Richard Allain: When I’m Gone

Richard Allain WHEN I’M GONE

John Harle

National Youth Choir of Great Britain

Laudibus

Mike Brewer

WHEN I’M GONERichard Allain

1 Salve Regina Double choir [7:55]

2 At Night I Seek the Soprano, soprano One My Spirit Loves saxophone & organ [4:32]

3 Bow Down Thine Ear, Choir & semi-chorus O Lord (Psalm 86) [4:21]

Three Spirituals

4 Didn’t My Lord SATB choir & Deliver Daniel? semi-chorus [2:41]

5 It’s Me, O Lord Double choir & [3:46] semi-chorus

6 Don’t You Weep SATB choir & When I’m Gone semi-chorus [3:50]

Missa Brevis SA choir & organ

7 Kyrie [1:30]

8 Gloria [1:56]

9 Sanctus [2:24]

10 Benedictus [1:40]

11 Agnus Dei [3:29]

Two Christmas Carols

12 A Babe is Born SSATB choir [3:11]

13 Coventry Carol Double choir & [3:49] semi-chorus

14 Improperia Double choir & [23:29] semi-chorus

15 Memento Homo Soprano saxophone & [11:03] organ

Total playing time [79:17]

National Youth Choir of Great Britain: tracks 1, 4–6 & 14

Mike Brewer (Conductor)

Greg Beardsell (Assistant Conductor): track 6

Laudibus: tracks 3 & 7-13

Mike Brewer (Conductor)

James McVinney (organ): tracks 7–11

John Harle (soprano saxophone): tracks 2 & 15

Susan Hamilton (soprano): track 2

Matthew Owens (organ): tracks 2 & 15

All first recordings made in the presence of the composer.

‘Teaching is, in itself, a learning experience; one which never ceases to be inspiring. Through it we understand to respect the dignity of the many languages we all draw upon in order to express ourselves.’

Richard Allain (b.1965)

Salve Regina deserves to stand apart from the rest of Richard Allain’s œuvre for both musical and personal reasons. With its expansive chordal writing, quasi-aleatorical textural devices and rich chromaticism, Salve Regina, written in 1992, harbours compactly, in one perfectly-crafted composition, the seeds from which much of his later work blossomed. Dedicated to the memory of a one-time school friend who died in a road accident at the age of 22, the piece, with its heightened intimacy, marked a watershed in his attitude to composition. Citing the influence of Arvo Pärt, Allain describes Salve Regina as ‘stripped of needless complexity and full of the sounds I remember from the Church I attended as a child’. The image of fervent supplication is certainly vivid when, half-way through, the murmuring upper voices interlace the words ‘tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte’ (turn your eyes of mercy toward us) repeatedly over the slow-moving tenors and basses. In an arch-like formation, this central passage is framed by two outer sections; the second being a simplified and softened rendering of the opening intensity. The text

is the most celebrated of the four Breviary anthems of the Blessed Virgin Mary. [Although its authorship is still uncertified, we know from the 1135 decree of Peter the Venerable (1092–1156) that it was in regular use as a processional hymn in the Abbey of Cluny at the time.]

At Night I Seek the One My Spirit Loves is a setting of a text by the composer’s brother, Thomas, based on the third chapter of the biblical Song of Solomon. Allain makes the most of the multi-layered meanings in his deftly-crafted miniature scored for soprano saxophone, voice and organ. Read matterof-factly, the protagonist, a young girl, halfheartedly seeks her lover from her bed; finally, having gone into the city, she finds him, holds him and takes him back to lie with her in her chamber (which, according to the Bible, is the room in which she herself was conceived). The purity of the three vocal statements, each itself made of three phrases punctuated by the juxtaposition of sensual saxophone interjections, is underpinned by the organ, imbued with what Allain calls ‘the resonance of religion’. In this context the words take on a new dimension, where the only true reward in a quest for belief can come from proactive searching, not passive expectation.This same ‘resonance’ is heard very clearly in his portrayal of Psalm 86, Bow Down Thine Ear, O Lord, begun in 1986 while still a student

