William Turner: Sacred Choral Music
William Turner (1651-1740)
1 Te Deum (1696) [18:09]
7 Magnificat (Service in A) [4:23]
Dunedin Consort: In Chains of Gold
Susan Hamilton, soprano; Clare Wilkinson, mezzo soprano; Ashley Turnell, tenor; Warren Trevelyan-Jones, tenor; Matthew Brook, bass; John Kitchen, organ (DCD34008)
2 Lord, thou hast been my refuge [5:56]
8 Nunc Dimittis (Service in A) [2:27]
3 My soul truly waiteth [3:49]
9 O Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer [4:10]
The Dunedin Consort, praised by critics for their ‘clear-textured beauty and a thrilling intensity’, surveys the Roman Catholic music of William Byrd and Thomas Tallis on this recording, in which Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices is presented as a full service. The intimacy of single-voicing in motets like Tallis’s O nata lux and Salvator Mundi creates an atmosphere of quiet devotion not soon to be forgotten.
4 Hear my prayer, O Lord [7:06]
10 The Lord is righteous [5:30]
5 The Queen shall rejoice (1702) [2:50]
11 Jubilate Deo (1696) [8:28]
‘Highlight of the disc (along with the ravishing little organ hymns played by John Kitchen) is the seamless and soaring performance of Byrd’s five part Mass, unforced, flowing, immaculately poised, and delivered with a certainty of the faith that inspired it.’
- The Herald, 19 July 2003
6 Jubilate Deo (Service in E) [3:19]
All first recordings
Julia Doyle soprano (tracks 1, 11)
William Purefoy countertenor (tracks 1, 2, 11)
Total playing time [66:14]
Instruments from the Raymond Russell Collection Volume II
John Kitchen, keyboards (DCD34039)
Daniel Jordan bass (tracks 1, 2, 11)
The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge Yorkshire Baroque Soloists
Known collectively as the Raymond Russell collection of Early Keyboard Instruments, this company of harpsichords, virginals, spinets, organs and fortepianos is one of the most important of its kind in the world today.
William Towers countertenor (tracks 1, 11)
Paul Thompson tenor (tracks 1, 2, 10) (
Recorded in Pembroke College Chapel on 1–4 July 2006, by kind permission of the Master & Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Producer: Paul Baxter
Engineer: Adam Binks
24-Bit digital editing: Adam Binks
24-Bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Design: Drew Padrutt
Photography © Delphian Records Ltd
Peter Seymour director )
Geoffrey Webber conductor
The music editions for this recording were prepared by Peter Seymour (Te Deum in D), Bryan White (Jubilate in D) and Geoffrey Webber. Thanks are due to the following for help with the planning and production of this CD: Canon
Photograph editing: Dr Raymond Parks
Cover
Resident keyboard expert John Kitchen puts another nine instruments through their paces in a recital that is both entertaining and illuminating
Known collectively as the Raymond Russell collection of Early Keyboard Instruments, this company of harpsichords, virginals, spinets, organs and fortepianos is one of the most important of its kind in the world today. Resident keyboard expert John Kitchen puts another nine instruments through their paces in a recital that is both entertaining and illuminating
‘performances are stylish and sympathetic and the music and instruments are beautifully matched’
– The Gramophone, September 2005
Brian Watchorn and Dr Sam Barrett of Pembroke College, Helen Ashby, Celia Cobb, Keri Dexter, Don Franklin, Joseph Harper, Margaret Hebden, Clare Lloyd, Brian Watt and David Wright. image: Entry of Charles II to London on the occasion of his Restoration in 1660; Courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of LondonEarly music on Delphian
The Red Red Rose: Concerto Caledonia
Songs and tunes from 18th century Scotland
Mhairi Lawson, soprano; Jamie MacDougall, tenor directed by David McGuinness, harpsichord (DCD34014)
Concerto Caledonia bring their exuberant flair for early Scottish music to love songs from the time of Robert Burns, and baroque/ Cape Breton virtuoso David Greenberg brings along some wild fiddling from the Golden Age of the Scots violin. The original version of Robert Burns’s most famous song The Red Red Rose appears here in its first ever recording.
