David Wulstan's love affair with sixteenth-century English polyphony has been a longstanding and a lasting one: he founded the Clerkes of Oxenford in 1962. His research on the re-creation of the English choral sound, as realized in their recordings, has had far-reaching effects: his theories on transposition have become widely accepted—he himself now considers the question of pitch in this music resolved—and we have come to associate this music with the stratospheric writing for the treble line which dictates so strongly its overall sonority. Certainly it creates a beguilingly ethereal sound, especially in a resonant acoustic such as this, evocative of the soaring columns and arches of the perpendicular style. It rarely palls when sung as beautifully as here (only occasionally does the first soprano line sound as if they are feeling the strain), and given the inherent contrast in the variously-scored sectional structure of these pieces. Certainly in Wulstan's interpretations sonority is the key to the music, and he draws a full, sustained sound from the Clerkes, sometimes soft-grained but never lacking in clarity. His interpretation of the added accidentals contributes the occasional harmonic piquancy to tickle the ear, but generally the polyphony is allowed to unfold naturally: it is neither pushed on nor allowed to drag.
It is interesting that questions of pitch and accidentals are considered as crucial aspects of the sound Wulstan is trying to re-create, but that seeking out a suitable pronunciation for sixteenth-century English Latin—a crucial contributory factor to choral sonority—is not. Indeed, the words, one feels, are very much second-class citizens in this world of sound. The music, of course, is wonderful, especially Tye's Mass Euge Bone (what a Sanctus!), and quite irresistible. Wulstan allows it to breathe and follows its natural ebb and flow. Sheppard's Gaude virgo Christiphera builds to a tremendous, sonorous climax almost under its own impetus. It is a most enjoyable recording: but can we really be so sure that this is how it sounded then?'