Dormi Jesu: A Caius Christmas by Delphian Records

Dormi Jesu A CAius ChristmA s

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge

Geoffrey Webber

1 Michael Praetorius (1571–1621) arr. Jan Sandström (b. 1954) Es ist ein Ros entsprungen [4:14]

2 Carl Rütti (b. 1949) A Patre unigenitus [3:14]

3 Matthew Owens (b. 1971) The Holly and the Ivy

Catherine Harrison soprano, Sam Dressel tenor [3:14]

4 Herbert Howells (1892–1983) Here is the little door [3:16]

5 trad. Czech, arr. Edward Higginbottom Rocking Carol [2:16]

6 Thomas Hewitt Jones (b. 1984) What child is this?

Rose Wilson-Haffenden soprano [4:18]

7 trad. English, arr. David Willcocks Sussex Carol [1:54]

8 Franz Xaver Gruber (1787–1863) arr. Geoffrey Webber Stille Nacht Catherine Harrison soprano, Richard Erskine bass [3:41]

9 trad. German arr. Robert Lucas de Pearsall (1795–1856) In dulci jubilo

Catharine Baumann, Anna Mathew sopranos

Emma Gullifer, Felicity McDermott altos

Sam Dressel, Philip Kennedy tenors

Nathan Mercieca, Nick Crawford basses [3:15]

10 Peter Tranchell (1922–1993) If ye would hear the angels sing

Nathan Mercieca bass [2:33]

Annie Lydford organ (tracks 2, 12, 17, 19) Nick Lee organ (tracks 3, 6, 7, 10, 20)

Pierre Villette (1926–1998) Hymne à la Vierge [3:32]

William Mathias (1934–1992) Wassail Carol [1:49]

Robert Parsons (c.1535–1572) Ave Maria [4:27]

Anton Webern (1883–1945) Dormi, Jesu Rose Wilson-Haffenden soprano Joseph Shiner clarinet [1:10]

Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) Videntes stellam [2:37]

William Walton (1902–1983) Make we joy now in this fest [3:32]

Martin Shaw (1875–1958) arr. Geoffrey Webber Hills of the North, rejoice [2:45]

Giovanni Gabrieli (1550s–1612) O magnum mysterium [3:46]

trad., arr. Magnus Williamson Of the Father’s heart begotten [4:12]

Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877–1933) Resonet in laudibus No. 3 from Cathedral Windows

Even the most cherished among Christmas traditions often rest in the margins between fact and fiction, spiritual and literal truth. Christmas, for instance, does not appear to have happened at Christmas or in Bethlehem. The festival’s mythic complexities and cultural accretions inevitably conditioned music written for the season. This album shows how composers have reconciled past and present with their diverse imaginative responses to the nativity story, keeping tradition alive by adding fresh flavours to it. Jan Sandström’s sublime deconstruction of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, completed in 1990, evokes a sense of sacred time, measured not by the clock or the relentless march of Christmas commerce. Sandström, raised in Sweden’s far north, creates a hypnotic setting of Es ist ein Ros by taking Michael Praetorius’ chorale-like harmonisation of the late medieval melody and assigning it to one choir, while piercing its foursquare solidity with floating chords that arise from a shadow choir like distant echoes from another world.

During the ‘twelfth-century Renaissance’, a period of radical theological transformation, unconditional love emerged as the guiding force of Christian contemplative life. Its cultivation fell to men, and increasingly women, who followed lives of extreme poverty, singular souls prepared to drop out of society and trade home comforts for the

seclusion of a hermit’s cell. Heinrich Seuse or Suso, a fourteenth-century mystic known to his contemporaries as ‘Servant of the Eternal Wisdom’, followed the eremitical path in pursuit of aeterna sapientia, the cherished taste of divine knowledge. Self-mortification and profound meditations opened Suso’s mind to transcendent visions of spiritual love. In one of these he was joined by a company of dancing angels. As Suso recalled in his third-person autobiography of 1328, they taught him ‘a joyous song … which runs thus: “In dulci jubilo, etc.” When the Servant heard the beloved name of Jesus sounding thus so sweetly, he became joyful in his heart and feeling …’

It seems likely that Suso coupled his revealed text, cast as a mix of Latin and German, to the music of an existing sacred dance-song, already popular by the time of his birth in the 1290s. Subsequent generations took In dulci jubilo to heart, adding new verses and establishing the work within Protestant Christmas ritual.