‘The funkiest album of Burns songs I’ve ever heard… …a fresh look at Scottish music in the 18th century: outstanding playing and the singing is characterful and expressive.’
– BBC Radio 3 CD Review, January 2005
It is easy to forget that our great English choral tradition was once silenced by Act of Parliament. England’s Cathedrals were utterly deprived of choral music for over a decade, and although the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 subsequently ushered in one of the finest periods of English music, both sacred and secular, the road to recovery for church music was initially a slow and difficult one, since so much continuity of experience had been lost. But a new spirit of confidence and expectancy is palpable in much of the new music composed immediately after 1660, notably in the music of William Child whose anthems had texts such as ‘O Lord, grant the King a long life’, and ‘If the Lord had not been on our side’.
spent the next decades of his long life as one of the leading composers and singers of his day, serving in the Chapel Royal, at St Paul’s Cathedral (from 1683) and at Westminster Abbey (from 1699). Cambridge University awarded him the D.Mus. degree in 1696, the citation noting that ‘only Purcell himself [was] more learned’. His long career witnessed not only the earliest re-awakening of English church music at the Restoration but its full period of flowering in subsequent generations; he outlived most of his contemporaries and died in 1740, the year before Handel composed his Messiah
La Preciosa – The Guitar Music of Gaspar Sanz (c.1640-c.1710)
Gordon Ferries, Baroque Guitar (DCD34036)
Baroque guitarist Gordon Ferries visits the music of seventeenthcentury Spain’s fiery streets – a time when the five course guitar produced a sense of abject horror in the morally inclined, citing associations with popular ballads, taverns, criminality, sensuality and in particular dancing. Ferries assumes the role with panache and breath-takingly virtuosic flair.
‘Stylish and accessible baroque from an exponent whose star is in the ascendant.’
– Classical Guitar, March 2004
The recovery was quickest in London, where the major establishments assembled the finest young choristers from around the country. At Westminster Abbey three precocious teenagers jointly composed the so-called Club Anthem: Pelham Humfrey (b. 1647), John Blow (b. 1649), and the youngest of the three, William Turner (b. 1651). Turner was brought to London from Oxford where he had sung at Christ Church, but in 1667 when he was only sixteen (just about the earliest age at which a boy’s voice typically broke at that time) he became Master of the Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral, an appointment that can be seen as further evidence of the initially slow rebuilding of the tradition outside the capital. However, in 1672 he was back in London where he
Turner’s large output of church music remains very little known today and only a small fraction of it has been published. The only work recorded on this CD to have been previously available in print is the anthem Lord, thou hast been our refuge, which first appeared in William Boyce’s collection Cathedral Music. Whilst his music never matches the finest works of Purcell most commentators have found much to admire in his work, though opinion has been divided with regard to his effectiveness in wordsetting. John Caldwell has written that Turner’s ‘capacity for vocal expression was somewhat limited’ (The Oxford History of English Music, vol. 1), though in the most recent survey of the English church music of the period (Restoration Cathedral Music 1660-1714), Ian Spink notes that Turner’s ‘ability to match the music sensitively to the words, avoiding awkwardness of line and harmony
Notes on the musicDCD34028-right reading.indd, Spread 4 of 10 - Pages (4, 17) 3/28/07 8:33 PM
Notes on the music
[…] shows a good deal more polish than either Humfrey or Blow’. But with no collected edition of Turner’s work as yet available, a wider assessment and appreciation of Turner’s output has yet to develop. Certain aspects of Turner’s anthems might help explain why his music has never achieved a regular status in the traditional English church music repertoire: they contain comparatively little writing for trebles, and include almost no ‘full anthems’, i.e. settings predominantly for full choir. Both factors may reflect the fact that Turner was never in charge of any choristers in London, perhaps partly because he was too much in demand as a counter-tenor. Moreover, as with many other London verse anthems of the period, the sometimes long and taxing solo parts for the lower voices (counter-tenor downwards) may have been better suited to Turner and his London colleagues than the provincial layclerks of the period. This recording presents a cross-section of Turner’s sacred music, ranging from small-scale liturgical works to one of his grandest creations, the Te Deum and Jubilate in D, and is the fruit of an editorial collaboration with Peter Seymour (University of York) and Bryan White (University of Leeds).
