Five Leiden Choirbooks

There is a painting of St Peter’s church and a psalm board. It seems a rather modest display for a find which has proved to be of great cultural and historical value. These are a series of six choir books which sank into obscurity 400 years ago. The Leiden Choir Books contain polyphonic Roman Catholic choir music by the greatest 16th-century composers. The music was specially purchased and copied out for the singers of the College of Seven Canonical Hours of St Peter’s Church in Leiden.

The Hours
It is the custom in the Roman Catholic church to recite specific scriptures and prayers at regular times of the day, the Divine Office or hours. Every day at regular times there was also a small choir which sang in St Peter’s church, the College of Seven Canonical Hours. The majority of the hours were Gregorian and therefore sung in plainsong. Polyphonic music was heard during mass and vespers.

Great masters
What makes this small collection of books so special? The books form one-third of the total number of Franco-Flemish choir books to survive from the period 1540-1560. They are the sole remaining testimony of the repertoire available to a northern Dutch college of hours in the 16th century. The books contain around 350 compositions by great masters such as Josquin de Prez, Adrian Willaert, Thomas Crecquillon and Jacob Clemens non Papa, but the collection also includes music by Cristóbal de Morales, a Spanish composer of international renown.

Reformation
Just as exciting is the period when and the location where the collection was created and stored. Leiden played a crucial role in the struggle of the Calvinist rebels (known as Sea Beggars) and William of Orange against the Spanish, Catholic authorities. St Peter’s passed into Protestant hands in 1570 as a result of the Reformation. The Leiden Choir Books, copied out on the eve of the Reformation, survived the Iconoclasm of 1566 in a town which played a key role in the ensuing Eighty Years War for Dutch independence from Spain.

Lost treasure restored
Over the next six years the Dutch vocal group The Egidius Kwartet plans to rehabilitate this cultural and historical treasure and make it known to a general audience. A selection from the books, based on research into the repertoire, will be performed in concert and issued on CD annually.

We will be following this project closely for the next few years.