David Skinner (musicologist)
Dr David Skinner is a British musicologist and choir director. He is Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He co-founded the Cardinall's Musick and Magdala.
Skinner was educated at the University of Edinburgh and Christ Church, Oxford from where he received his DPhil in 1995: a biography of Nicholas Ludford and a critical edition of Ludford's antiphons. He has taught at the universities of Oxford, Glasgow, Cambridge and Royal Holloway College. He was a member of Christ Church Cathedral choir for six years, as an academical clerk and a lay clerk.
David is the father of singer-songwriter Robin Daniel Skinner, known as 'Cavetown' on YouTube, where he has over 1,000,000 subscribers. Robin posts his music on Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music and so on.
He grew up in America.
With Andrew Carwood he was co-founder and artistic director of the Cardinall's Musick, and produced more than 25 recordings for the group. He has been associated with a number of award-winning projects.
His latest consort choir, Alamire, was founded in 2005. With Fretwork and the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, it won the 'Recording of the Month' award in Gramophone Magazine, for February 2008. In 2011 David Skinner and Alamire commenced a ten-year 30-cd programme to explore English choral music between 1400 and the mid-17th century.
He received a 2015 Gramophone Award for Alamire's recording of The Spy's Choirbook, while their latest project, Anne Boleyn's Songbook won Australia's Limelight Award and was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award. Their next project is on Thomas Tallis and Henry VIII's last queen, Catherine Parr.Books
- The Arundel Choirbook.
- Nicholas Ludford I: Mass Inclina cor meum and Antiphons, Early English Church Music, 44.
- Nicholas Ludford II: Six-part Masses and Magnificat, Early English Church Music, 46.
- The Tallis Psalter: Psalms And Anthems
Articles
- ‘The Marian Anthem in Late Medieval England’, in The Church and Mary, Studies in Church History, 39, 168—80.
- ‘A new Elizabethan keyboard source in the archives of Arundel Castle’, BRIO, 39, 18—25.
- ‘Music and the Reformation at Magdalen’, Magdalen College Record, 79—83.
- ‘Discovering the provenance and history of the Caius and Lambeth choirbooks’, Early Music, 25, 245—66.
- ‘William Cornysh: Clerk or Courtier?’, The Musical Times, 5—17.
- ‘At the mynde of Nycholas Ludford: new light on Ludford from the churchwardens’ accounts of St Margaret’s, Westminster’, Early Music, 22, 393—413.
Selected Recordings
- Thomas Tallis & William Byrd: Cantiones Sacrae 1575, Alamire, Obsidian Records.
- Thomas Tomkins: These Distracted Times, Alamire, Fretwork, and the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Obsidian Records.
- Josquin Desprez: Missa D’ung aultre amer, Motets & Chansons, Alamire, Andrew Lawrence-King, Obsidian Records.
- Philippe Verdelot: Madrigals for a Tudor King, Alamire, Obsidian Records.
- In Ages Past: Collection of Popular Hymns, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Classical Communications, 2006.
- Music from the Court of Henry VIII, Alamire, Manus Records.
- A Gift for a King: a Florentine Offering to Henry VIII, Magdala.
- Music for Princes and Ambassadors, Magdala, Classical Communications,.
- Sanctus, Magdala, Classical Communications,.
- Christmas Meditations, Magdala, Classical Communications,.
- Treasury of Saints, Magdala, Classical Communications,.
- Glory of Gothic, Magdala, Classical Communications,.
- The Byrd Edition, The Cardinall's Musick, 9 CDs, Sanctuary Classics, 1997—present.
- William Cornysh: Latin Church Music, The Cardinall's Musick, ASV Gaudeamus Records, 1997.
- John Merbecke: Latin Church Music, The Cardinall's Musick, ASV Gaudeaumus Records, 1996.
- Robert Fayrfax: Collected works, The Cardinall's Musick, 5-CD set, ASV Gaudeamus Records, 1995—99.
- Nicholas Ludford: Collected works, The Cardinall's Musick, 4-CD set, ASV Gaudeamus Records, 1993—94.