Henry Purcell’s well-known Te Deum and Jubilate in D was composed in 1694 for the St Cecilia’s Day celebrations held annually in London. Recognised in its day as a new departure for English church music, Purcell’s setting represents a transformation of the
regular liturgical style of Canticles employed for the service of Matins into a large-scale festive celebration featuring extended solo singing and an instrumental accompaniment for strings and trumpets. Its first performance was such a success that John Blow wrote a similar setting for the celebrations in 1695, but on the eve of its performance tragedy struck, as Purcell died. A year later it was William Turner who composed the third setting in this unique trio of works, still very much aping Purcell’s model. Perhaps not surprisingly, Turner very consciously paid tribute to the great master not only in general style and manner, but with the occasional specific musical reference, none more poignant than the short phrase used by Purcell at the beginning of his alto solo ‘Vouchsafe, O Lord’, possibly sung by Turner himself in 1694, which Turner places in the first violin part as a reflective postscript to the trio section setting the same text. Those familiar with Purcell’s setting will notice other links such as the staggered entry of the voice parts on the word ‘All’ at ‘All the earth doth worship thee’ or the strict contrapuntal interplay of themes at the concluding ‘Amen’ of the Jubilate Deo. But even though the general conception and style of Turner’s setting is wholly indebted to Purcell, Turner’s work is far from being a pale imitation, and maintains a high level of accomplishment throughout. Needless to say, the counter-tenor voice is very much to the fore, the Jubilate Deo containing the unusual four-part verse texture of treble, two counter-tenors and bass. But
Sopranos
Jenna Cooper (3, 8, 9)
Helena Culliney (3, 7, 8)
Augusta Hebbert (3, 11)
Cerian Holland
Clare Lloyd (1, 4, 7, 8, 9)
Charlotte Roberts (3, 7)
Helen Roche
Emma Walshe (7, 8)
Altos
Hannah Cooke (3, 7, 8)
Fiona Mackay (3, 4, 7, 8)
Helena Nicholls (3, 7, 8, 11)
Richard Northcott
Tenors
Pierre Dechant (7, 8, 11)
Joseph Harper (4, 7, 8, 9)
Matthew Knight
Laurence Panter
Andrew Taylor (3, 7, 8)
Basses
James Halliday (3, 7, 8)
John Herford (4, 7, 9)
John Kelly
Hugh Miall
Alexander Patton (8, 11)
Edward Willis Organ
Francesca Massey (2, 3, 7, 8, 9)
Thomas Hewitt Jones (4, 6, 10)
(Solo items in parentheses)
Violin
Simon Jones
Andrea Morris
Viola
Alan George
Cello
Rachel Gray
Violone
Kate Aldridge
Theorbo
Lynda Sayce
Trumpet
Crispian Steele-Perkins
David Staff
Organ
Peter Seymour (director)
The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge Yorkshire Baroque Soloistsinclude The Opera Group, Opera North, ENO, Scottish Opera, English Touring Opera, the Festival d’Aix en Provence and Grange Park Opera.
Thomas Hewitt Jones
Thomas Hewitt Jones studied at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and at Dulwich College before becoming Organ Scholar at Caius College in October 2003 – his teachers have included Martin Baker and Ann Elise Smoot. Concert highlights include a performance of the organ part of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with Sir Simon Rattle and the National Youth Orchestra at the BBC Proms, as well as many solo recitals at venues including Gloucester, Winchester and Chester Cathedrals.
Thomas is a composition student of Paul Patterson, and previous teachers include David McBride, Timothy Blinko and Avril Anderson. His works have been heard in concerts all over the country, and in broadcasts on radio and television. Recent premieres include his Organ Concerto at St John’s, Smith Square, an orchestral piece War in the Royal Festival Hall, and his electric cello concerto, The Blue Cello in Edinburgh. Thomas has worked with ensembles such as The Britten Sinfonia, Sounds Positive, the NYO Sinfonietta, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, winning numerous awards, including the BBC Proms/ Guardian Young Composer Competition.
