Thomas Tudway (c1656–1726) was a contemporary of John Blow and Pelham Humfrey during his time as a child of the English Chapel Royal. Although his later career was respectable (he was organist at four Cambridge institutions, gaining his doctorate and becoming professor of music there in 1705), it was blighted by an incident in 1706 that resulted in his public humiliation and temporary suspension from all his posts, apparently for an unguarded joke thought to have been insulting to Queen Anne. His failure to gain a Chapel Royal position despite repeated attempts may have been partly linked to this incident, although the quality of the competing candidates was probably the major factor. Whatever the reason, he was forced to concentrate his efforts upon obtaining private patronage, resulting in the work for which he is now best known: the six-volume manuscript ‘Collection of the Most Celebrated Services and Anthems Used in the Church of England’ (GB-Lbl Harl. MSS 7337–42) assembled for Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, between 1714 and 1720. An important feature of this work is its series of prefaces, which include extensive and valuable commentary upon recent political, religious and musical history and the state of English church music at the time, at least as perceived by Tudway. Although Tudway is not now primarily known as a composer, he composed a large amount of church music that both typified his opinions on that genre and reflected his interest in historical church music. This recording by Chris Parsons and Eboracum Baroque offers a rare opportunity to hear some of these works, most of which had not been recorded and are only rarely performed.

Tudway's setting of the Te Deum, composed together with the Jubilate (also included) for the consecration of Harley's chapel at Wimpole Hall in 1721, is the most substantial of the five of his works presented here. According to a later note on the manuscript score (GB-Lbl Add. MS. 36268, f. 2v), the service never in fact took place. At the time of Tudway's setting, three orchestrally accompanied settings of the Te Deum were already current: those by Henry Purcell (1694) and William Croft (1709, revised 1714) were still popular, but both had been eclipsed to some extent by Handel's ‘Utrecht’ Te Deum of 1713. Tudway was clearly well acquainted with all three settings, all of which were included in his ‘Collection’. That his feelings regarding Croft's and – particularly – Handel's settings may have been somewhat conflicting is indicated by his letter to Humphrey Wanley of 29 March 1720, in which he stated in reference to both that ‘Dr Crofts, I think has been a little Theatrical, thô much more Strikt to the Church Style than Mr Hendale’ (GB-Lbl Add. MS. 70482; cited in Donald Burrows, ‘Introduction’, in William Croft, Canticles and Anthems with Orchestra, ed. Donald Burrows, Musica Britannica 91(London: Stainer and Bell, 2011), xxvii). The term ‘theatrical’ was typically not a compliment when used by Tudway, who viewed theatricality in religious music as a gateway to fanaticism because of the contempt it might provoke towards the established church (GB-Lbl Harl. MSS 7338, fols 2–3; transcribed in Ian Spink, Restoration Cathedral Music 1660–1714 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), Appendix F, 437). However, he did draw a clear distinction between anthems for ordinary worship and occasional works with a ceremonial purpose, in which greater freedom was permissible; and it is clear elsewhere that he was actually considerably drawn towards the secular style from which he was so determined to protect church music.

Tudway recorded his reaction to Purcell's Te Deum in a detailed description of 1720 that included the following: ‘there is in this Te Deum, such a glorious representation, of y^e Heavenly Choirs, of Cherubins, & Seraphins, falling down before y^e Throne & singing Holy, Holy, Holy &c As hath not been Equall'd, by any Foreigner, or Other. . . This most beautifull, & sublime Representation, I dare challenge, all y^e Orators, Poets, Painters &c of any Age whatsoever, to form so lively an Idea, of Choirs of Angels singing, & paying their Adorations’ (GB-Lbl Harley MS 7342, f. 12v; transcribed in Spink, Restoration Cathedral Music, 447). Given the strength of his reaction, it is not surprising that his own Te Deum is largely modelled on this setting as well as on Croft's. However, although Handel's ‘Utrecht’ Te Deum of 1713 was composed some eight years before Tudway's, its influence is hardly audible; apart, that is, from in the longer length and larger scale of Tudway's setting when compared with Purcell's – an approach which contrasted with that of Croft, who revised sections of his own Te Deum after hearing Handel's. In the context of Tudway's views on the theatricality of Handel's and Croft's settings, this conservatism is perhaps to be expected, although Tudway's setting must as a result have seemed somewhat old-fashioned for its time. That said, while Tudway did not explicitly include Purcell's Te Deum among the works he termed ‘theatrical’, the above-quoted account suggests that it was in one sense the very theatricality of Purcell's treatment of the text that attracted him so much, and this type of writing is not absent from Tudway's own setting.

