This unique collection features a selection of anthems and canticles, both a cappella and with organ continuo, plus six sacred choral works, originally with an outline accompaniment for organ, which have been reconstructed with a full accompaniment for viol consort. Weelkes left no original works for this combination of choir and viol consort so these provide an illuminating and enticing exploration of putative examples of the form. Also included are four original works for viol consort, together with Weelkes’s only two surviving works for solo organ, here played by Thomas Howell, the Cathedral’s organ scholar on the Cathedral’s main organ using the oldest stops – featuring some of the oldest surviving pipework in England – and dating back to the early eighteenth-century instrument, built by John Byfield in 1725. The collaboration of the Cathedral’s Lay Clerks and the The Rose Consort of Viols with the young voices of the Chichester Cathedral Choristers, infuses these accomplished performances with a refreshing element of youthful energy.