Francesca Massey was born in Birmingham in 1982. During her gap-year she became the first-ever female Organ Scholar of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. She later read music at Cambridge, where she was both an Organ and Academic Scholar at Gonville and Caius College. After graduating, Francesca held the positions of Acting Precentor and Assisting Organist at Caius, and Assistant Organist at the University Church, Great St. Mary’s. In September 2006 she gained an ABRSM postgraduate scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music, and became Organ Scholar at Manchester Cathedral.
Francesca won several prizes in the FRCO diploma, and has been awarded the prestigious Ian Fleming Award by the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund, and the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ WT Best Memorial Scholarship and Silver Medal. She has studied with Jeremy Filsell, Kevin Bowyer, David Goode and Andrew Fletcher, as well as performing in masterclasses under Gillian Weir, Naji Hakim, Harald Vogel, Colm Carey and Jennifer Bate. Francesca has given recitals at many venues both in the UK and abroad.
the tenor and bass soloists also have much to contribute, and the chorus sections are strong and animated in nature, often laden with rich seventh-chord harmonies and false relations.
The earliest works by Turner on this recording are probably Lord, thou hast been our refuge and O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer, which Spink notes as listed in a Chapel Royal list of 1676. They both show Turner’s gift for fitting the music sensitively to the text, the most notable passages in Lord, thou hast been our refuge including the dramatic rendition of ‘and fade away suddenly like the grass’ and the reflective chorus ‘For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday’. Turner’s penitential style is arguably heard at its finest in the slightly later anthem Hear my prayer, O Lord, where his melodic gifts are matched by some well-judged turns of harmony, such as the twist from F# major to D major when the bass solo answers the tenor at ‘For my days are consumed away like smoke’. Spink notes that Turner seems to have entered a new phase of creative energy following the opening of the new St Paul’s Cathedral in 1697, and has suggested that the sumptuous six-part scoring of the Service in A major (with its companion anthem My soul truly waiteth upon thee) may have been directly inspired by the new building. The Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis and anthem are all included in this recording because of their consistently high quality of inspiration, with Turner’s trade-mark lush seventh harmonies providing many
of the finest moments (as at ‘in the imagination of their hearts’ in the Magnificat), and the anthem is very fine indeed; note the harmonic progression at the end of the first chorus, the splendid six-part verse that follows ‘He is my defence so that I shall not greatly fall’ (in which it is unsurprisingly the counter-tenor part that supplies the seventh notes and final false relation at the cadence), and the rousing rhythms of the final chorus set to the text ‘and thou rewardest every man according to his work’, perhaps chosen with the craftsmen and builders of St Paul’s in mind.
Turner seems not to have composed much towards the end of his life, and his later works date from around 1700. The Lord is righteous has a lively obbligato part for the organ, and although no stop indications are given in the manuscript sources it may well have been composed with some of the new solo stops being added to organs at this time in mind, perhaps specifically those available on the new Bernard Smith organ built for St Paul’s. One piece with a certain date is The Queen shall rejoice, described in its principal source as ‘Being the 2nd Anthem sung at the Coronation Solemnity of Queen Ann, April 23rd, 1702’. It is one of Turner’s very few full anthems, characterised by lively rhythms and some effective tonal contrasts, thereby striking a good balance between joyfulness and solemnity.
© 2007 Geoffrey Webber Francesca Massey1
Te Deum (1696)
We praise thee, O God: we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud: the heav’ns and all the powers therein.
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry, Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Sabaoth; Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory. The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee: the goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee. The noble army of Martyrs praise thee: the holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee;
The Father of an infinite majesty: thine honourable, true and only Son, also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Thou art the King of Glory O Christ: thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man: thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb. When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death: thou didst open the kingdom of heav’n to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God: in the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come: to be our Judge. We therefore pray thee, help thy servants:
whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. Make them to be numbered with thy Saints: in glory everlasting.
