HAEC DIES
HAEC DIES
Recorded on 8-10 July 2011
in Worksop College Chapel
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Cover image: William Morris, Day: Angel Holding a Sun, c.1862-64 (watercolour and pencil on paper), The Bridgeman Art Library
Design: John Christ www.johnchristdesign.com
Booklet editor: John Fallas Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.co.uk With thanks to Tim Uglow, Director of Music at Worksop College
& Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Oskar McCarthy bass (tracks 8 & 9)
William Byrd arr. J.E. Borland Fantasia in C (1907) [6:49]
Benjamin Britten (1913–76) A Hymn to the Virgin (1930, rev. 1934)
Catharine Baumann soprano, Emma Gullifer alto, Philip Kennedy tenor, Richard Erskine bass [3:27]
Herbert Howells (1892–1983) Haec dies (1918) [2:42]
Robert Pearsall (1795–1856) Tu es Petrus (1840/54) [2:29]
Arnold Bax (1883–1953) Lord, thou hast told us (1931) [2:21]
Herbert Howells Master Tallis’s Testament (1940) [7:28]
Reviving and re-inventing the music of the past has long been a significant part of English musical life. In Anglican church music in particular, the music of the Tudor period has never been far below the surface, though the heightened interest in the sacred music of Byrd, Tallis and others in the first half of the twentieth century was so extensive that the description ‘Tudor revival’ is entirely justified. Musicians of the time were stirred both to perform this unsurpassed repertoire and to compose new music inspired by it. On this recording, Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices is juxtaposed with a variety of such works. No attempt is made to perform Byrd’s vocal music in the manner in which it was performed either in the Tudor period or in the early twentieth century, but we do feature some historically-informed performance of a slightly more unusual kind, forming a bridge between the early and twentieth-century repertoires: two Tudor compositions are played on the organ not in a manner that seeks to recreate their original sound, or their meaning to Tudor listeners, but in arrangements that represent something of how this music was heard by early twentiethcentury ears.
Although their inclusion in various printed anthologies means that a few sacred works by composers such as Byrd and Tallis have never left the repertoire of cathedrals, churches and chapels, examples of further revivals before
the early twentieth century are very sparse. One major milestone was the publication of an edition of the Mass for Five Voices in 1841 by Edward Rimbault, the editor of the Musical Antiquarian Society in London. This marked the first in a series of enterprising publications that included music by Gibbons and Morley as well as by later composers such as Purcell.
Around the same time, the composer Robert Pearsall was composing his contributions to the work of another Society aimed at reviving earlier music, the Bristol Madrigal Society. He composed his madrigal Lay a garland on her hearse in 1840, but in 1854 he adapted it for sacred use by providing a new text (and title), Tu es Petrus, presumably for performance at the monastery of Einsiedeln in Switzerland, near which he was living at the time for health reasons. The musical substance of the work harks back to the suspension-filled homophony of many Tudor madrigals, but also seems to reflect Pearsall’s contact, on first moving to the continent in the 1820s, with the German Cecilian movement, a group that specifically aimed to recreate a lost ‘pure’ style of unaccompanied church polyphony. Anglican church music of the nineteenth century did not have its own equivalent of the Cecilian movement, and it was not until the early twentieth century that a widespread interest in music of the Tudor period began to emerge, alongside a new enthusiasm for the traditional folk music of the British Isles. But when it did,
these twin interests gave composers much scope to develop the freedom they sought from late Romantic idioms.
