The close musical rapport that develops when six men sing together every day, as the Queen’s Six do, is very much in evidence on this, their impressive debut album, recorded at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where they are lay clerks in the choir. They bring seamless blend and balance to music from the reign of Elizabeth I, from whom they take their name. Tallis, Byrd, Tomkins, Morley, Gibbons and Weelkes are all represented, with the familiar set against some rarer examples – for instance Morley’s O amica mea, a gloriously sensual setting of frankly comic words from the Song of Songs: “O my love, your hair is like a flock of goats moving down Mount Gilead”.