O Lord, save thy people: and bless thine heritage. Govern them: and lift them up for ever.
Day by day: we magnify thee; And we worship thy Name: ever world without end. Vouchsafe, O Lord: to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us: have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us: as our trust is in thee.
O Lord, in thee have I trusted: let me never be confounded.
leaving the Academy he appeared extensively as a soloist in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, including appearances in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Dijon Auditorium, the Metz Arsenal, Buckingham Palace and the final concerts in New York.
William has performed with many well-known ensembles and conductors including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Gabrieli Consort; and Sir Roger Norrington, Paul McCreesh, Emmanuelle Haïm and Barry Wordsworth. William’s operatic engagements have included roles at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Aldeburgh Festival, Opera North, the London Handel Festival, the Almeida Festival and Grange Park Opera.
Paul Thompson
Paul was a choral scholar at Caius from 1994 to 1997. While there he took part in many broadcasts and recordings – including the choir’s recording of Bach’s St Mark Passion – and toured Italy, Spain and the USA.
After a brief spell as a Lay Clerk at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford he completed his training as a postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with David Lowe and Antony Saunders.
Since then he has been active on the London scene, particularly in the field of early music. Apart from solo concerts with choral societies across the country he has performed as a step-out soloist for Simon Rattle, Roger Norrington, Richard Hickox and Emmanuel Haïm. He recently made his solo debut at the BBC Proms with Sakari Oramo and the CBSO in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.
Daniel Jordan
Daniel Jordan began his musical training as a chorister at Portsmouth Cathedral, and later at Wells Cathedral School. Daniel was awarded a Choral Scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge, reading for a degree in Music. While in the choir he toured extensively in Europe, Canada, USA, South Africa, Australia and Japan; sang on numerous recordings; and was Musical Director of the Gentlemen of St. John’s.
On leaving Cambridge he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music on the PostGraduate Performance Course. In 2001 he graduated with distinction from the Opera Course, with support from the R.A.M and a Countess of Munster Trust Star Award.
Daniel has sung as a soloist with the English Concert, the Monteverdi Choir and Florilegium and as a member of Pro Cantione Antiqua, the Clerk’s Group and the King’s Consort, while opera credits
editing and research projects. He is a committee member for the Royal College of Organists and the Church Music Society, and his publications include North German Church Music in the Age of Buxtehude (OUP, 1996) and, as co-editor, the Cambridge Companion to the Organ (CUP, 1998 and The Restoration Anthem (CMS/OUP, 2003/7).
Julia DoyleBorn and educated in the north of England, Julia Doyle read Social and Political Sciences as a Choral Scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. During her career as a soprano Julia has performed as a soloist and consort singer all over the world and with many prestigious groups such as Camerata Salzburg, the English Baroque Soloists, the Endymion Ensemble, Tenebrae, the Hanover Band and the English Concert and with a number of prominent conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Stephen Cleobury. Her forthcoming engagements include a programme of Handel and Bach at the Wigmore Hall with the King’s Consort; a tour of Switzerland with the Lausanne Sinfonietta; a programme of works by Christopher Page with Fretwork; Bach, Handel and Telemann cantatas with the Xacona in Valencia; engagements with the Academy of Ancient Music and the English Baroque Soloists; and a recording of Couperin Leçon de Tenebre and Charpentier duets. A graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford,
William Purefoy attended the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he received the John Clifford Pettican Award and was a finalist in the 1997 Gold Medal Competition. In 1995 he was a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and a winner of the NFMS Young Concert Artists Award. He studies with David Pollard.
William has sung in opera and concert around the world, appearing with the English Concert, The Sixteen, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, City of London Sinfonia, New London Consort, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Musicians of the Globe, La Cetra, Le Concert d’Astrée, Purcell Quartet, Concordia, and I Fagiolini. He has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican and Purcell Room among many other venues. Operatic engagements have included English National Opera, Scottish Opera, the Classical Opera Company, the Early Opera Company and Staatsoperhannover. William is also active as a recording artist with releases on the ASV and Argo labels.