Robert Lucas de Pearsall, a wealthy Bristolian and amateur musician, gave new life to Suso’s song after his move to Germany in the 1820s. Pearsall’s double-choir arrangement of In dulci jubilo was written for the Karlsruhe Choral Society in 1834. He later translated its German words into English for performance by the Bristol Madrigal Society. ‘Of the melody there can be but one opinion,’ he wrote in 1837: ‘namely, that which in spite of religious

animosity, secured it the approbation of the Protestant reformers, and that of the German people during many centuries.’

Of the Father’s heart begotten owns a history even more complex than that of In dulci jubilo. The Christmas hymn’s original Latin words were created around the fifth century’s opening decade by the Roman lawyer Prudentius. The words were translated into English in the nineteenth century by John Mason Neale as Of the Father’s love begotten, and Neale and his hymn-collecting colleague, Thomas Helmore, married their adaptation of Prudentius’ verse to a tune from the Piae Cantiones, a collection of ecclesiastical and Christmas songs published in Sweden in 1582. Subsequently the Cambridge scholar R.F. Davies, unhappy with Neale’s translation, made a new version, Of the Father’s heart, for the English Hymnal in 1906. Magnus Williamson, one-time organ scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford and an expert on late medieval English sacred music, projects the hymn’s sense of mystery and wonder into his arrangement.

Matthew Owens, Organist and Master of the Choristers at Wells Cathedral since 2005, achieves a minor miracle with his setting of The Holly and the Ivy. He preserves the folk-carol’s familiar words, first written down by Cecil Sharp in 1911, and provides them with a new melody, as memorable in its lyrical flow and

dancing energy as the traditional tune known to generations of Christmas carollers. This English tradition and its development occupied David Willcocks during his time as Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge. One wonders whether he saw the letter written to his King’s predecessor, Boris Ord, on Christmas Day 1946 by Ralph Vaughan Williams: ‘Now it seems ungracious … to make a grouse,’ noted the veteran composer, ‘but I have meant to do this for years … I deplore the almost entire absence of English carols in your King’s College [Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols].’ Vaughan Williams added his wish-list of native works, Virgin unspotted and ‘On Xmas night ’ among them. After Willcocks took charge of the annual King’s carol service in the late 1950s, he gave vital life to old English tunes with a series of first-rate arrangements, notable not least for their sophisticated organ parts. His compelling setting of the Sussex Carol, conceived in ‘Homage to R.V.W.’, uses the version of words and melody collected by Vaughan Williams from Mrs Verrall, of Monk’s Gate, near Horsham, Sussex, in 1904.

Edward Higginbottom’s Rocking Carol complements the traditional Czech cradle-song ‘Hajej, nynej, Ježíšku’ with an accompaniment infused with gentle chromatic slides and strong echoes of close-harmony jazz. His arrangement, made for the Choir of New College, Oxford, in 1980, contains tonal colours

also present in the impressionistic Hymne à la Vierge, a graceful strophic setting of Roland Bouhéret’s sonorous poetry made by Pierre Villette in the mid-1950s. Villette’s Hymne has taken root in the Anglican Christmas repertoire, its popularity nourished by occasional appearances in the King’s College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

After serving in the Indian Army during the Second World War, Peter Tranchell returned to Cambridge to complete his studies at King’s College. He was appointed lecturer in music at the University of Cambridge in 1950 and became a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College a decade later. Tranchell’s outstanding contributions to life at Caius, notably as Precentor and Director of Studies in Music, were marked by generosity of spirit and personal kindness, qualities echoed in If ye would hear the angels sing. The carol, a mellifluous setting of verse by the Victorian poet Dora Greenwell, was commissioned in 1965 by Peter Marchbank for Queen Mary’s School, Basingstoke.

Geoffrey Webber, who followed Tranchell as Precentor at Caius in 1989, built on his predecessor ’s fruitful work with the chapel choir to refine its corporate musicianship and warmth of expression. His contributions to the Caius Christmas repertoire include a potent descant to Charles Edward Oakley ’s seasonal

hymn, Hills of the North, rejoice, and a version of Stille Nacht that combines its arranger ’s experienced artistry with the innocence of Franz Gruber ’s evergreen tune. Thomas Hewitt Jones, a former organ scholar of Gonville & Caius College, created What child is this? specially for Geoffrey Webber and the Choir. The carol conveys William Chatterton Dix’s verse without trace of sentimentality, matching the hope and wonder of its Christological message to music of eloquent simplicity.

