Harmony

A shelter from the rain (for us)

A market hall, a place of commerce (for many generations of residents of Chipping Campden)

A beautiful building of historic significance (for the National Trust, who took over its care in the 1940s - but only after locals had raised funds, bought it and donated it to them)

It was built in 1627, at a time when kings were still claiming a divine right to rule absolutely and England was 15 years from civil war

We came to listen to music,in the nearby church - built in the 1400s.

Between the building of the church and the building of the market hall passed the lives of two of the greatest musicians the country has ever produced. Thomas Tallis and his pupil William Byrd wrote some of the earliest polyphonic music in the western classical tradition, mostly for unaccompanied voices and mostly to be performed in church services, often commissioned by the king or queen

These were the years when Europe fought bloody, bitter wars and churches tortured, burned, hanged and mutilated people for their religious beliefs - catholic or protestant, faithful or 'heretic'. To write church music was a political act; to write music for the wrong church could result in death or worse. The right church today could be the wrong church tomorrow; it was worth keeping an eye on the health of the sovereign

For some reason I don't really understand, I adore this Renaissance polyphony. I hear in it the melancholy and anguish of men whose worlds have been blown apart and who long for the religious and social certainties of the past. A lament for a lost time. I feel as if they are taking their own personal pain, their longing for some kind of settled peace, and turning it into delicate, heart-wrenching beauty

It just so happened that one of the most talented choirs specialising in this music came to Chipping Campden music festival, so we went and lost ourselves in history