William Towers
William Towers read English at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge and was a postgraduate scholar at the Royal Academy of Music where he won several prizes for singing and acting, graduating with Distinction, the Dip.RAM and the Clifton prize for the best final recital. In his first year after
Lord, thou hast been our refuge
Lord, thou hast been our refuge: from one generation to another.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: thou art God from everlasting and world without end.
Thou turnest man to destruction: again thou say’st, come again ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday: seeing that is past as a watch in the night. As soon as thou scatt’rest them they are even as a sleep: and fade away suddenly like the grass. For when thou art angry all our days are gone: we bring our years to an end as it were a tale that is told.
The days of our age are three-score years and ten, and though men be so strong that they come to four-score years: yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow, so soon passeth it away and we are gone.
Psalm 90, vv 1-5, 9 & 10
My soul truly waiteth
My soul truly waiteth still upon God: for of him cometh my salvation.
He is my defence, so that I shall not greatly fall. And that thou Lord art merciful: for thou rewardest every man according to his work.
Psalm 62, vv 1, 2 & 12
Hear my prayer, O Lord
Hear my prayer, O Lord: and let my crying come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble: incline thine ear unto me when I call, O hear me and that right soon.
For my days are consumed away like smoke: and my bones are burnt up as it were a fire-brand. For the voice of my groaning: my bones will scarce cleave to my flesh. My heart is smitten down and wither’d like grass: so that I forget to eat my bread.
Psalm 102, vv 1-5 & 24
The Queen shall rejoice
The Queen shall rejoice in thy strength O Lord: exceeding glad shall she be of thy salvation. For thou shalt prevent her with the blessings of goodness: and shalt set a crown of pure gold upon her head. Her honour is great in thy salvation: glory and great worship shalt thou lay upon her. For thou shalt give her everlasting felicity: And make her glad with the joy of thy countenance Halleluiah.
Psalm 21, vv 1, 3, 5 & 6
Jubilate Deo
O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands: serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song.
Be ye sure that the Lord he is God:
It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name.
For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting: And his truth endureth from generation to generation
Glory be to the Father: and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end, Amen.
Psalm 100
Magnificat (Service in A)
My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded: the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth: all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me: and holy is his name.
7 5 Yorkshire Baroque Soloists (YBS) was formed in 1973 by Peter Seymour to perform a repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries for forces ranging from chamber to orchestral size. The group has performed and recorded in most European countries and forms the basis of the baroque and classical parts of York Early Music Festival. Further festival appearances have included Swaledale Festival, Ryedale Festival and Festival Mitte Europa in Germany and the Czech Republic. Much of the orchestra’s work has been with Yorkshire Bach Choir.
And his mercy is on them that fear him: throughout all generations.
He hath shewed strength with his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat: and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things: and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel:
as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, for ever.
Glory be to the Father: and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end, Amen.
In recent York Early Music Festivals the BBC and WDR have recorded the group’s performances of Handel’s Semele and Alexander’s Feast, Bach’s Cantatas for the Feast of St Michael, Purcell’s Come ye Sons of Art and The Yorkshire Feast Song, Blow’s Welcome every guest, Clarke’s Music on the Death of Henry Purcell, Haydn’s Theresienmesse, Purcell’s Dioclesian and a psalm sequence of music by Charpentier. In recent seasons YBS has also performed programmes of Purcell’s music on an Early Music University Network Tour and recorded for the BBC a programme of music by Biber including his Missa Alleluia. Other recordings have included a further BBC programme of music by Muffat and Biber.
Commercially released recordings have included Bach’s Motets and Festal Mass at the Imperial Court in Vienna, 1648 (Carlton)
and Mozart’s Requiem (York Records). Further recent recordings have included Psalms and motets by Tomás Luis de Victoria, Monteverdi’s Vespro Della Beata Vergine and Motets of the Bach Family.