Born in the Carmarthenshire town of Whitland, William Mathias rose to become one of the finest among twentieth-century Welsh composers. His choral compositions, like those of Britten, respect the prosody of poetic texts while intensifying their expressive weight. The opening of Wassail Carol, for example, rejoices in the Old English salutation, ‘wassail’: ‘may you be healthy’. Mathias makes telling use of incisive rhythmic riffs and metrical patterns throughout his brief work, while offsetting the familiarity of their repetition with a kaleidoscopic succession of choral and organ textures. The neo-classical brio of the Welshman’s work has much in common with William Walton’s Make we joy now in this fest, another satisfying synthesis of late medieval words, folk-like melodies and modern harmonic idioms. Walton’s unaccompanied carol was commissioned by The Daily Despatch and first published in the issue dated Christmas Eve 1931.

Carl Rütti studied violin and piano as a child and continued his musical development at the boarding school of Engelberg Abbey in central Switzerland. Young Carl sang treble in the Engelberg choir, an experience saturated with the sounds of Gregorian chant; he also learned to play the organ and trombone, exploring the repertoire for military band on the latter and experimenting with jazz on a variety of instruments. After graduating from the Zurich Conservatoire in 1975, Rütti moved to London to continue his studies. He drew lessons about the English choral tradition from regular visits to Sunday services at the Brompton Oratory, which he later combined with his knowledge of sacred chant to create vocal compositions hallmarked by their austere spiritual simplicity and telling use of silence. A Patre unigenitus explores the central Christian mystery of the Son of God, born of a virgin mother to become Son of Man. Rütti’s motet, written in 2010, sets the same anonymous fifteenth-centiry words as Walton (with slight variation in their order) to music of meditative stillness and sparing expression.

Herbert Howells belonged to the first full generation to feel the brute force of modern mechanised warfare. The young musician’s poor health prevented him from answering Lord Kitchener’s call to arms in 1915; the killing fields of the Western Front, however, took the lives of many close to him. Here is the

little door, the first of three carol-anthems, was written during the First World War and published as the conflict lurched towards its close in 1918. ‘The text was found for me by G.K. Chesterton (to whom it is dedicated) among a sheaf of typescript poems by Mrs Chesterton,’ Howells recalled decades later. His setting, first performed by the massed ranks of the London Bach Choir, amounts to a choral chant in which each syllable of Frances Chesterton’s poem is either matched to a single chord or coloured by simple passingnote harmonies.

Formative studies of late Tudor music left lasting marks on Howells’s development as a composer. ‘All through my life I’ve had this strange feeling that I belong to the Tudor period,’ he recalled in the 1970s. Vaughan Williams suggested that Howells ‘was the reincarnation of one of the lesser Tudor luminaries’. Perhaps he had in mind Robert Parsons, a Gentleman of Elizabeth I’s Chapel Royal, said to have drowned in the Trent at Newark. His Ave Maria probably dates from the late 1560s and may allude to Mary Queen of Scots, heir to Elizabeth’s throne in the eyes of most Catholics, who fled to England in 1568 and was held there in protective custody. The motet’s contrapuntal clarity and subtle textural contrasts prefigure aspects of the mature work of William Byrd, who filled Parsons’s place at the Chapel Royal in 1572.

The sombre nature of Poulenc’s return to Catholicism in his middle years was initially ruled by the macabre death in 1936 of his friend Pierre-Octave Ferroud. His faith evolved in the post-war years to embrace joyfulness, expressed with child-like energy in the Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël These fine miniatures, crafted in 1951–2, explore various episodes from the Christmas story. Videntes stellam employs bell-like harmonies and exotic dissonances to evoke the starlit journey of the Magi. Sacred texts in general and words from the Roman Catholic liturgy in particular also inspired Anton Webern. He composed three of his Five Canons on Latin Texts, Op.16, during the summer of 1923 in Mödling, Lower Austria. The third, Dormi, Jesu, to a devotional text from the folk anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn, represents a staging post on the way to Webern’ s adoption of his teacher Schoenberg’ s recently announced twelve-note method of composition. The work presents a canon in inversion, exchanged between clarinet and voice, a technical device that supports music distilled down to its purest essence of expression.

Giovanni Gabrieli flourished under the patronage of the Venetian Doges. His largescale ceremonial works took full advantage of the musicians’ galleries in the basilica of St Mark’s, which offered scope for exploiting bold textural contrasts and antiphonal

effects. His Christmas motet for eight voices O magnum mysterium, published in 1587, combines strands of influence drawn from the polychoral works of his uncle and mentor, Andrea Gabrieli, with traces of the latest expressive harmonic language, most clearly stated in the work’s frequent shifts between minor and major modes.

