Romaria: choral music from Brazil by Delphian Records

ROMARIA CHORAL MUSIC FROM BRAZIL

1 Henrique de Curitiba (1934–2008)

tape reconstructed by Denise Hiromi Aoki Metaphors

Billie Robson & Emily Kay soprano, Edward Button alto, James Robinson tenor,

Malachy Frame & John Gowers bass

arr. Ernst Mahle (b. 1929) from Carimbó (Suite of Folksongs from the State of Pará)

III. Jacaré

V. Lavadeira

Elunyd Bradshaw soprano

II. Siriri

VIII. O Pau rolou

IX. Vamo acabá co’este samba [1:09] [1:46] [1:03] [0:53] [1:37] 7 Osvaldo Lacerda (1927–2011) Romaria

Carlos A. Pinto Fonseca (1933–2006) Jubiabá

Imogen Sebba soprano

Ernani Aguiar (b. 1950) Antiquae Preces Christianae

Gloria Patri Rector potens

Te lucis ante terminum

12 Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) Cor dulce, cor amabile [3:19]

CHOIR OF GONVILLE & CAIUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE Geoffrey Webber director

Kate Symonds-Joy mezzo-soprano (track 22) Liam Crangle organ (track 22)

Marco Antonio da Silva Ramos narrator (track 7)

Escobar (b. 1943) Missa breve sobre ritmos populares brasileiros

Kyrie / Modinha

Gloria / Cantoria e dança

Katie Braithwaite mezzo-soprano, James Robinson tenor

Sanctus / Ponteado

Benedictus / Toada

Susannah Bagnall soprano, Katie Braithwaite alto,

James Robinson tenor, Nicholas Doig bass

Agnus Dei / Acalanto

Recorded on 3-5 July 2014 in the Chapel of Girton College, Cambridge by kind permission of the Mistress and Fellows

Producer/Engineer: Adam Binks

24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks

24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter

Cover photo: Flávia Valsani

Design: John Christ

Booklet editor: John Fallas

Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.co.uk

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Michael Palin, writing in his book Brazil, tells us much about the stunning environment of this huge country, but he also notes that ‘more than the abundance of natural wonders, it was the extraordinary diversity and richness of its inhabitants that struck me most forcibly’. He explains the fascinating ethnic mix of the population, from the descendants of those who settled thousands of years ago, and of the generations of African slaves and their Portuguese masters, along with the diverse waves of immigration from the late nineteenth century onwards coming from Europe, the Middle East and the Far East, concluding that ‘it is a remarkably effective collection of people who are happy to see themselves first and foremost as Brazilians’.

Modern choral music in Brazil offers a fascinating mirror to this picture of the nation, and although a single CD cannot begin to present a complete reflection of the repertoire’s richness and diversity, this one does attempt to provide a varied cross-section of the repertoire from the time of its greatest composer Heitor Villa-Lobos to the present day. The music thus surveyed includes many references to the natural world – with the appearance of alligators, exotic birds and the like – and the sacred music belongs to a religious culture far removed from its North European equivalent, encompassing both South American Christianity and other religious rites originating in Africa.

Perhaps the most unusual composition included in this recording is one that confronts head-on a clash of cultures between, in this case, the Iberian world and the forests of Brazil. The composer was one of the many Poles whose forebears emigrated to Brazil; he signalled his integration into the new country by changing his name from Zbigniew Henrique Morozowicz to Henrique de Curitiba, after the city where his family settled. Metaphors, dating from 1973, is titled in full ‘“Metaphors” on an “Et incarnatus est” by T. L. Victoria, for 6 voices a capella [sic] style and ad libitum with a play-back scenario with sounds of wind, insects, birds and batráquia [frogs] from Brazilian woods’.

