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John Sheppard

John Sheppard (also Shepherd, c. 1515 – December 1558) was an English singer and composer.

Sheppard was one of the finest English church composers of the Tudor era, his achievements matched in his generation only by Thomas Tallis. The two most extensive sources of his music are the so-called Gyffard partbooks (GB-Lbm 17802-5), a set of four manuscript part-books probably copied during the 1570s for Dr Roger Gyffard (research by David Mateer) and GB-Och 979-83, five surviving part-books from a set of six copied after 1575 by the Windsor singingman John Baldwin. Much of the Gyffard music may have been composed during Sheppard's Oxford years (the compiler had formerly been a Fellow of Merton College Oxford); but the music from the Christ Church part-books probably formed part of the repertory of the Chapel Royal choir during the 1550s, when Sheppard, Tallis and William Mundy were the three principal composing members of the choir. Sheppard was evidently a key figure in Mary Tudor's programme to supply the Chapel with elaborate polyphony for the Sarum Rite, which was restored by the Catholic monarch on her accession in 1553.

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Recent Sheppard releases

70: A Life in Music
70: A Life in Music

£21.24

(Coro)

Peace I leave with you: Music for the Evening Hour
Peace I leave with you: Music for the Evening Hour

£10.60

(Coro)

Sheppard - Missa Cantate
Sheppard - Missa Cantate

£13.25

(Gimell)

Tudor Music Afterlives
Tudor Music Afterlives

£15.15

(Delphian)

The Sixteen: Agnus Dei
The Sixteen: Agnus Dei

£10.60

(Coro)