Duplicity and deceit came naturally to Sigfrid Karg-Elert, born Siegfried Theodor Karg at Oberndorf am Neckar and also known by the aliases Teo von Oberndorff and Dr O. Bergk. Günter Hartmann, author of a monumental twovolume survey of Karg-Elert’s organ works, neatly outlines the composer’s inventive selffashioning: ‘[He] lived from 1877 – and not 1878 or even 1879, as the supercilious composer himself falsely spread abroad – to 1933. Indeed, there is much false information concerning his life, and Karg-Elert is to a great extent responsible for its dissemination.’ Hartmann’s biographical sketch, apparently crafted without irony, notes how the talented youngster ‘did not train himself autodidactically’, as he later claimed; rather, he received lessons from the cantor of the Johanneskirche in Leipzig before studying music theory, composition and piano at the Leipzig Conservatory. Several myths about the composer stem from the reviews he wrote of his own organ works for publication under a friend’s name! Cathedral Windows, a collection of six pieces for organ on Gregorian

tunes published in 1923, speak for the positive virtues of Karg-Elert’s work. Resonet in laudibus, complete with two high notes held throughout, offers a gentle reflection on the reverence of Christmas worship, magnified by the composer’s sensitive meditation on one of the most popular of all German Christmas melodies.

Andrew Stewart has been a freelance writer since 1989. He studied historical musicology at King’s College London, was artistic director of the Southwark Festival, and is an experienced choir trainer and choral conductor.

Recorded on 29-30 September 2011 in the Parish Church of St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood

Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter

24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks & Paul Baxter

24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter Design: John Christ

Booklet editor: Henry Howard Cover image: Matthias Grünewald (c.1470/80–1528),The Stuppach Madonna (1518, mixed media on wood), Stuppach Parish Church, Württemberg, Germany / Bridgeman Images Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.co.uk

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1 Es ist ein Ros entsprungen

Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, There is a rose sprung up aus einer Wurzel zart, from a tender root, wie uns die Alten sungen, as the ancients have told us in song, von Jesse kam die Art. its lineage came from Jesse. Und hat ein Blümlein bracht And it has brought forth a little flower mitten im kalten Winter, in the midst of the cold winter wohl zu der halben Nacht. in the depths of night.

trad. German, ?16th century

2 /16 A Patre unigenitus / Make we joy now in this fest

A Patre unigenitus The only-begotten of the Father Is through a maiden come to us:

Sing we of Him and say ‘Welcome! Veni redemptor gencium.’ Come, redeemer of the nations. Eya!

Agnoscat omne seculum, Let every age perceive (that) A bright star made three kings to come, Him for to seek with their presents, Verbum supernum prodiens. The high Word coming forth. Eya!

A solis ortus cardine, From the rising of the sun, So mighty a Lord is none as He; And to our kind He hath Him knit, Adam parens quod polluit. Which our father Adam defiled. Eya!

Make we joy now in this Fest,

In quo Christus natus est. In which Christ is born.

Eya!

Maria ventre concepit, Mary conceived in her womb, The Holy Ghost was aye her with. Of her in Bethl’em born he is, Consors Paterni luminis. Sharing in the light of the Father.

O lux beata Trinitas, O light of the Holy Trinity, He lay between an ox and ass,

Beside his mother maiden free,

Gloria tibi Domine! Glory to thee, O Lord!

anon. English, 15th century, adapted and tr. Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott

3 The Holly and the Ivy

The holly and the ivy

When they are both full grown;

Of all the trees that are in the wood

The holly bears the crown. O the rising of the sun

And the running of the deer, The playing of the merry organ, Sweet singing in the choir.

The holly bears a blossom

As white as any flower;

And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

To be our sweet Saviour.

The holly bears a berry

As red as any blood;

And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

To do poor sinners good.

The holly bears a prickle

As sharp as any thorn; And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

On Christmas Day in the morn.

The holly bears a bark

As bitter as any gall;

And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ For to redeem us all.

trad. English

4 Here is the little door

Here is the little door, lift up the latch, Oh lift!

We need not wander more but enter with our gift;

Our gift of finest gold, Gold that was never bought nor sold; Myrrh to be strewn about his bed; Incense in clouds about his head; All for the Child who stirs not in his sleep, But holy slumber holds with ass and sheep.

Bend low about his bed, for each he has a gift;

See how his eyes awake, lift up your hands, Oh lift!

For gold, he gives a keen-edged sword;

(Defend with it thy little Lord!)

For incense, smoke of battle red; Myrrh for the honoured happy dead. Gifts for his children, terrible and sweet, Touched by such tiny hands and Oh such tiny feet.

Frances Chesterton (1869–1938)

5 Rocking Carol

Little Jesus sweetly sleep, do not stir

We will lend a coat of fur; We will rock you, rock you, rock you, We will rock you, rock you, rock you, See the fur to keep you warm Snugly round your tiny form.