at Goldsmith’s College, London.The contrasting antiphonal styles of the four solo women’s voices, melismatically entwined with each other and the block-chord writing of the main choir create a drawn-out rhythmical structure to the first two-thirds of the work. Towards the end, as the words ‘show me a token for good’ become barely perceptible in their free repetitions, this prayer in the time of distress draws to a close, with the two constituent forces sounding concurrently. The architectonic nature of Bow Down Thine Ear is magnified in the Missa Brevis of 2002, commissioned by Simon Johnson and the Girls’ Choir of St Albans Cathedral, in which each of the movements is bound together by the interval of the second. The Kyrie develops by lilting gently between the major and minor version of this interval, with the organ pedal slowly falling by small increments, before settling on the final E minor chord, as if to give balance to the harmonically ambiguous opening. While the Gloria splits the interval up into a spirited, syncopated display of contrapuntal writing between the two vocal parts, the Sanctus and Benedictus expand the opening idea to the point of near stasis, allowing the organ to come to the fore with its sparkling interpolations. The Agnus Dei quietly brings the preceding concepts together and eventually evaporates in a threefold ‘dona nobis pacem’ (grant us peace), each one staggered in increasing

divisions with the final utterance formed by apportioning the phrase to four interwoven voices.

Of the three African-American spiritual arrangements found here, it is Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel? (composed for Mill Hill School, where Allain is Director of Music) that best codifies both the composer’s respect for the heritage from which the melody and lyrics are taken, as well as the concept of the spiritual as a whole. American slaves, largely originating from Africa’s West Coast, found themselves subjected to a rather distorted teaching of the Bible by missionaries. The rationale behind this so-called ‘plantationChristianity’ (that a true believer made for a better slave) was swiftly sidelined when the captive labourers found their situation analogous to that of the Israelites who ‘groaned under their slavery, and cried out. g Out of slavery their cry for help rose up to God’ (Exodus 2:23). The words of Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel? take on a metaphoric meaning, where the ‘gospel ship’ would take those in bondage across the Jordan (Ohio River) to the emancipation of ‘Canaan’s Shore’ (the Northern non-slavery states). Allain renders this melancholy sentiment in much the same way as the humbling It’s Me Oh Lord, Standing in the Need of Prayer, a commission from the Voices Foundation. Both begin with a slow, apparently improvised

introduction swiftly blending into a syncopated ostinato rooted in F-dorian.Their understated, subdued codas are perfectly suited to the original title bestowed upon these melodies: ‘sorrow songs‘. Allain uses the technique s of building up energy from an underlying, repeated motif based on a fragment of the spiritual whilst in Don’t You Weep When I’m Gone (one of several works on this disc he has written for Mike Brewer and the National Youth Choir), the approach is quite different. Made famous by the so-called ‘Father of Spirituals’ Harry T. Burleigh (1866–1949), to whom some ascribe authorship of Don’t You Weep When I Am Gone, this brooding meditation on death is lent a sense of organic unfolding, as Allain’s arrangement slowly fans out from its unison beginning to a denselyharmonised climax.

The two carols presented here stem from very different historical sources, yet Richard Allain’s graceful treatment of the texts makes them feel inextricably linked. Much simpler than his other work on this disc, as his carol settings are mostly in four or five parts and homophonic, their charm is in the chromatic meanderings of the lower parts, allowing a more subtle development to take place under the tranquillity of the repeated refrains. Of the two texts, it is the macaronic A Babe is Born about which least is known. Its fifteenth century author ends each stanza

with the opening line in Latin from the contemporary hymnal (‘Veni Creator Spiritus‘ for Pentecost, ‘A solis ortus cardine’, for the Nativity etc), while today it is still contested as to whether the Babe is born ‘of a Maid’, or ‘of a May’.

