Folio Society Published Works Number 2472
Music for King Henry VIII - Music for King Henry VIII Eighth Royal Choirbook Motets Limited Edition
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Music for King Henry VIII - Music for King Henry VIII Eighth Royal Choirbook Motets Limited Edition (Published in by The Folio Society in 2011. Quarter-bound in buckram with vegetable parchment sides blocked in gold and coloured foils. 36 pages with illustrated frontispiece and ornamented initial letters. Edge-gilding on all sides. Presented in a slipcase blocked in gold. Book size: 19.75" x 13.75". Includes FREE CD: Henry's Music: Motets from a Royal Choirbook. Commentary Volume: Three-quarter bound in buckram with printed paper front board. 120 pages with 26 integrated colour pictures. Book size: 12" x 8.5". A superb facsimile of the Royal Choirbook, limited to just 500 numbered copies of which this is number xxx. Of all the courtly arts practised by King Henry VIII, music was undoubtedly his greatest passion. As well as being a talented harpist and composer, Henry was one of the greatest patrons of the musical arts in Europe, and his reign heralded a golden age in English choral music. Henry employed 58 full-time court musicians, more than any other monarch before or since, including a chapel choir that was said to be 'more divine than human'. Many of today's great English musical institutions such as the choirs of Christ Church, Oxford and King's College, Cambridge were founded during his reign. Several manuscripts survive to testify to Henry's love of music, but the most important is the Royal Choirbook, now British Library Royal MS 11 E XI. This magnificent collection of motets was presented to the 27-year-old Henry and Catherine of Aragon in 1518. It is exceptional for the sheer size and luxury of its production, its exquisite and ingenious heraldic illuminations, and not least, its personal significance to Henry. As part of The Folio Society's commemoration of the quincentenary of his accession, this Choirbook has been reproduced for the first time in facsimile, a precious link with the great musical legacy of King Henry VIII. )