Mary’s little baby, sleep, sweetly sleep, Sleep in comfort, slumber deep; We will rock you, rock you, rock you, We will rock you, rock you, rock you, We will serve you all we can, Darling, darling little man.

trad. Czech, tr. Percy Dearmer (1867–1936)

6 What child is this?

What child is this who, laid to rest, On Mary’s lap is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds worship and angels sing: Haste, haste to bring Him praise, The babe, the son of Mary!

Why lies he in such mean estate, Where ox and ass are feeding?

Good Christians, fear: for sinners here The silent Word is pleading. Nails, spear shall pierce him through, The Cross be borne for me, for you; Hail! hail the Word made flesh, The babe, the son of Mary!

So bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh: Come, peasant, king, to own Him!

The King of Kings salvation brings: Let loving hearts enthrone Him!

Raise, raise the song on high! The Virgin sings her lullaby. Joy! joy! for Christ is born, The babe, the son of Mary!

William Chatterton Dix (1837–1898)

7 Sussex Carol

On Christmas night all Christians sing,

To hear the news the angels bring. News of great joy, news of great mirth, News of our merciful King’s birth.

Then why should men on earth be so sad, Since our Redeemer made us glad? When from our sin he set us free, All for to gain our liberty?

When sin departs before his grace, Then life and health come in its place. Angels and men with joy may sing, All for to see the new born King.

All out of darkness we have light, Which made the angels sing this night: ’Glory to God and peace to men, Now and for evermore, Amen.’ trad. English

8 Stille Nacht

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Quiet night! Holy night!

Alles schläft; einsam wacht Everything is asleep, Nur das traute hochheilige Paar. only the holy couple are watching close.

Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar, Blessed curly-haired boy, Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh! sleep in heavenly peace!

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Quiet night! Holy night! Hirten erst kundgemacht Shepherds are first to learn it

Durch der Engel Halleluja, from the angels’ alleluia, Tönt es laut von fern und nah’: as it sounds far and near: Christ, der Retter, ist da! Christ, the Saviour, is here!

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Quiet night! Holy night! Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht Son of God, oh how love Lieb’ aus deinem göttlichen Mund, laughs from your divine mouth, Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund’, for the hour of our salvation has struck, Christ, in deiner Geburt! Christ, in your birth!

Joseph Mohr (1792–1848)

9 In dulci jubilo

In dulci jubilo In sweet rejoicing

Let us our homage shew; Our heart’s joy reclineth In praesepio; In the crib; And like a bright star shineth, Matris in gremio. In the mother’s lap. Alpha es et O. Thou art Alpha and Omega.

O Jesu parvule! O little one, Jesus!

I yearn for thee alway!

Hear me, I beseech Thee, O puer optime! Best of boys!

My prayer let it reach Thee,

O princeps gloriae! Prince of glory!

Trahe me post te! Carry me in your wake!

O Patris caritas, O love of the Father, O Nati lenitas! O gentleness of the Son!

Deeply were we stained

Per nostra crimina; By our sins; But thou hast for us hast gained Coelorum gaudia, The joys of heaven, O that we were there!

Ubi sunt gaudia, where, Where are joys to be found, If that they be not there?

There are angels singing Nova cantica, New songs, There the bells are ringing In Regis curia. In the courts of the King.

O that we were there!

attrib. Heinrich Seuse (c.1295–1366), tr. Robert Lucas de Pearsall

10 If ye would hear the angels sing

If ye would hear the angels sing ‘Peace on earth and mercy mild,’ Think of him who was once a child, On Christmas Day in the morning.

If ye would hear the angels sing, Rise, and spread your Christmas fare; ’Tis merrier still the more that share, On Christmas Day in the morning.

Rise, and bake your Christmas bread: Christians, rise! the world is bare, And blank, and dark with want and care, Yet Christmas comes in the morning.

If ye would hear the angels sing, Christians! see ye let each door Stand wider than it e’er stood before, On Christmas Day in the morning.

Rise, and open wide the door; Christians, rise! the world is wide, And many there be that stand outside, Yet Christmas comes in the morning.

Dora Greenwell (1821–1882)

11 Hymne à la Vierge

O toute belle Vierge Marie, O all-beautiful Virgin Mary, Votre âme trouve en Dieu your soul finds in God

Le parfait amour. the perfect love.

Il vous revêt du manteau de la Grâce It clothes you in the mantle of Grace Comme une fiancée like a bride

Parée de ses joyaux. Alleluia. adorned in her jewels. Alleluia.

