The Dunkeld Music Book

The University of Edinburgh Library houses a remarkable collection of music that you might not immediately expect to find there: a bound set of five songbooks known as the Dunkeld Music Book.

The collection comprises Latin motets and polyphonic mass settings, and was most likely copied in Scotland around the mid-sixteenth century. Remarkably, fourteen of the nineteen compositions can be attributed to Franco-Flemish composers from the generations spanning Josquin des Prez to Adriaan Willaert. The songbooks thus provide a fascinating insight into the cultural exchanges between Scotland and mainland Europe.

The Marian Consort brings the musical treasures from the Dunkeld Music Book to life with motets by ‘continental’ masters and the Missa Felix Anna, almost certainly the work of an unknown local composer.

The collection appears to have originally included a sixth volume, but this has been lost over time. The Alamire Foundation therefore commissioned a reconstruction of the missing songbook as part of the Leuven Library of Music in Facsimile series, making it possible to perform the work from the original source for the first time in almost 500 years.

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>>> This concert is part of Voices of Passion 2027.

During this festival edition, discover how Franco-Flemish composers of the 16th century travelled along international routes, finding fertile ground wherever they went. Along with them, music—preserved in manuscript and print—resounded in numerous urban centres, at princely courts, and in chapels, churches, and cathedrals.

Leuven and polyphony have been closely intertwined for centuries. Together with the Alamire Foundation, 30CC highlights this tradition, as well as current scholarship and performance practice, during the Passion of the Voices festival.

More info

www.marianconsort.co.uk

artistic direction Rory McCleery with Caroline Halls, Eleanor Bray, Sarah Anne Champion, Sophie Overin, Will Wright, Ed Woodhouse, Jon Stainsby and Chris Webb