A large audience filled Charterhouse’s chapel at the end of Open House London weekend to hear Pegasus present a programme called “From Agincourt to Waterloo”, commemorating the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt.
Beginning with the Agincourt Carol, one of the earliest surviving works written in English, which celebrates the famous victory over the French, we continued with pieces mostly written in the century following that battle by composers living in the area around Agincourt, or around Waterloo – site of another famous conflict 400 years later. The concert included the Agnus Dei from Josquin’s mass based on the “chanson” L’homme armé, preceded by a rendition of the song itself; Jean Mouton’s piercingly lovely Nesciens mater; and the stark and moving Lamentations by Antoine Brumel. For contrast, we sang Claude Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Charles D’Orléans – little to do with the time of Agincourt, one might think, but the author of the poems was in fact captured at that battle.
Relaxing in the sunshine at Charterhouse
Two more songs from across the Channel punctuated the French works – William Cornysh’s Ah Robin (familiar to anyone who watched the recent TV adaptation of Wolf Hall) and Pastyme with good companye, attributed to none other than Henry VIII. We finished by gallantly handing victory to the French in Clément Janequin’s rambunctious La Guerre, which filled Charterhouse’s beautiful chapel with the (musical) sound of battle.
Audience members told us they enjoyed Pegasus’s “stunning voices in perfect harmony” and “amazing singing”. We’re grateful to the Master and Chaplain for hosting us at Charterhouse, a venue not normally open to the public, and we look forward to returning there – if you missed the opportunity to visit, watch for news of a future performance.
Rehearsing in Charterhouse Chapel