Anastasiya Shelest Shelest itibaren Helmington Row House, Helmington Row, Crook, County Durham DL15 0RW, İngiltere itibaren Helmington Row House, Helmington Row, Crook, County Durham DL15 0RW, İngiltere

Amazingly good. I didn't expect to like it so much. I can't wait for the second installment. 5/5

I read this because of the Showtime show The Tudors. "Both Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth were musically gifted... Many of Henry's compositions have come down to us... The motet Quam pulchra es, which is ascribed to Henry in the Baldwin manuscript, shows considerable skill in the manipulation of three voice-parts, besides a sure grasp of the intricacies of mensural proportions." "Perhaps the most remarkable feature of Tudor music is the expression of artistic continuity which it so often reveals to the student and listener. Although it is not entirely a continuity of idiom, it possesses an underlying mood and feeling which stamps it as English and therefore as insular." "A few composers, notably Tallis, Byrd, Morley, and Gibbons, set parts of psalms for special festivals, in a manner of which was akin to chanting, yet more florid and interesting than straightforward chants." "Tallis's organ music proves that vocal polyphony was uppermost in his mind."

Oddly, my first memory of this book is of a parent reading the first chapter to us in fourth grade. I later (like two or three years later) found it on our bookshelves and was surprised that my Catholic elementary school teacher had let us listen. Maybe she didn't think we would get the innuendo. Anyhoo, this book touched off a brief interest in Chinese history for me: I was intrigued by a world in which steam locomotives and feudal peasants could exist at the same time. An excellent read, as are most of Pearl S. Buck's novels.