Je vais chanter ta louange, Seigneur, I will sing your praise, Lord, Car tu as pris soin de moi, for you have taken care of me, Car tu m’as envelopée du voile de l’innocence. for you have wrapped me in the veil of innocence

Vous êtes née avant les collines, You were born before the hills, O sagesse de Dieu, O wisdom of God, Porte du Salut, gateway of salvation, Heureux celui qui marche dans vos traces, happy the man who walks in your footsteps,

Qui apprête son coeur who lends his heart

A la voix de vos conseils. Alleluia. to the voice of your counsel. Alleluia.

Je vais chanter ta louange, Seigneur, I will sing your praise, Lord, Car tu m’as faite, avant le jour, for you have made me before the day, Car tu m’as fait précéder le jaillissement you made me come before the welling des sources. up of springs.

Avant les astres Before the stars

Vous étiez présente, you were present, Mère du Créateur, Mother of the Creator, Au profond du ciel at the furthest height of heaven

Quand Dieu fixait les limites du monde. when God was setting the bounds of the world. Vous partagiez son coeur You shared his heart

Etant à l’oeuvre avec lui. Alleluia. taking your part in his work. Alleluia.

O toute belle Vierge Marie. O all-beautiful Virgin Mary.

Roland Bouhéret (1930–1995)

12 Wassail Carol

Wassail, wassail, wassail, sing we In worship of Christ’s nativity. Now joy be to the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost That one God is in Trinity, Father of heaven, of mightès most.

And joy to the Virgin pure That ever kept her undefiled Grounded in grace, in heart full sure, And bare a child as maiden mild.

Bethlehem and the star so shen, bright That shone three kingès for to guide, Bear witness of this maiden clean; The kingès three offered that tide.

And shepherds heard, as written is, The joyful song that there was sung: Gloria in excelsis!

Glory in the highest! With angel’s voice it was out rung.

Now joy be to the blessedful child, And joy be to his mother dear; Joy we all of that maiden mild, And joy have they that make good cheer. Wassail, wassail, wassail, sing we In worship of Christ’s nativity. anon. English, 16th century

13 Ave Maria

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus you are blessed among women, and blessed fructus ventris tui. Amen. is the fruit of your womb. Amen.

14 Dormi, Jesu

Dormi, Jesu! mater ridet

Sleep on, Jesus! Mother smiles Quae tam dulcem somnum videt, to see such sweet sleep. Dormi, Jesu, blandule! Sleep on, Jesus, sweet little one! Si non dormis, mater plorat If you don’t sleep, Mother will cry, Inter fila cantans orat, and pray, singing amid her needlework: Blande, veni, somnule! Come, sweet little sleep!

From an engraving by Hieronymus Wierix (1553–1619); text reprinted in Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, eds., Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1805)

15 Videntes stellam

Videntes stellam Magi, Seeing the star, the Magi gavisi sunt gaudio magno: rejoiced with a great joy: et intrantes domum, and coming into the house, obtulerunt Domino aurum, they offered gold, thus et myrrham. frankincense and myrrh to the Lord.

Magnificat antiphon for the second day in the octave of Epiphany (7 January)

17 Hills of the North, rejoice

Hills of the North, rejoice,

Echoing songs arise, Hail with united voice

Him who made earth and skies: He comes in righteousness and love, He brings salvation from above.

Isles of the Southern seas,

Sing to the listening earth, Carry on every breeze

Hope of a world’s new birth: In Christ shall all be made anew, His word is sure, his promise true.

Lands of the East, arise, He is your brightest morn, Greet him with joyous eyes, Praise shall his path adorn: The God whom you have longed to know In Christ draws near, and calls you now.

18 O magnum mysterium

Shores of the utmost West, Lands of the setting sun, Welcome the heavenly guest

In whom the dawn has come: He brings a never-ending light

Who triumphed o’er our darkest night.

Shout, as you journey on, Songs be in every mouth, Lo, from the North they come, From East and West and South: In Jesus all shall find their rest, In him the sons of earth be blest.

Charles E. Oakley (1832–1865), rewritten by the editors of the New English Hymnal (1986)

19 Of the Father’s heart begotten

Of the Father’s heart begotten Ere the world from chaos rose, He is Alpha: from that fountain, All that is and hath been flows; He is Omega, of all things Yet to come the mystic close, Evermore and evermore.

By his word was all created; He commanded and ’twas done; Earth and sky and boundless ocean, Universe of three in one, All that sees the moon’s soft radiance, All that breathes beneath the sun, Evermore and evermore.

He assumed this mortal body, Frail and feeble, doomed to die, That the race from dust created Might not perish utterly, Which the dreadful Law had sentenced In the depths of hell to lie, Evermore and evermore.