The opening of Tudway's Te Deum manages to combine elements of the openings of both Croft's and Purcell's settings. In fact, it has strong echoes of both throughout, melodically and harmonically as well as in structure. The music is carefully constructed, with some lovely touches, such as the beautiful melismas on the phrase ‘in the glory of the father’ and the lovely choral writing in ‘We believe that thou shalt come to be our judge’. The expressive settings of ‘The goodly fellowship of the prophets’ (for alto and tenor duet) and ‘The holy church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee’ (for solo tenor) are particularly reminiscent of Purcell, with rising chromatic lines and parallel thirds in the voice parts. The setting of the verse ‘To thee cherubin and seraphin [sic]’, with the choir of angels joining the soloists for the words ‘Holy, holy’, is clearly indebted to Purcell. The introduction to the duet ‘When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death’ contains a nice touch of (for Tudway) modernism: it begins with a Purcellian chromatic ground-bass-type figure, but this does not actually become a ground bass. Tudway's setting has a quality of nostalgia that is perhaps the result of the circumstances under which it was written: the composer was nearing the end of his life and was aware that the style of church music he favoured was being altered by contact with a new style, with which he was not in sympathy. His Te Deum looked back towards the setting that had produced the strongest emotional reaction from him during the days before his later disappointments. It is this nostalgic and wistful quality that makes Tudway's setting memorable.

Of the rest of the music, the Jubilate contains an imaginative three-part setting of ‘For the Lord is gracious’, with a lovely descending figure which is passed between the voices on the phrase ‘From generation to generation’. The birthday ode for Queen Anne included on this disc, ‘Hail, happy day’ (1706), is the most substantial of the composer's secular works, and demonstrates that Tudway's capacity for expressiveness was not limited to the obvious implications of the text. A suitable sonata by James Paisible (c1659–1728) has been added here in place of the lost overture. The remaining two anthems of Tudway's, ‘I will lift up mine eyes’ and ‘O how amiable are thy dwellings’, are also good examples of their type, the former (for tenor solo, chorus and continuo) being in a much more ornate style than the other works on this disc. The anthem ‘Blessed be thou Lord God of Israel’ by James Hawkins (1662/3–1729) – organist at Ely cathedral, seventeen miles north of Cambridge – makes an interesting contrast to Tudway's work, and the long central sequence of alternating verse and chorus sections is beautiful. I would have liked a little more information on the sources of this and of Paisible's sonata in the booklet notes, which do not even give approximate dates for these works (even ‘date unknown’ would be helpful where relevant).

The performances on this disc are sensitive and stylish. In the longer works Parsons maximizes the contrasts available to him by dividing the solo verses for each voice between different performers. Ornamentation is restrained, subtle and relatively sparse. Much of this is music that needs little ornamentation, but at times I would have been happy to hear just a little more, which could be done without sacrificing the restraint that the music needs.

Tudway was not an innovative composer, and in the music presented here, he never quite escapes Purcell's shadow: it is both a blessing and a curse that the listener constantly hears echoes of King Arthur or ‘Hail, bright Cecilia’ as well as the more obvious parallels in the Te Deum and Jubilate. However, he had many good qualities of his own, and these works include well-constructed, imaginative and memorable music with expressive melodic lines. This is a highly enjoyable recording that does the composer justice and repays careful listening, and I will keep returning to it. Chris Parsons has performed a worthwhile service in making these works available to a wider audience in a sympathetic and engaging performance.