One of the most popular texts traditionally used at Christmas (even though the words refer to Herod’s slaying of the infants), is from one of only two surviving fifteenth century pageants from the city of Coventry. Every summer, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, each of the city’s ten guilds would prepare a ‘mystery play’; it was the Guild of the Shearmen and Tailors who provided the story of the Nativity, encompassing the tale of Herod in the song Lully Lulla, the Coventry Carol. The opening of Allain’s arrangement sets up a swaying motif in the altos, against the main tune in the sopranos, which is eventually threaded through all the parts as the carol evolves. Each of the verses is in a new key, advancing in fourths (G sharp minor – C sharp minor – F sharp minor), with the words ‘all his children to slay’ forming an extended chromatic climax before the opening rocking fragment returns.

Improperia (The Reproaches) in the Roman Rite are traditionally sung on the afternoon of Good Friday during the solemn Veneration of the Cross. The words represent the

remonstrance of Jesus with his people who, in requital for all the divine favours and particularly for the delivery from the bondage of Egypt and safe conduct into the Promised Land, have inflicted on him the ignominies of the Passion and a cruel death. Allain uses the tripartite opening section to establish the primary colours he will draw from in the remainder of the work. The three reproaches in this part (‘Popule meus’, ‘Ego eduxite’, ‘Quid ultra’) are separated by the Trisagion in Latin and Greek (‘Holy is God. Holy and Mighty. Holy and Immortal, have mercy upon us’). He employs the three textural devices of plainchant, block-polyphony, and sustained chord clusters to assign the roles in what has become, ever since Palestrina’s famous 1560 setting for Pope Pius IV, a musico-liturgical re-enactment of one of the last hours of Jesus’ suffering. In the second section, each of the nine-fold plainchant reproaches is followed by the polyphonic ‘Popule meus, quid fecit tibi? Aut in quo contristavi te? Responde mihi’ (Oh my people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer Me). Here, Allain slowly begins to fragment the polyphonic sections, at first temporally and gradually texturally. It is only in the final refrain that the fruits of this prolonged labour are witnessed, when the increasingly disparate voices come suddenly together, overlaid with the chant in a moment of exquisite splendour.

The disc ends with the only completely instrumental composition on the programme, Memento, Homo for organ and soprano saxophone. The words ‘Memento, homo quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris’ (remember, man thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return) are uttered by the Priest during the Imposition of the Ashes at the beginning of Lent. Allain bases this work on the Easter hymn Victimae Paschali Laudes, whose melody undergoes various reincarnations throughout the piece. At the core of the composition is a violent recitative for saxophone in unison with the organ pedals, accompanied by fierce interjections onthemanuals.Using saxophone multiphonics, accompanied by bass clusters in the pedals, he creates a mesmerising collage of gentle sounds to close the work.

It is little wonder that, through his belief in the value of pedagogy and the influence of ‘language’ in its many guises, Richard Allain has managed to develop a unique musical dialect that is malleable enough to cover the gamut of liturgical purposes represented on this disc. Whether refracted through the facets of a spiritual, carol, motet or Mass setting, his is an idiom subtly defined by the ideals prevalent in his life-long love: jazz. His compositions, with their seemingly extemporaneous passages, are as tightly prepared as the palette from which the

greatest jazz improvisers coloured their solos with such apparent ease. It is this delicate juxtaposition of order and freedom that delineates so clearly the music of Richard Allain in all its permutations. His is a music that can only be added to the list of languages from which we should all take inspiration.

Copyright © 2004 Tarik O’Regan Tarik O'Regan (b.1978) lives in Manhattan, New York where he is the Fulbright Chester Schirmer Fellow in Music Composition at Columbia University.

1 Salve Regina

Double choir

Salve Regina, mater misericordiae: vita dulcedo et spes nostra, salve. At te clamamus, exules filii hevae. Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos adnos converte. Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.

O clemens: O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.

Hail to thee, Queen, mother of mercy! Our life, our consolation, and our hope, hail to thee! To thee we cry, we, the banished children of Eve. To thee we sigh, sorrowing and weeping, in this vale of tears. Oh thou, our advocate, turn thine eyes upon us. And after our exile show to us Jesus, the fruit of thy womb. Oh compassionate, oh pious, oh sweet Virgin Mary!