Awareness of the quality of Byrd’s sacred music around this time was greatly enhanced by the publication by Novello of the Mass for Four Voices in 1890 and by Breitkopf and Härtel’s publication of the Mass for Five Voices in 1899. The influential Roman Catholic musician Richard Terry performed the latter work at Downside School on 21 March 1899 –later described by Michael Kennedy as ‘a great day in English music’.1 When Terry conducted the work again at the opening of Ealing Abbey in November 1899, Cardinal Vaughan, the Archbishop of Westminster presiding over the construction of the new cathedral in Westminster, was moved to proclaim that ‘This is the music I want for my Cathedral’, and set about hiring Terry as its first Master of Music. Movements of the same Mass were also performed at the Birmingham Festival of 1900, but if there is a final example of the re-integration of this masterpiece into British musical life it must be the inclusion of the ‘Sanctus’ at the Coronation of King George VI in 1937. In the meantime, a performance of the Mass by one of an increasing number of amateur choirs set up specially to revive early
English music, the Tudor Singers, at a soirée given by the pianist Harriet Cohen led to the composition of Arnold Bax’s Mater ora filium in 1921, though the work itself owes little directly to Byrd’s music.
As well as the Masses, Byrd’s shorter anthems and motets were also gaining in popularity at this time, even in the period before Edmund Fellowes’ great edition of The Collected Works of William Byrd (1937–50). Before Gustav Holst ceased his association with Morley College in 1924, he performed every year ‘a Bach cantata, a Purcell suite and a Haydn Symphony, as well as several motets by William Byrd and madrigals by Weelkes’. 2 One of the most popular of all Byrd’s Latin works is the Haec dies for six voices, first published in his second volume of Cantiones sacrae in 1591, and this work may lie behind the composition of a setting of the same text by Herbert Howells from 1918, the last in a group of nine pieces Howells wrote for Westminster Cathedral at the request of Richard Terry. Its deliberately archaic modality is evident in the pure Mixolydian mode of its first eight bars, producing strong flattened sevenths that echo a similar emphasis in the contratenor voice near the start of Byrd’s setting.
1 Michael Kennedy, The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (Oxford University Press).
2 Imogen Holst, Gustav Holst: A Biography (Oxford University Press).
Some composers chose to include actual quotations from Tudor music in their own compositions. Charles Wood drew from Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices when he composed the ‘Benedictus’ of his Communion Service in the Phrygian Mode (1923), and Gerald Finzi quotes from Byrd’s Attollite portas in his anthem Up to those bright and gladsome hills (1925), in which the opening phrase of Byrd’s unaccompanied motet is played on the organ (following immediately after the text ‘Unto my very soul’), the notes being written in the score under inverted commas. Why Finzi chose to quote Byrd in this unusual manner is not entirely clear, though the texts of the two works employ similar imagery, and his use of a 7/4 time signature may have been a reference to the continual flux between rhythmic groups of three and two that pervades much Tudor music.
The modal nature of both Tudor music and folksong played an important part in colouring the musical language of the revival repertoire, and in sacred music the hymn was central to this process. Subtle modal inflections are present in Arnold Bax’s Lord, thou hast told us (1931), a beautifully crafted choral hymn in simple strophic form. In the popular hymnanthem genre composers sometimes used old melodies as a basis, and sometimes composed new ones that echoed the old. One of the famous ‘Song’ melodies by Orlando Gibbons
appears in Eternal ruler (1930) by William Harris (a colleague of Edmund Fellowes at St George’s Chapel, Windsor), this work being an independently issued extract from a longer anthem, The Heavens declare the Glory of God. The hymn that concludes Holst’s anthem Man born to toil (1927) is another original tune with a modal basis, made clear in this case with an immediate emphasis on B flat after the C major opening at ‘Gird on thy sword’. (Occurring from mid-way through the anthem as if in enactment of the line ‘riseth the praise of God from hearts in tuneful song’, the hymn came separately to be known as ‘Chilswell’, after the Berkshire home of Robert Bridges, whose poetry Holst set on several occasions besides this one.)
A more flexible approach can be found in three hymn-inspired compositions which all expand the form in different ways. In A Hymn to the Virgin (1930, rev. 1934) Benjamin Britten sets a chorus against a solo quartet, with which it is heard in alternation; Ralph Vaughan Williams places a solo voice against high and low choruses in his Whitsunday Hymn (1930); while in his anthem O living Bread, who once didst die (1930) Percy Whitlock veers more towards the style of a work such as Byrd’s famous motet Ave verum, adding some lightly contrapuntal movement with clashing suspensions. Modal harmony is particularly strong in the pieces by Britten and Vaughan Williams, the Whitsunday Hymn
being composed in the purest Ionian mode without a single black note in the entire composition.