O how blest that wondrous birthday, When the Maid the curse retrieved, Brought to birth mankind’s salvation, By the Holy Ghost conceived, And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer, In her loving arms received, Evermore and evermore.

This is he, whom seer and sybil Sang in ages long gone by; This is he of old revealed In the page of prophecy; Lo! he comes, the promised Saviour; Let the world his praises cry, Evermore and evermore!

Sing, ye heights of heaven, his praises; Angels and archangels, sing! Wheresoe’er ye be, ye faithful, Let your joyous anthems ring, Every tongue his name confessing, Countless voices answering, Evermore and evermore.

Aurelius Prudentius (348–c.413), tr. Roby Furley Davis (1866–1937)

O magnum mysterium et admirabile O great mystery and wonderful sacramentum, ut animalia viderent sacrament, that the animals beheld Dominum natum iacentem in praesepio! the newborn Lord lying in the crib! Beata virgo, cuius viscera meruerunt Blessed Virgin, whose womb was worthy portare Dominum Christum. Alleluia. to carry the Lord Christ. Alleluia.

Matins responsory for the feast of the Nativity

The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge is one of Britain’s leading collegiate choirs. The College was founded in 1348 but the musical tradition stems from the late nineteenth century when the well-known composer of church music Charles Wood became Organist. The choir in Wood’s day contained boy trebles; it 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 additional activities including concerts, recordings and broadcasts. The Choir travels extensively abroad, performing at a variety of venues ranging from major concert halls to universities, cathedrals and churches in Europe, America and Asia, often in connection with other professional ensembles such as Opera Northern Ireland, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco, and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. The Choir also gives a number of concerts in the UK each year, and has made appearances at St John’s, Smith Square, The Cadogan Hall, the Spitalfields Festival and the Aldeburgh Festival, and at many other concert halls and festivals around 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 performed with period instruments to Russian and Greek Orthodox music, South African music, and music composed especially for the Choir by leading British 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 often specialised in the rediscovery of forgotten choral repertories, including previously unpublished music from within the English choral tradition and beyond. A series of highly acclaimed CDs has included music by British composers Samuel Wesley, William Child, Michael Wise (Delphian DCD34041), William Turner (Delphian DCD34028), Edmund Rubbra, Patrick Hadley, John Sanders, Mansel Thomas and Rebecca Clarke, and by continental composers Joseph Rheinberger, Giacomo Puccini, Leonardo Leo and Charles Gounod. The Choir has also recorded two reconstructions – the Latin Mass in E Flat by Janáček and the St Mark Passion by J.S. Bach – three programmes of Swiss choral music (in conjunction with the National Library of Zurich), and the complete anthems of Charles Wood. Other recent CD releases include a recording of modern and medieval vocal music entitled All the Ends of the Earth, and a recording of modern and medieval Christmas music entitled Into this world this day did come (Delphian DCD34075). The choir’s

Biographies Also available on Delphian

2011 recording of music by the leading British composer Judith Weir (Delphian DCD34095) has achieved high acclaim and was the BBC Music Magazine ’s Choral and Song Choice in December 2011. The choir’s latest release is In Praise of St Columba: The Sound World of the Celtic Church (Delphian DCD34137).

Sopranos

Catharine Baumann

Elunyd Bradshaw

Camilla Godlee

Catherine Harrison

(John Chumrow Choral Scholar)

Anna Mathew

Matilda McAleenan

(Caius Fund 2010 Choral Scholar)

Billie Robson

Rose Wilson-Haffenden

Altos

Elly Brindle

Daniel Chard

Imogen Gardam

Emma Gullifer

Felicity McDermott

Tenors

Finn Downie Dear

Sam Dressel

Philip Kennedy

Robin Morton (Caius Fund 2009 Choral Scholar)

James Robinson

Basses

Nick Crawford

(Keith Stuart Choral Scholar)

Richard Erskine

Tom Lovering

Nathan Mercieca

Misha Mullov-Abbado

Sebastian Rex Organ Scholars

Annie Lydford

(Wilfrid Holland Organ Scholar)

Nick Lee

(Peter Walker Organ Scholar)

Geoffrey Webber studied music at Oxford University where he was Organ Scholar at New College. After graduating he served as Acting Organist at New College and Magdalen College, and became University Organist and Director of Music at the University Church. During this time he also directed the Edington Festival in Wiltshire. After completing his doctorate on German Baroque music he became Director of Music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge in 1989. He now divides his time between conducting, lecturing, teaching and research, and is an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music. In 2010 he designed a new degree course in choral conducting which now attracts students from all over the world. This year he is taking a leading role in a research project on Brazilian choral music funded by the British Academy.