Producer: Paul Baxter

Executive Producers: Richard Allain, Matthew Owens

Engineer: Limo Hearn for Floating Earth

Assistant Engineer: David Strudwick

Booklet design: John Christ

Cover photo: Marcus Tate Photography [+44 (0)208 692 1997]

Recorded at 24-Bit resolution

Acknowledgements:

Special thanks to Dr William McVicar & The Very Reverend Graham Forbes.

2 At Night I Seek the One My Spirit Loves

Soprano: Susan Hamilton

Soprano Saxophone: John Harle

Organ: Matthew Owens

Tracks 1 & 4–6 & 14 recorded at St Barnabas Dulwich on September 20 & 21, 2003.

Tracks 3 & 7-13 recorded at St Barnabas Dulwich on 8 November, 2003.

Organ by Kenneth Tickell & Company, 1996

Tracks 2 & 15 recorded at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh on 24 November, 2003, by kind permission of the Provost.

Organ by Henry Willis, 1879

At night I seek the one my spirit loves.

I look for him, but find him not.

I call to him, but hear no answer.

Have you not seen the one my spirit loves?

I ask the guards at the city gates. They let me pass but tell me nothing.

At last I find the one my spirit loves. I cling to him and will not let go until he lies within my chamber.

3 Bow Down Thine Ear, O Lord (Psalm 86)

Choir & semi-chorus

Soloists: Ciara Hendrick, Faith Brewer, George Poppe, Rachel Shatliff

Bow down thine ear, O Lord. Hear me for I am poor and needy. Be merciful for unto thee do I cry all the day. O God, the proud are risen against me. And the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul. O turn unto me and have mercy; Give strength unto thy servant. Show me a token for good; That they which hate me may see it and be ashamed, For thou, Lord hast holpen me, and comforted me.

4 Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?

SATB Choir

Soloist: Victoria Stanyon

Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel? Daniel was delivered, so why not every man?

Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, Then why not every man? He delivered Daniel from the lion’s den, Jonah from the belly of the whale, The Hebrew children form the fiery furnace Then why not every man?

I set my foot on the Gospel ship, And the ship begain to sail. It landed me over on Canaan’s shore And I’ll never come back no more.

Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, Then why not every man?

5 It’s Me, O Lord

Double choir & semi-chorus

It’s me, me O Lord, Standin’ in the need of prayer. Not my deacon, not my elder, But it’s me, O Lord, Standin’ in the need of prayer. Not my brother, not my sister, But it’s me, oh Lord, Standin’ in the need of prayer.

6 Don’t You Weep When I’m Gone

SATB choir & semi-chorus

When I’m gone, when I’m gone:

O mother don’t you weep when I am gone. For I’m going to Heav’n above Going to the God of Love.

O mother don’t you weep when I am gone.

O Mother meet me there, Mother, meet me in de air.

O mother don’t you weep when I am gone. When I’m gone, when I’m gone:

O mother don’t you weep when I am gone.

Missa Brevis

SA Choir

Organ: James McVinnie

7 Kyrie

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

8 Gloria

Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Laudamus te. Benedicimus te.

Adoramus te. Glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.

Domine Deus Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine Fili

unigenite, Jesu Christe. Domine Deus Agnus Dei Filius Patris. Qui tollis peccata mundi miserere nobis. Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.

Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus. Tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe. Cum sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris Amen.

9 Sanctus

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus

Dominus Deus Sabaoth.

Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua.

Hosanna in excelsis.

Lord have mercy on us. Christ have mercy on us. Lord have mercy on us.

10 Benedictus

Soloists: Ciara Hendrick, Bryony Lang

Benidictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis.

11 Agnus Dei

Soloists: Bryony Lang, Ciara Hendrick

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace to men of good will. We praise Thee; we bless Thee; we adore Thee; we glorify Thee. We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory.

O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father

Almighty, O Lord Jesus Christ, the onlybegotten Son. O Lord God, Lamb of God,

Son of the Father who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.

Who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us. For Thou alone art holy;

Thou alone art the Lord; Thou alone, O Jesus Christ, art most high with the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: dona nobis pacem.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant us Thy peace.

Holy, Holy, Holy;

Lord God of Sabbaoth.

Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

SSATB choir

Soloist: Bryony Lang

A babe is born all of a Maid, To bring salvation unto us; No more are we to sing afraid, Veni creator Spiritus.

At Bethlehem, that blessed place, The Child of bliss then born He was; Him aye to serve God give us grace, O Lux beata Trinitas.

There came three Kings out of the East, To worship there that King so free; With Gold and myrrh and frankincense, A solis ortus cardine.

The shepherds heard an angel cry, A merry song that night sang he. Why are ye all so sore aghast Fam lucis orto sidere?

The angel came down with a cry, A fair and joyful song sang he, All in the worship of that child, Gloria Tibi Domine.

13 Coventry Carol

Double choir & semi-chorus

Soloists: Bryony Lang, Katherine Banister, Christopher Neale, Edward Millard

Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child, By by, lully lullay, Thou little tiny child, By by, lully lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do

For to preserve this day this poor youngling

For whom we do sing, By by, lully lullay?

Herod the King, in his raging, Chargéd he hath this day

His men of might, in his own sight, All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor child for thee!

And ever morn and day,

For thy parting neither say nor sing

By by, lully lullay.

Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child, By by, lully lullay, Thou little tiny child, By by, lully lullay.

Improperia

Double choir & Semi-chorus

Popule meus, quid feci tibi?

Aut in quo contristavi te? Responde mihi.

Quia eduxi te de terra Aegypti: parasti Crucem Salvatori tuo.

Agios O Theos. Sanctus Deus. Agios ischyros. Sanctus fortis. Agios athanatos, eleison imas. Sanctus immortalis, Miserere nobis.

Quia eduxi te per desertum quadraginta annis, et manna cibavi te, et introduxi te in terram satis optimam: parasti CIrucem Salvatori tuo.

Agios O Theos. Sanctus Deus. Agios ischyros.

Sanctus fortis. Agios athanatos, eleison imas. Sanctus immortalis, Miserere nobis.

Quid ultra debui facere tibi, et non feci?

Ego quidem plantavi te vineam meam speciosissimam: et tu facta es mihi nimis amara: aceto namque sitim meam potasti: et lancea perforasti latus Salvatori tuo.

Ego propter te flagellavi Aegyptum cum primogenitis suis: et tu me flagellatum tradidisti. ‘Popule meus’ etc.

Ego te eduxi de Aegypto, demerso Pharaone in Mare Rubrum: et tu me tradidisti principibus sacerdotum. ‘Popule meus’ etc.

Ego ante te aperui mare: et tu aperuisti lancea latus meum. ‘Popule meus’ etc.

O my people, what have I done to thee?

Or in what have I afflicted thee? Answer Me. Because I led thee out of the land of Egypt, thou hast prepared a cross for thy Saviour.

O Holy God.

O Holy strong One.

O Holy immortal have mercy upon us. Because I led thee out through the desert for for ty years, and fed thee with manna, and brought thee in to a land of exceeding good, thou hast prepared a cross for thy Saviour.

O Holy God. O Holy strong One.

O Holy immortal have mercy upon us.

What more ought I to do for thee, and have not done it? I planted thee indeed my most beautiful vineyard: and thou art become to Me exceeding bitter; for thou hast given Me vinegar in My thirst; and with a spear thou hast pierced the side of thy Saviour. For thy sake I scourged Egypt with its first-born: and thou didst scourge Me and deliver Me up. ‘O my people’ etc.

I led thee out of Egypt, drowning Pharaoh in the Red Sea: and thou didst deliver Me to the chief priests. ‘O my people’ etc.

I opened the sea before thee; and thou with a spear hast opened My side.

‘O my people’ etc.

Ego ante te praeivi in columna nubis: et tu me duxisti ad praetorium Pilati.

‘Popule meus’ etc.

Ego te pavi manna per desertum: et tu me cecidisti alapis et flagellis.

‘Popule meus’ etc.

Ego te potavi aqua salutis de petra: et tu me potasti felle, et aceto.

‘Popule meus’ etc.

Ego propter te Chananaeorum reges percussi: et tu percussisti arundine caput meum.