Alongside the revival of Tudor choral music in the early twentieth century came that of the keyboard music of the period. Some editors, notably Cambridge musicians Squire and Fuller Maitland in their pioneering edition of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (1894–99), aimed at presenting the music in a manner close to the original sources, while others set about making the music suitable for the organs of the day. The scale and orchestral nature of larger church organs in particular was completely unsuited to this repertoire, so in order to make the music convincing on such instruments it made sense to employ their vocal colours and large sonic range. The music was thus ‘arranged’ for the modern organ by utilising the pedal divisions that were absent from English organs of the Tudor period, as well as more than one manual. The arrangement of Byrd’s Fantasia in C on this recording has no additional notes to those composed by Byrd (apart from octave doubling), but J.E. Borland added indications for the use of different manuals and pedals, specific stops and dynamics as well as the typical slur-and-dot phrasing of the time and greatly reduced ornamentation, as can also be seen in other arrangements of the period such as Basil Harwood’s 1930 version of Byrd’s Miserere. On this recording the fine organ at
Worksop College, built by Keates around 1920 (and restored by A.J. Carter in 2001), provides all the necessary facilities to recreate this manner of performance. Such arrangements of Byrd’s music are to be appreciated in the same manner as Liszt’s or Busoni’s piano transcriptions of music by Bach, the new versions becoming compositions in their own right. This observation is perhaps most pertinent to the arrangement of Thomas Tallis’s ‘Third Tune’ by brothers Martin and Geoffrey Shaw. Not only does their adaptation make full use of the early twentieth-century organ (with stop indications ranging from the Claribel to the Tuba), but it was intended to fulfil a particular need in the mind of the listener in 1915 – hence the title Funeral Music. The note which accompanies the piece makes a strong case for the Tudor revival in general:
At this time of national sorrow what should be done by organists and those responsible for our music in churches and chapels? Should we not honour our own dead with our own voice? The great moving utterance of Tallis speaks to us from the ‘spacious days’ of Elizabeth. It seems to have been waiting through the centuries for this fateful year. It is the Dies Irae of the English. Let us tune ourselves to it, listening with bowed heads and undaunted hearts.
Well known following the publication of the English Hymnal (1906) edited by Vaughan Williams, and of the same composer’s
subsequent Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis in 1910, the tune was thus specifically arranged by the Shaw brothers in response to the period of national mourning during the Great War. Again the notes are basically unchanged (apart from doubling), but unlike Vaughan Williams, who in the English Hymnal regularised the uneven rhythmic flow of Tallis’s original melody, the Shaws retained the possibility of presenting the original rhythm as well as notes of Tallis’s tune, placing the extra dots used by Vaughan Williams in brackets.
As in the case of the choral repertoire, some composers for organ chose to re-use old tunes in their new compositions: Charles Stanford incorporated several of the ‘Song’ tunes by Gibbons in his Preludes and Postludes, and Harold Darke took inspiration from the
Vaughan Williams Fantasia to compose a Chorale Prelude on a Theme of Tallis, using the First rather than the Third Tune, in 1919. Other composers chose to write entirely original material imbued with the spirit of the earlier age, though this sometimes involved the creation of new melodies in the old style. The second Tallis-related organ piece on this recording is the homage by Herbert Howells, his Master Tallis’s Testament of 1940. Like Holst in his anthem Man, born to toil, Howells creates his own tune in the spirit of the revival, a simple Dorian-like melody transposed onto G which forms the basis of the composition. After the imposing climax, a delicate musical afterthought enhances the sense of the whole work being some kind of echo of the past.
© 2012 Geoffrey Webber
1 Ralph Vaughan Williams: Whitsunday Hymn
Come, holy Spirit, most blessed Lord, Fulfil our hearts now with Thy grace And make our minds of one accord, Kindle them with love in every place. Alleluya.
