Christopher Tye is best known through his Latin church music, but this represents only one side of his artistic career. Born about 1500, he received music much of his early training and experience at King's College, Cambridge, and then for about 20 years was Master of the Choristers at Ely Cathedral. He left this post in 1561 and probably stopped composing at the same time. At Ely he would have had to write both for the Roman Catholic liturgy as well as the reformed rite of the English Church, and it is refreshing to have both aspects of his music illustrated on this record.
In its restrained use of imitation and largely syllabic word-setting, the Psalm My trust, O Lord, in Thee is characteristic of Tye's simpler English style as well as a good demonstration of his musical resourcefulness within the confines of a more restricted style. But the tour de force here is the Western Wind Mass, one of three sixteenth-century English mass compositions based on a secular tune of that name. The texture varies between four parts and a reduced scoring of two or three voices sung here by soloists. This is a brave decision (the lines are often quite difficult both melodically and rhythmically), but it is one that pays dividends. The full sections are well balanced and project a fine sonority (equally evident in the remarkable seven-voice Peccavimus), and the texture is solidly underpinned (as it must be in this music) by a firm bass line. Speeds are on the whole sensitively chosen; where they might err it is usually on the side of breathlessness. This fine record of largely unexplored music is to be welcomed, and the qualities of both choir and building have been well-served by the engineers.'