‘Popule meus’ etc.

Ego dedi tibi sceptrum regale: et tu dedisti capiti meo spineam coronam.

‘Popule meus’ etc.

Ego te exaltavi magna virtute: et tu me suspendisti in patibulo Crucis.

‘Popule meus’ etc.

Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine: et sanctam resurrectionem tuam laudamus, et glorificamus: ecce enim propter lignum

venit gaudium in universo mundo. Deus misereatur nostri, et benedicat nobis:

illuminet vultum suum super nos, et misereatur nostri.

Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine: et sanctam resurrectionem tuam laudamus et glorificamus: ecce enim propter lignum

venit gaudium in universo mundo.

I went before thee in a pillar of cloud: and thou hast brought Me to the palace of Pilate.

‘O my people’ etc.

I fed thee with manna in the desert: and thou hast beaten Me with buffets and scourges. ‘O my people’ etc.

I gave thee wholesome water to drink out of the rock: and thou hast given Me gall and vinegar. ‘O my people’ etc.

For thy sake I struck the kings of the Canaanites: and thou hast struck My head with a reed. ‘O my people’ etc.

I gave thee a royal sceptre: and thou hast given Me a crown of thorns. ‘O my people’ etc.

I have exalted thee with great strength: and thou hast hanged Me on the gibbet of the Cross. ‘O my people’ etc.

We adore Thy Cross, O Lord: and we praise and glorify Thy Holy Resurrection: for by the wood of the Cross, the whole world is filled with joy. May God have mercy on us and bless us. May He cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us and may he have mercy upon us.

We adore Thy Cross, O Lord: and we praise and glorify Thy Holy Resurrection: for by the wood of the Cross, the whole world is filled with joy.

The Composer

Richard Allain is one of the most creative musical voices of his generation. His works encompass a diversity of genre, amongst them: music theatre, sacred choral music, and works for children. Richard has worked with many of the country’s leading choirs and musicians; his music is regularly performed within the UK, and in countries throughout the world.

Salve Regina was broadcast by the BBC Symphony Chorus in 2000 and later made its Proms debut with the National Youth Choir; Richard was appointed NYC’s composer-inassociation in 2003. Richard has also worked extensively with the award-winning chamber choir Laudibus; their relationship of several years has seen work rich in diverse creativity, including the poly-choral Ubi Es? and the ecstatic Love and Sleep for 16 solo voices. St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, commissioned the St Matthew Passion in 2002. The same choir later recorded the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis The Exon Service for the CD Ascension (Delphian DCD34017).

Richard has created many works for children. A Christmas Carol, a setting of Dickens’ classic tale, was written for Richard Stilgoe (narrator) and the Bingham String Quartet; a CD recording followed in 1999. Partnering with his brother Thomas, Richard has written several cantatas for young voices, including Jake and the Right Genie which was commissioned by the Surrey Millennium Youth Festival, and has already been performed by over 3,000 school children.

Amongst Richard’s works for music theatre are Salomé (after the play by Oscar Wilde) and Girlforce V, a musical about a fictitious pop group. Recent work includes new pieces for Willard White and the Voices Foundation Children’s Choir, the Bach Choir and the Wallace Collection. Novello has published Richard’s carol settings in the collection Christmas Voices.

Future projects include a new work for1,000 voices in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, music for the forthcoming independent film The Melancholy Tale of Pineapple Boy, and a work for the choir of St John’s College, Cambridge.

Regarded as one of the finest chamber choirs in the world, Laudibus is equally renowned both for its breadth of programming and its dynamic concert performances.

Laudibus appeared with The King's Singers in their 25th anniversary concert at the Barbican, and in 1998 won both the sacred and secular sections for both amateur and professional vocal ensembles in the prestigious Tolosa International Choral Competition in Spain.

Festival appearances have included Bath, Harrogate, Hexham and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Noted for its exceptional performances of contemporary music, Laudibus has premiered works by many leading British composers: amongst them Gavin Bryars, Giles Swayne and Richard Allain. Laudibus has been widely recorded and broadcast. Recent engagements include a Proms appearance with the National Youth Orchestra, the National Holocaust memorial service, and concerts at London’s Southbank Centre.

