Since I first heard it I've thought that Weelkes' dramatic evocation of St. Matthew's account of Christ's "triumphal" entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday ( Matthew 21: 1–12) to be a remarkably fine musical depiction of the crowd acclaiming Jesus. He manages to portray their unity in welcoming him while at the same time weaving in a slight undertone of darkness to remind us that this same crowd who we hear crying 'Hosanna' throughout the anthem would soon be baying for Jesus' blood.
The way in which he anchors the rather high tessitura of the treble parts to the basses gives a pleasingly wide range of sonority that tempers the brightness of the sound that confirms Weelkes' mastery of his art and further justifies his reputation as one of the most skilled and resourceful early seventeenth century English composers. It's sung below by the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, conducted by Benjamin Nicholas. Happy Palm Sunday. Enjoy :-).
markfromireland
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This week's entry in my series of settings of the Pater Noster is the setting composed by the English academic, musicologist, and composer 
This week's posting in my series dealing with the music of the Pater Noster is a rhymed metrical setting of the Lord's Prayer in English by the late Elizabethan composer John Farmer (±1570; fl 1591–1601). We don't know all that much about him even the year of his birth is guesswork based upon a prefatory poem to his published collection of canons, which makes it clear that in 1591, the year in which they were published, Farmre was still 'in youth'. His music was evidently well thought in the more strongly protestant sections of the Elizabethan religious and academic establishment because his music is heavily represented in East's psalter published in 1592. 
The opening number of the Drakies' "Christmas in The Berg Concert 2012" Enjoy :-).