O holy light most principal, The word of life shew unto us, And cause us to know God over all For our own Father most gracious. Alleluya.
O holy fire, and comfort most sweet, Fill our hearts with faith and boldness, To abide by Thee in cold and heat, Content to suffer for righteousness. Alleluya.
O Lord, Thou forgivest our trespass, And callest the folk of every country To the right faith and trust of Thy grace, That we may give thanks and sing to Thee, Alleluya.
Bishop Myles Coverdale (c.1488–1569)
2 William Harris: Eternal Ruler
Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round Of circling planets singing on their way;
Guide of the nations from the night profound Into the glory of the perfect day; Rule in our hearts that we may ever be Guided and strengthened and upheld by thee.
O clothe us with thy heavenly armour, Lord, Thy trusty shield, thy sword of love divine; Our inspiration be thy constant word; We ask no victories that are not thine: Give or withhold, let pain or pleasure be; Enough to know that we are serving thee. Amen.
John Chadwick (1840–1904)
3 Gustav Holst: Man born to toil
Man, born to toil, in his labour rejoiceth; His voice is heard in the morn: He armeth his hand and sallieth forth To engage with the generous teeming earth, And drinks from the rocky rills
The laughter of life.
Life is toil, and life is good: There in loving brotherhood Beateth the nation’s heart of fire. Strife! Strife! The strife is strong! There battle thought and voice, and spirits conspire In joyous dance around the tree of life, And from the ringing choir
Riseth the praise of God from hearts in tuneful song.
Gird on thy sword, O man, thy strength endue, In fair desire thine earthborn joy renew: Live thou thy life beneath the making sun Till Beauty, Truth and Love in thee are one.
Thro’ thousand ages hath thy childhood run: On timeless ruin hath thy glory been: From the forgotten night of loves fordone Thou risest in the dawn of hopes unseen.
Higher and higher shall thy thoughts aspire, Unto the stars of heav’n and pass away, And earth renew the buds of thy desire In fleeting blooms of everlasting day.
Thy work with beauty crown, thy life with love;
Thy mind with truth uplift to God above: For whom all is, from whom all was begun In whom all Beauty, Truth and Love are one.
Robert Bridges (1844–1930)
5 Percy Whitlock: O living Bread, who once didst die
O Living Bread! Who once didst die, and lay Thee down in rocky tomb; Within my heart for ever lie, and shed Thy brightness o’er its gloom.
O precious Blood! So freely shed, sweet pledge of pardon from above: Speak to my heart so cold and dead, and wake it into Life and Love.
O Sacred Food! O Cleansing Tide! Fill all my soul with Love divine: O Thou who didst my life redeem: Come to my heart and make me Thine. Amen.
Bishop Walsham How (1823–97)
6 Gerald Finzi: Up to those bright and gladsome hills Up to those bright and gladsome hills, Whence flows my weal and mirth, I look, and sigh for Him, who fills Unseen both Heaven and earth. He is alone my help and hope, That I shall not be moved; His watchful eye is ever ope, And guardeth his beloved.
The Glorious God is my sole stay, He is my sun and shade; The cold by night, the heat by day, Neither shall me invade.
He keeps me from the spite of foes; Doth all their plots control; And is a shield, not reckoning those, Unto my very soul.
Whether abroad amidst the crowd, or else within my door, He is my pillar and my cloud, Now and forever more.
Henry Vaughan (1621–95)
William Byrd: Mass for Five Voices
7 Kyrie
Kyrie eleison. Lord have mercy. Christe eleison. Christ have mercy. Kyrie eleison. Lord have mercy.
8 Gloria
Gloria in excelsis Deo Glory to God in the highest, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. and on earth peace to men of good will. Laudamus te. Benedicimus te. We praise you. We bless you. Adoramus te. Glorificamus te. We adore you. We glorify you.
Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam We give you thanks for gloriam tuam. your great glory.
Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Lord God, heavenly King, Deus Pater omnipotens. God the Father Almighty.
Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe; Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
Qui tollis peccata mundi, who takes away the sins of the world, miserere nobis. have mercy upon us.
Qui tollis peccata mundi, Who takes away the sins of the world, suscipe deprecationem nostram. receive our prayer.
Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, Who sits at the right hand of the Father, miserere nobis. have mercy upon us.
Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, For only you are Holy, only you are Lord, tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe. only you are Most High, Jesus Christ.
Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria With the Holy Spirit in the glory of Dei Patris. Amen. God the Father. Amen.
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, visibilium omnium, et invisibilium. Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum. Et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula. Deum de Deo, Lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero. Genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri: per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis. Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine: Et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis: sub Pontio Pilato passus, et sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas. Et ascendit in caelum: sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est. Cum gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos: cujus regni non erit finis. Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum, et vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit.
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; consubstantial with the Father, by Whom all things were made: Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified also for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried: And the third day He arose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven. He sitteth at the right hand of the Father: and He shall come again with glory, to judge the living and the dead: and His kingdom shall have no end: And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord
Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur, et conglorificatur: qui locutus est per Prophetas. Et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.
and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored and glorified: Who spoke by the prophets. And one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. And I await the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus. Holy, Holy, Holy, Dominus Deus Sabaoth: Lord God of Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in excelsis. Hosanna in the highest. Benedictus qui venit Blessed is he that comes in nomine Domini: in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in excelsis. Hosanna in the highest.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins miserere nobis. of the world, have mercy upon us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins miserere nobis. of the world, have mercy upon us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins dona nobis pacem. of the world, grant us peace.
10 Sanctus & Benedictus
11 Agnus Dei
9 Credo
13 Benjamin Britten: A Hymn to the Virgin
Of one that is so fair and bright Velut maris stella, Brighter than the day is light, Parens et puella: I cry to thee, thou see to me, Lady, pray thy Son for me, Tam pia, That I may come to thee Maria!
All this world was forlorn Eva peccatrice, Till our Lord was yborn De te genetrice. With ave it went away Darkest night and comes the day Salutis; The well springeth out of thee Virtutis.
Lady, flower of everything, Rosa sine spina, Thou bare Jesu, Heaven’s King, Gratia divina:
Of all thou bear’st the prize, Lady, queen of paradise
Electa: Maid mild, mother es Effecta.
Anonymous (c.1300)
14 Herbert Howells: Haec dies
Haec dies, quam fecit Dominus, exultemus et laetemur in ea. Alleluia.
This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Gradual at Second Vespers on Easter Day
15 Robert Pearsall: Tu es Petrus
Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam.
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.
Matthew 16: 18
16 Arnold Bax: Lord, thou hast told us
Lord, thou hast told us that there be Two dwellings which belong to thee, And those two, that’s the wonder, Are far asunder.
The one the highest heaven is, The mansions of eternal bliss; The other’s the contrite And humble sprite.
Though heaven be high, the gate is low, And he that comes in there must bow; The lofty looks shall ne’er Have entrance there.
O God! Since thou delight’st to rest Within the humble contrite breast, First make me so to be, Then dwell with me.
Thomas Washbourne (1606–87)
The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge is one of Britain’s leading collegiate choirs. The College was founded in 1348, but its musical tradition stems from the late nineteenth century, when 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. It 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 collaboration with other professional ensembles such as Opera Northern Ireland, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. The Choir gives a number of UK concerts each year, and has made appearances at St John’s, Smith Square, in Cadogan Hall, at the Spitalfields and Aldeburgh festivals, and in 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, and it has also made television appearances on BBC1, BBC2, 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, William Turner, Edmund Rubbra, Patrick Hadley, John Sanders,
Mansel Thomas and Rebecca Clarke, and by continental composers including Joseph Rheinberger, Giacomo Puccini, Leonardo
Leo and Charles Gounod. The Choir has also recorded three programmes of Swiss choral music (in conjunction with the National Library of Zurich), the complete anthems of Charles Wood, and two reconstructions – the Latin Mass in E Flat by Janáˇcek and J.S. Bach’s St
Mark Passion. Other CD releases include a recording of modern and medieval vocal music entitled All the Ends of the Earth, and a further disc of Christmas music from the same periods, Into this world this day did come (Delphian DCD34075). The choir’s most recent release, of choral music by Judith Weir (Delphian DCD34095), has achieved high acclaim and was BBC Music Magazine ’s Choral and Song Choice in December 2011.