Made up of up to 150 young voices, NYC meets for two residential courses each year. Concerts are given throughout the UK, and the choir tours regularly; their fifth world tour in 2003 visited Samoa, Australia, and New Zealand amongst others. In recent years they have performed music from India, South America, the Pacific Islands, Africa (with guest Ghanaian drummers), and from the gospel tradition. NYC often performs new and specially-written music; it has commissioned from and recorded works by Jonathan Harvey, Colin Riley, Paul Reade and by composer-in-association Richard Allain.

The Royal Albert Hall remains a regular concert venue; NYC recently performed Carl Jenkins’ Peace Mass The Armed Man which was later recorded, and went on to become a best-seller and Classic FM’s record of the week. Further recordings with Delphian Records are planned.

Firmly established as a leading figure in choral music, Mike Brewer is in demand worldwide for vocal workshops and guest conducting of choirs. He is a consultant for over 20 prize-winning choirs, and is equally happy leading workshops and master classes for teachers, for young singers and for people who say they can’t sing.

In July 2003 he led workshops for finalist choirs in the National Festival of Music for Youth in the Royal Festival Hall in London and is an adjudicator for the finals of Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year.

Since its inaugural concert in the Royal Albert Hall in 1983, The National Youth Choir of Great Britain has garnered an enviable reputation for being one of the most flexible vocal ensembles in the world. NYC has performed alongside many leading musicians including the King's Singers, George Shearing and Richard Rodney Bennett.

Since 1983 Mike has been Musical Director of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, and he also conducts Laudibus, the award-winning chamber choir of NYC graduates. Mike’s theories about choir directing have been much-published. Books for Faber include the best-selling Kickstart your Choir, Improve Your Sight-singing (with Paul Harris) and Hamba Lulu, his set of African songs, also a best seller. Mike Brewer’s Warmups was published in August 2002.

Laudibus in recording sessions, November 2003

NYCGB on their 2003 world tour

A Churchill Fellow for 2002/3 Mike recently visited Mexico and Cuba to collect more songs. His new book Finetune your Choir will be published in 2004.

He was awarded and OBE for services to music in 1995.

John Harle is one of the world’s leading saxophonists in the concert hall today. He has recorded more than 25 concerto and recital CDs, and has performed in concerti with many of the major orchestras in the world.

He has had over 25 concerti written for him by composers such as John Tavener, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, Mark Anthony Turnage, Michael Torke and Harrison Birtwistle. In 1995, his outrageous performance of Birtwistle’s saxophone concerto Panic, which he premiered at the Last Night of the Proms, propelled him to a level of high international recognition, and in 1996, John followed this performance with his own work, Terror and Magnificence, and performed with Elvis Costello and soprano Sarah Leonard, which culminated in a sell-out concert at the Royal Festival Hall.

In recital, John works regularly with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and John Lenehan. He has also begun very exciting collaborations with Willard White, the Brodsky Quartet, Evelyn Glennie, and the Guildhall Strings.

In 1989 John was appointed Professor of Saxophone and Chamber Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Future concerto commissions for John include a Double Concerto with the cellist Stephen Isserlis by John Tavener, Steve Mackey, and a second Concerto by Harrison Birtwistle.

Matthew Owens became Organist and Master of the Music at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh,inSeptember 1999. He is a visiting Tutor in Organ Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, and Director of the Exon Singers. Born in Manchester, he studied at Chetham’s School of Music and was subsequently Organ Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford. From 1993-1999 he was Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.

As a conductor and solo organist he has premiered many works by leading composers including Richard Allain, Dave Heath, Gabriel Jackson, Naji Hakim, James MacMillan, Arvo Pärt, Howard Skempton and Giles Swayne.

Matthew will commence recording the complete keyboard works of Johann Pachelbel in 2004 with Delphian Records.

