David Skinner

David Skinner

David Skinner is well known as a leading scholar and performer of early music. He was co-founder of The Cardinallʼs Musick in 1989, and has also worked with the main early music ensembles in the UK, including The Tallis Scholars, the Sixteen, the Hilliard Ensemble and the King’s Singers. Alamire was founded in 2005 as an extension to his research and performance activities, and has already been recognised as one of the UKʼs brightest stars in the choral world. The ensemble has released five CDs on the Obsidian label, of which David is Artistic Director.

David is Fellow, Tutor, and Osborn Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University where he teaches historical and practical topics from the medieval and renaissance periods. He directs the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, with whom he has toured and made highly acclaimed recordings (their first CD of Thomas Tomkins on the Obsidian label, received Gramophone Magazineʼs Editor's Choice and CD of the Month in February 2008). David is frequently invited to lead workshops and coach choirs throughout Europe and the USA, and is noted for his refreshing and entertaining approach. He has published widely on music and musicians of early Tudor England and is currently editing the Latin church music of John Sheppard for publication in 2011. He is currently guest-blogger for Eric Whitacre on www.ericwhitacre.com.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Substantial works

  • With Nicolas Bell, Facsimile and Edition of British Library, MS Roy. 11.e.xi (London: Folio Society, 2009)
  • The Arundel Choirbook: London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS1 (Duke of Norfolk: Roxburghe Club, 2003).
  • Nicholas Ludford I: Mass Inclina cor meum and Antiphons, Early English Church Music, 44 (London: Stainer & Bell, 2003).
  • Nicholas Ludford II: Six-part Masses and Magnificat, Early English Church Music, 46 (London: Stainer & Bell, 2005).

Articles

  • 'Music and the Reformation at the Collegiate Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay’ in The Late Medieval English College and its Context, ed. Clive Burgess and Martin Heale (York Medieval Press, 2008).
  • 'The Marian Anthem in Late Medieval England', in The Church and Mary, Studies in Church History, 39 (Boydell & Brewer, 2004), 168 - 80.
  • 'A new Elizabethan keyboard source in the archives of Arundel Castle', BRIO, 39 (Spring/Summer, 2002), 18 - 25.
  • 'Music and the Reformation at Magdalen', Magdalen College Record (2002), 79 - 83.
  • 'Discovering the provenance and history of the Caius and Lambeth choirbooks', Early Music, 25 (1997), 245 - 66.
  • 'William Cornysh: Clerk or Courtier?', The Musical Times (May, 1997), 5 - 17.
  • 'At the mynde of Nycholas Ludford: new light on Ludford from the churchwardens' accounts of St Margaret's, Westminster', Early Music, 22 (1994), 393 - 413.

Articles for the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the New Dictionary of National Biography.

Sheet Music

William Byrd

  • Ego sum panis vivus, Tudor Church Music (Oxford, 1996).
  • O magnum mysterium, Tudor Church Music (Oxford, 1996).
  • Prevent us, O Lord, Tudor Church Music (Oxford, 1994).

John Taverner

  • Le Roy Kyrie, Tudor Church Music (Oxford, 1994).
  • Christe Jesu, pastor bone, Tudor Church Music (Oxford, 1994).

Reviews

  • R. Sherr (ed.), The Josquin Companion (Oxford, 2000), in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 54 (2004), 780 - 82.
  • R. Bowers, English church polyphony. Singers and sources from the 14th to the 17th century (Ashgate, 1999); J. Harley, William Byrd: Gentleman of the Chapel Royal (Scolar Press, 1997), in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 51 (2000), 798 - 99.
  • 'The Byrd Edition: Gradualia II', Early Music, 26 (1998), 151 - 52.
  • 'Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks', Early Music, 23 (1995), 509-10.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

  • John Sheppard III: Hymns, Psalm Motets, and Antiphonal Works, Early English Church Music, 51 (London: Stainer & Bell).
  • 'Princes, Ambassadors, and the Lost Choirbooks of Tudor England'
  • 'An obit for a Tudor bishop: John Longland and the final years of Fotheringhay College'
  • 'Ludford's Lady Masses, XX Songes and a Westminster Inventory of 1542'
  • 'At the eleuacion of our lorde: a newly identified motet by Robert Fayrfax'
  • 'Giovanni Gioacchino da Passano: the king's servant'
  • MEDIA (SELECTED EVENTS)
    • Gramphone Award Nomination for Henry’s Music (Alamire).
    • 2007 Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice and CD of the Month’ for Thomas Tomkins (Sidney Sussex College).
    • 2007 Filmed performances of Josquin Desprez for an Arts Council-funded project by Sonia Boyce (Newangle Productions).
    • 2006 BBC Wales documentary on the Life of St David (Green Bay Productions); soundtrack and filmed performances with Alamire.
    • 2005 Featured on the Early Music Show, BBC Radio 3, for 'Princes & Ambassadors' programme (cultural exchanges between Henry VIII and one of his ambassadors).
    • 2005 Presenter and script writer for 'Gunpowder Arts', Sunday Special for BBC Radio 3, to be broadcasted on 6 November 2005.
    • 2003 'Playing Elizabeth's Tune' (Gimell DVD for The Tallis Scholars).
    • Live one-and-a-half hour Christmas special of 'In Tune', presented by Sean Rafferty, in Magdalen College Auditorium.
    • 2002 Featured on the Early Music Show, BBC Radio 3, for the Glories of Gothic exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
    • 2002 'Music and the Reformation at Magdalen College, Oxford', Music Matters, Radio 3, broadcasted on 1 February 2002.
    • 2001 'The Falcon and Fetterlock: Music for a Royal Foundation', live one-hour broadcast on BBC Radio 3 of a scripted concert with The Cardinall's Musick
    • 1999 450th anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer; music from the Wanley part-books and a liturgical reconstruction of Holy Communion as it might have been performed on Whitsun, 1549 (Christ Church Cathedral Choir); I scripted and co-presented the programme (with Christopher Page) for BBC Radio 3.
    • 1998 Liturgical reconstruction of a Mass for Purification, performed in the chapel of Hampton Court Palace (Cardinall's Musick); broadcast for BBC Radio 3.
    • 1997 Record Review (BBC Radio 3); a selection of recordings of early Tudor church music.
    • 1996 'Music in late medieval Arundel', co-presented (with Christopher Page) for BBC Radio 3's Spirit of the Age.
    • 1994 'Music in late medieval Westminster', co-presented (with Christopher Page and Gervase Rosser) for BBC Radio 4's Kaleidoscope.