Taking a short passage from the ‘Credo’ of Victoria’s Missa Quarti Toni, the composer presents it first with an extra tenor part doubling the second soprano, whilst the first soprano provides what the composer calls a ‘bird-like commentary’. Then he subjects the passage to a series of variations in which he allows the sounds of the Amazon to influence his writing, so we hear the buzzing of insects, the chirping of the birds, the croaking of frogs and other sounds both on their own and somehow absorbed into the vocal writing based on the Victoria fragment. The title ‘Metaphors’ partly reflects this process but the composer also explains that: It’s because the meaning of the music is something else than the words that are sung. What exactly is this meaning is something each one must discover.

He also describes the importance of the background sounds by stressing that it

is good, or better, to hear Nature’s voices than the polluting noises of our technological era … The sounds of the wood isolate the listener from the outer world …

The composition has not been published but is found amongst the composer’s works left to the Library of the University of São Paulo. Unfortunately the playback tape is missing, but for this recording a similar tape has been assembled by Denise Hiromi Aoki using the University’s sound laboratory facilities under the guidance of Dr Susana Igayara from the Department of Music, following as far as possible the details of the tape given in the score, and using sounds from the Amazon forest. The composer gives an important role to what he describes as the ‘announcer’ bird, and for this the uirapuru has been used, a bird whose remarkable call understandably grants it mythical status amongst forest-dwellers.

This recording originates in a collaboration between the Choir of Gonville & Caius College and the choral department of the University of São Paulo, led by Prof. Marco Antonio da Silva Ramos. As well as bringing about the re-creation of the playback for Metaphors, the collaboration worked in a variety of ways, culminating in Prof. da Silva Ramos and Dr Igayara acting as joint advisors to this

recording. Much Brazilian choral music remains unpublished and difficult to locate, and they helped not just with exploring the repertoire but with the challenges of understanding the musical styles involved, and the more general cultural landscape from which the music comes. Even in the case of the music of VillaLobos their help was invaluable, leading to a new edition being produced by Dr Igayara of one of his most well-known pieces, Cor dulce, cor amabile, since the only published edition has many problems. His Magnificat-Alleluia is usually performed with orchestra, but on this recording the composer’s own organ version is used.

Dating from 1964 and 1967 respectively are the Missa breve sobre ritmos populares brasileiros (Missa brevis on popular Brazilian rhythms) composed by Aylton Escobar in Rio de Janeiro, and Osvaldo Lacerda’s setting of Romaria by one of Brazil’s greatest poets, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, in which parts of the poem are spoken. Each movement of Escobar’s Mass picks up on a different musical idiom, reflected in the titles of the movements. The Mass begins and ends with reference to the old contrapuntal styles of the Catholic church: the ‘Kyrie’ opens with an invented Gregorian chant that is gradually turned into a modinha, a type of Brazilian serenade that is played under moonlight, and the ‘Agnus Dei / Acalanto’ is a modal cantiga de ninar (lullaby)

that is set to a more pure contrapuntal and modal style, ending as if falling asleep. In the central movements the composer’s lively and varied sound-world includes the NorthEastern cantiga de cego (a blind man singing with his rustic fiddle) and aboios (shouts while herding cattle), plus onomatopoeic words to imitate percussion instruments and the natural world such as the woodpecker’s ‘taca-taca ’ in the Sanctus. The composer writes that ‘the Mass is now folklorist’, and so taken out of the church and placed more in the realm of the common man, avoiding the ecclesiastical dogmas of the Creed (absent, of course, from a ‘Missa brevis’). Drummond de Andrade’s poem ‘Romaria’ explores the popular culture surrounding religious pilgrimages in Brazil, conjuring up the sights, sounds and smells of the life on the road as well as the gossip and domestic concerns of the pilgrims themselves. The sections of Lacerda’s composition closely mirror the sentiments of the text, opening with the sound of tolling bells and climaxing with the cries of the people before they gradually disappear into the distance.