www.cai.cam.ac.uk/choir choir@cai.cam.ac.uk
Sopranos
Catharine Baumann
Elunyd Bradshaw
Camilla Godlee
Catherine Harrison (John Chumrow choral scholar)
Marie-Claire Lindsay
Anna Mathew
Matilda McAleenan (Caius Fund 2010 choral scholar)
Rose Wilson-Haffenden
Altos
Daniel Chard
Imogen Gardam
Emma Gullifer
Felicity McDermott (Caius Fund 2008 choral scholar)
Verity Trynka-Watson
Tenors
Finn Downie Dear Pierre Dechant
Sam Dressel
Philip Kennedy
Robin Morton (Caius Fund 2009 choral scholar)
James Robinson
Basses
Nick Crawford (Sir Keith Stuart choral scholar)
Richard Erskine
Tom Lovering
Oskar McCarthy
Nathan Mercieca
Sebastian Rex
Wilfrid Holland Organ Scholar: Annie Lydford
Peter Walker Organ Scholar : Nick Lee
Geoffrey Webber began his musical education as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral, and after being Music Scholar at King’s Worcester, he won an Organ Scholarship to New College, Oxford. After graduating with a First, he became Acting Organist at New College and Magdalen College, and later University Organist and Director of Music at the University Church. During this time he also directed the Edington Festival. After completing his doctorate he became Precentor and Director of Music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge and now divides his time between conducting, playing, lecturing, teaching and research. Publications include North German Church Music in the Age of Buxtehude, The Cambridge Companion to the Organ, and The Restoration Anthem.
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.
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 restoration of the monarchy in 1660 subsequently ushered in one of the finest periods of English music, though the road to recovery for church music was a slow and difficult one. 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 crosssection of his sacred music, ranging from small-scale liturgical works to one of his grandest creations, the Te Deum and Jubilate in D.
‘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
Rodion Shchedrin: The Sealed Angel
Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
The Choir of King’s College London
Geoffrey Webber & David Trendell conductors, Clare Wills oboe
DCD34067
Two of Britain’s finest young choirs join forces to take on 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 the plangent voice of a solo oboe representing the soul of the Russian people. This ground-breaking choral partnership committed the work to disc following acclaimed UK premiere concert performances at the Spitalfields and Oundle festivals in the summer of 2008.
‘Caught here in fine sound, this is a splendid disc of a multifaceted, manylayered modern masterpiece’ — Gramophone, June 2009, Editor’s Choice
‘invigorating and highly persuasive … a reminder of the still unknown riches of English Baroque music’ — Gramophone, October 2007
In the Beginning Choir of Merton College, Oxford
Benjamin Nicholas and Peter Phillips directors, Beth Mackay mezzo-soprano DCD34072
The new Choir of Merton College, Oxford is rapidly emerging as a major force in collegiate choral music. Its debut recording, bookended by Gabriel Jackson’s ravishing version of the rarely set Johannine Prologue and Copland’s glowing account of the first seven days of creation, offers a themed sequence of Renaissance and modern classics that reflects the range and reach of the choir’s daily repertoire – all captured in sumptuous sound in the radiant acoustic of Merton’s famous chapel.
‘… will undoubtedly establish them as one of the UK’s finest choral ensembles. Listening to their superb performances and seamless blending of voices, it’s hard to believe that the choir is only four years old’ — Gramophone, November 2011