Susan Hamilton was born in Edinburgh. A noted soloist specialising in Baroque and contemporary music, she sings regularly in Britain and Europe with, among others, the Dunedin Consort, Collegium Vocale, Florilegium, The King’s Consort, The Ricercar Consort, and regularly appears at major International Festivals. She has worked closely with many renowned conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Paul McCreesh and Ton Koopman. Susan has premiered new works by a host of composers including Witold Lutoslawski, James MacMillan, and Ronald Stevenson.She appears regularly on the radio and television and is widely recorded.

James McVinnie is the Organ Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge. Born and brought up in Kent, James was educated at Sevenoaks School where he was a music scholar. In 2001 he took up the position of Organ Scholar at St Albans Cathedral where he acted as accompanist to the Cathedral Choir, the St Albans Abbey Girls Choir, and the St Albans Bach Choir. In 2003 he moved to Clare College, Cambridge, where he currently acts as accompanist to the renowned chapel choir. He has studied with Sarah Baldock and Margaret Phillips, and is currently a student of Thomas Trotter.

The Performers

National Youth Choir of Great Britain

Soprano 1

Felicity Brown

Clarinda Chan

Sarah Denbee

Josephine Eccles

Jo Goldsmith

Quintilla Hughes

Janna Mills

Aoife Miskelly

Alexandra Parr

Alice Reidy

Joanna Rose

Victoria Stanyon

Lisa Swayne

Soprano 2

Olivia Brown

Penny Dell

Miriam Dix

Ali Hill

Rea Lawrenson

Rachel Nutt

Ellie Pater

Kitty St Aubyn

Kirsty Stokes

Ruth Webb

Kitty Whately

Tamsin Woolhouse

Alto 1

Stephanie Lewis

Andrea Mcgregor

Martha Mclorinan

Ruth Nixon

George Poppe

Kate Thatcher

Elizabeth Witts

Alto 2

Jessica Gilbert-Harris

Anoushka Kenley

Amy Kidd

Katie Lee

Beth Mackay

Helen Marsh

Anna Mcgeogh

Jodie Surendran

Tenor 1

Oliver Baines

Alexander Bowden

Christopher Hann

Adam Kowalczyk

Edward Lee

Mark Richardson

Ben Thapa

Gareth Williams

Tenor 2

David Bellinger

John Davies

Julian Forbes

Iain Handyside

Jeremy James

Adam Masry

Nicholas Spiers

Damian Ward Bass1

Mark Anderson

Jonathan Bell

Peter Brathwaite

Timothy Brignall

Jonathan Bryan

Greg Hallam

Andrew Hartley

Bartholomew

Lawrence

Kieran Morris

Bass 2

Peter Bardsley

Andrew Chim

Charlie Hamilton

Owen Ireland

James Kerr

Oliver Knox

James Smyth

Christian Tebbutt

Ben Weaver

Laudibus

Soprano

Faith Brewer

Nicola Corbishley

Laura Fowler

Anna George

Ciara Hendrick

Bryony Lang

Anne Miller

Alto

Kathy Banister

Naomi L'Estrange

Martha Mclorinan

Ruth Nixon

George Poppe

Rachel Shatliff

Tenor

Mark Anyan

Mike Jeremiah

Adam Kowalzyk

Mark Richardson Bass

Tom Appleton

Peter Csemiczky

James Holliday

Ed Millard

Chris Neale

Richard Allain on Delphian

Ascension

Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh; Matthew Owens

DCD34017

The powerful imagery of the Ascension has been a potent inspiration to generations of composers, from Phillips and Byrd to Finzi, Stanford, and Messiaen. This recording, featuring Allain’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, presents a Choral Evensong of contemporary works associated with St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, leading up to Messiaen’s meditative organ work L’Ascension.

‘A shining service of contemporary works... The choir sing with tremendous fervour, clarity, and power’ – Gramophone

Choral Music on Delphian

A Gaelic Blessing

Choir of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh; Matthew Owens

DCD34007

Best-loved sacred works and new choral music graces this stellar release from St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh led by Matthew Owens. Includes works by Franck, Brahms, Pärt, Finzi, Holst, Tavener, Mozart, Henschel, and Wesley.

‘This recording is a real gem’ – Choir and Organ