The works from the 1970s on the recording, including Metaphors, reflect the importance of modernism in Brazilian choral music during the middle of the last century. De Curitiba uses a backing tape for Metaphors, Ernani Aguiar develops a simple, stark homophony

for his Antiquae Preces Christianae (Ancient Prayers of the Christian; 1976), José Antônio de Almeida Prado bookends his gently flowing counterpoint with distinct chord-cluster effects in his Virgil setting Oráculo (1974), and Cláudio Santoro’s setting of the ‘Ave Maria’ in Portuguese ( Ave-Maria, 1978) involves broken syllables, bitonal and atonal harmony, and speech. All of these composers studied for periods abroad, mostly in Europe – Santoro and Prado both studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, for example, and Prado also studied under György Ligeti in Darmstadt – but they all spent most of their lives in Brazil: Santoro in Brasilia, Prado and de Curitiba in São Paulo and Aguiar in Rio de Janeiro. In setting a text from the Fourth Eclogue by Virgil, Prado may have been commenting on the turbulent political situation in Brazil as it struggled under a military regime.

Brazil naturally has a rich tradition of what we loosely call folk music, and many composers have fashioned choral arrangements of melodies taken from around the vast country. The German-born composer Ernst Mahle composed a suite of such arrangements in 1982 using music from the north-eastern state of Pará: Carimbó – Suíte de cantos Paraenses. Mahle, who took Brazilian nationality in 1962 and lived in the state of São Paulo, keeps his settings simple and direct, though with plenty of harmonic colour, and something of the chaos

of an illegal samba party is evident in the final song which includes shouting as the police come to break up the party. The Suite as a whole has nine movements; five are performed here. The arrangement of Moreninha se eu te pedisse by Prof. da Silva Ramos is based on a melody from the south-east of the country. Several different devices are used to help enhance the text, including partially un-pitched clusters and guitar-like effects in the bass part, though perhaps the most distinctive feature is the semitonal oscillation that begins and ends the piece, recalling the squeaky wheels of the slow-moving wooden carts often heard in street processions.

African influence is most clearly present in Jubiabá, composed by Carlos A. Pinto Fonseca in 1963. This reflects the music and dance ceremonies of the Candomblé religion, which developed from African slaves in the state of Bahia. The high priest Jubiabá presides over a ritual in the town square, aided by the high priestess (portrayed in part by the soprano soloist); Fonseca sets the scene and then gradually builds up tension through the use of word fragments and a long musical accelerando into a final orgiastic frenzy (with vocalised percussion effects), reflecting the hope that the lesser gods will come to possess the worshippers, as suggested by the dramatic final glissando sung by the soloist.

The most recent composition on the CD is Nibaldo Araneda’s Ismália, composed in 2009 to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Chorus of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (Coro da OSESP). Setting a poem by Alphonsus de Guimaraens, whose output was deeply affected by the tragic loss of his fiancée Constance at the age of seventeen, Araneda carefully pictures the various layers and images explored by the author. His compositional note explains how Ismália is represented by the choir in six parts, the moon in the sky by three solo sopranos, and the moon in the sea by three tenors, and how the work has an asymmetrical pattern that reflects Ismália’s schizophrenia, reality set in F sharp minor and the daydreams in A minor.

Acknowledgments

Principal thanks are due to Prof. Marco Antonio da Silva Ramos and Dr Susana Igayara of the Music Department, School of Communication and Arts, University of São Paulo, Brazil, and to John Chumrow. Thanks are also due to Everton da Cruz Souza, Denise Hiromi Aoki, Maren de Vincent-Humphreys, Dr Martin Ennis, Dr Cally Hammond, Oskar McCarthy, Prof. John Rink, Lee Ward, and to the members of the Comunicantus Chamber Choir of the University of São Paulo.

1 Metaphors

Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost ex Maria Virgine: of the Virgin Mary: et homo factus est. and was made man.