Geoffrey Webber
Geoffrey Webber began his musical education as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral, and, after being Music Scholar at The King’s School, Worcester, he was elected to an Organ Scholarship at New College, Oxford, in 1977. At Oxford his academic tutors and organ teachers included Edward Higginbottom, John Caldwell, James Dalton, Nicholas Danby and Gillian Weir. After graduating with a First he remained in Oxford to pursue research into German church music of the seventeenth century, combining this with activities as an organist and conductor. He served as Acting Organist at both New College and Magdalen College, and was appointed as Assisting Organist at Magdalen College in 1982 and University Organist and Director of Music at the University Church in 1984. During this time he also became Director of the Edington Festival, a festival of music within the liturgy at Edington, Wiltshire. After completing his doctorate in 1989 he was appointed Precentor and Director of Music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and he now also serves as an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music, dividing his time between conducting, organ playing, lecturing, teaching,
Luke 1, vv 46-55The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge is one of Britain’s leading collegiate choirs. Gonville and Caius College was founded in 1348 but the musical tradition stems from the late-nineteenth century when the wellknown composer of church music Charles Wood became Organist. The choir in Wood’s day contained boy trebles, but is now a mixed undergraduate ensemble and is directed by Geoffrey Webber.
The choir sings chapel services during the University term and has a busy schedule of concerts, recordings and broadcasts. The choir also travels extensively abroad, performing at a variety of venues ranging from major concert halls to universities, cathedrals and churches in Europe, America and beyond, often in connection with other professional ensembles such as Opera Northern Ireland and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco. The choir also gives a number of concerts in the UK each year, appearing in venues such as St John’s, Smith Square and at the Spitalfields Festival in London, and many other venues across the country.
Live radio broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and 4 form a regular feature of the choir’s schedule. Broadcasts of Choral Evensong have been notably adventurous in content and have ranged from baroque anthems with period instruments to Russian and Greek Orthodox music, South African music, and music composed especially
for the choir by leading composers such as James Macmillan. The choir has also appeared on television programmes on BBC 1, BBC 2, Channel 4 and on several foreign networks.
The choir’s recordings have specialised in the re-discovery of forgotten choral repertories, including previously unpublished music from within the English choral tradition and beyond. A series of highly acclaimed discs on the ASV/Sanctuary label has included music by Samuel Wesley, William Child, Edmund Rubbra, Patrick Hadley and Rebecca Clarke, Joseph Rheinberger, Giacomo Puccini and Leonardo Leo. The choir has recorded reconstructions – the Latin Mass in E Flat by Janácek and the St. Mark Passion by J. S. Bach – programmes of Swiss choral music (in conjunction with the National Library of Zürich), the complete anthems of Charles Wood and a disc of music by John Sanders (Priory). A DVD of music by Francis Poulenc featuring the choirs of St John’s, Clare and Caius Colleges, has been also been released, and other collaborations include a recording of music by John Rutter with the choir of King’s College, Cambridge and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI). The choir’s recent releases include a recording of modern and medieval music entitled All the ends of the earth (Signum Classics), a recording of 16th-century music with the reconstructed Two Tudor Organs by Goetze and Gwynn (OxRecs), and a disc of music by Charles Gounod (Centaur).
www.cai.cam.ac.uk choir@cai.cam.ac.uk
Nunc Dimittis (Service in A)
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen: thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared: before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles: and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Glory be to the Father: and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end, Amen.
Luke 2, vv 29-32
O Lord God of hosts
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: hearken O God of Jacob.
Behold O God our defender: and look upon the face of thine Anointed. For one day in thy courts is better than a thousand.
I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God: than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness. For the Lord God is a light and defence: The Lord will give grace and worship, and no good thing shall he withhold from them that live a godly life.
O Lord God of hosts: blessed is the man that putteth his trust in thee.
Glory be to the Father: and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end, Amen.
Psalm 84, vv 8 -13
The Lord is righteous
The Lord is righteous in all his ways: and holy in all his works.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him: yea all such as call upon him faithfully. He will fulfil the desire of them that love him: but scattereth abroad all the ungodly. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh give thanks unto his holy Name for ever and ever.
Psalm 145, vv 17-21
