The Eton Choirbook is recognised as one of the UK’s national treasures – an extraordinary survival of the religious iconoclasm which swept away so many choral institutions and musical manuscripts as well as a great deal of beautiful art, architecture, sculpture, stone carving, stained glass, and embroidery from the colourful, pre-Reformation world. The Eton Choirbook originally contained ninety-three works by twenty-five composers who hailed variously from Eton, Windsor, Eton’s sister foundation at King’s College, Cambridge, Oxford, and the Royal Court. It was compiled, with great care and no expense spared, and completed around 1504/5.

But what makes the Eton Choirbook so special for both listener and performer is that the music it contains is hauntingly beautiful. There really is nothing like it in continental music of the time which the ‘Eton’ works surpass in scale (some last over fifteen minutes), number of voice parts, and use of wide vocal ranges - as well as the high degree of melodic invention and rhythmic complexity which places them beyond the reach of most choirs nowadays.

“I feel enormously fortunate that Dr Blacker attended a Selene concert in February 2023 and invited us to bring to life the fruits of a substantial project: the reconstruction of outstanding Eton Choirbook pieces. They are astonishing products of a labour of love, the magnitude of which I am sure humility would prevent him from expressing as fulsomely as I can. This album is our first instalment in this endeavour.” – Daniel Gilchrist

Selene (suh-LEE-knee) was conceived in January 2022 by Daniel Gilchrist, Joy Sutcliffe and Sebastian Hill, and gave its first concert in Magdalen College chapel. The group has since gone from strength to strength, expanding its roster of singers and its repertoire. Following an encounter with Cornwall-based polymath Russell Blacker in 2023, Selene has developed a significant focus on the music of the Eton Choirbook, and is engaged in a long-term project to record and perform reconstructions by Dr Blacker of incomplete pieces from it.