Acclaimed for his ‘fluidity of tonal colour’ and ‘highly communicative, musically intelligent, impressively insightful’ playing, clarinettist

Joseph Shiner is currently building a dynamic performing career in the UK and abroad. Joseph read Music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated with double first class honours, followed by postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music. Joseph has played principal with orchestras such as the Britten-Pears Orchestra, Orpheus Sinfonia, and London Pops Orchestra, and is steadily developing a freelance orchestral career.

Rodion Shchedrin: The Sealed Angel

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge; Choir of King’s College London

Geoffrey Webber & David Trendell conductors, Clare Wills oboe

DCD34067

Two of Britain’s finest young choirs join forces and cross a continent to give voice to the sublime expressiveness of Rodion Shchedrin’s ‘Russian liturgy’, an astonishing statement of faith composed in the early days of perestroika. Shchedrin’s choral tableaux juxtapose tenderness with bracing sonic impact, and are shadowed throughout by a plangent solo oboe representing the soul of the Russian people.

‘Caught here in fine sound, this is a splendid disc of a multifaceted, manylayered modern masterpiece’

— Gramophone, June 2009, EDITOR’S CHOICE

Michael Wise (c.1648–1687): Sacred Choral Music

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge / Geoffrey Webber DCD34041

Chastised for ‘excesses in his life and conversation’, Michael Wise lived a notoriously dissolute life which ended when he was hit about the head and ‘kill’d downright’ by the night-watchman of Salisbury Cathedral. Thus was St Paul’s robbed of its forthcoming Master of the Choristers, and history of one of the period’s most prolific and accomplished composers. Geoffrey Webber and his choir pay testament to the more respectable music-making that is Wise’s legacy.

‘The music bears all the artistry of its time – unpretentious homophony sprinkled with evocative chromaticism’

— The Scotsman, June 2008

Into this World this Day did come: carols contemporary & medieval Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge / Geoffrey Webber

DCD34075

Another intriguing and unusual programme combines English works from the 12th to 16th centuries with medievally-inspired carols by some of our finest living composers. From the plangent innocence of William Sweeney’s The Innumerable Christ to the shining antiphony of Diana Burrell’s Creator of the Stars of Night, this selection will seduce and enchant. The choir combines polish with verve, and Webber’s meticulous attention to detail is floodlit by the bathing acoustics of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast.

‘stunning … an unflinching modern sound with an irresistible spiritual dimension’

— Norman Lebrecht, www.scena.org, December 2009

In Praise of Saint Columba: The Sound-World of the Celtic Church Barnaby Brown triplepipes,

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge / Geoffrey Webber

DCD34137

This groundbreaking programme seeks to recreate three distinct soundworlds. Just as the influence of Irish monks extended not only across Scotland but also to mainland Europe, so we imagine our way back down the centuries into 7th-century hermits’ cells, 10th-century Celtic foundations in Switzerland, and the 14th-century world of Inchcolm Abbey, the ‘Iona of the East’ in the Firth of Forth. Silent footprints of musical activity – the evidence of early notation but also of stone carvings, manuscript illuminations, and documents of the early Church – have guided both vocal and instrumental approaches in the choir’s collaboration with scholar and piper Barnaby Brown.

‘done with intelligence, musicality and enthusiasm

… They give a bracing vigour and unusual freedom to this ancient music’

— The Observer, July 2014

William Turner (1651–1740): Sacred Choral Music

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge; Yorkshire Baroque Soloists

Geoffrey Webber conductor

DCD34028

It is easy to forget that our great English choral tradition was once silenced by Act of Parliament. The subsequent restoration of the monarchy in 1660 ushered in one of the finest periods of English music, and William Turner, in 1660 a precocious nine-year-old, went on to become one of the best-known composers and singers of his day. This disc presents a cross-section of his sacred music, including several premiere recordings.

‘invigorating and highly persuasive … a reminder of the still unknown riches of English Baroque music’

— Gramophone, October 2007

Judith Weir: Choral Music

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge / Geoffrey Webber

DCD34095

This first recording devoted entirely to Judith Weir’s choral music comprises her complete works to date for unaccompanied choir or choir with one instrument. Tracking her evolving relationship with the medium from her earliest liturgical commission to the most recent, premiered in 2009, it also includes several secular pieces and her two organ works, which are now established classics of the repertoire. The athleticism, intensity and clarity that are hallmarks of the choir’s singing are ideally suited to Weir’s strikingly original, approachable and fascinating music.

‘Delphian’s recording is ideal, with the resonance never drowning the detail … The singing of Geoffrey Webber’s choir is faultless’

— The Arts Desk, October 2011