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis And was crucified also for us

sub Pontio Pilato: under Pontius Pilate: passus, et sepultus est. suffered, and was buried.

from Carimbó (Suite of Folksongs from the State of Pará)

2 Jacaré

Jacaré foi convidado The Jacaré was invited

Para o baile do Paissandu To the ball in Paissandu

Tira a dama, jacaré Invite the lady to dance, jacaré

Tira a dama jacaré curua Invite the lady to dance, jacaré curua

Gavião pegou a pomba The gull danced with the dove

Deixando a pena no ninho Leaving a feather in the nest

É pena, menina, é pena

É pena de passarinho

3 Lavadeira

It’s a feather, girl, a feather,

It’s a bird’s feather

Lavadeira de campina, Washing-woman from the fields,

ó lavadeira O washing-woman

Lava a roupa sem sabão Wash your clothes without soap

Siriri

Siriri na minha porta

Siriri at my door

Siriri no meu quintal Siriri in my back yard

Ah, Siriri, deixa de namorá Ah, Siriri, stop flirting

Siriri va avoando Siriri goes flying

Namorando a beija-flor Flirting with the humming-bird

Ah, Siriri, deixa de namorá Ah, Siriri, stop flirting

5 O Pau rolou

O pau rolou, rolou, rolou

The tree rolled, rolled

Lá no tempo de verão Ah! There in the summer

O pau caiu, caiu, caiu

The tree fell, fell

Lá na mata ninguém viu There in the forest no one saw it

6 Vamo acabá co’este samba

Venha, meu bem

Tá na hora, bem bem

Pega a trouxa, meu bem

Come, my dear

It’s time, it’s time

Take your things, my dear

E vamo logo embora, meu bem And let’s go right now, my dear

Vamo acabá co’este samba

Polícia chegou

Vamos acabá co’este samba

Delegado mandou

Venha logo, meu bem

É hora de dar o fora, meu bem

Arruma logo a trouxa

Let’s end this samba

The police have arrived

Let’s end this samba

The captain ordered

Come on, my dear

It’s time to leave, my dear

Get your things together now

Que a madrugada já vem Because it’s already dawn

Translations: Tom Moore

7 Romaria

Os romeiros sobem a ladeira The pilgrims climb the path cheia de espinhos, cheia de pedras, covered in thorns and stones. sobem a ladeira que leva a Deus They climb the path that leads to God, e vão deixando culpas no caminho. and leave their guilt along the way.

Os sinos tocam, chamam os romeiros: The church bells ring, calling to the pilgrims:

Vinde lavar os vossos pecados. Come and wash away your sins!

Já estamos puros, sino, obrigados, We are already pure, bell, thank you, mas trazemos flores, prendas e rezas. but we bring flowers, gifts and prayers.

No alto do morro chega a procissão. Up on the hill, the procession arrives. Um leproso de opa empunha o estandarte. A leprous clergyman wields the banner. As coxas das romeiras brincam com o vento. The women’s thighs toy with the wind. Os homens cantam, cantam sem parar. The men sing, sing without stopping.

Jesús no lenho expira magoado. Jesus is dying, wounded, on the cross. Faz tanto calor, há tanta algazarra. It’s so hot, there is so much noise. Nos olhos do Santo há sangue que escorre. There is blood flowing in his eyes. Ninguem não percebe, o dia é de festa. Nobody realises; today is a holiday.

No adro da igreja há pinga, café, In the churchyard flow booze, coffee, imagens, fenômenos, baralhos, cigarros pictures, curiosities, playing cards, cigarettes e um sol imenso que lambuza de ouro and a huge sun, which smears gold over the o pó das feridas e o pó das muletas. dust of the wounds and the dust of the crutches.

Meu bom Jesús que tudo podeis, My kind almighty Jesus, humildemente te peço uma graça. I humbly ask for your grace. Sarai-me Senhor, não desta lepra Heal me, Lord, not of this leprosy mas do amor que eu tenho e que ninguem but of the love that I have and that no one has me tem. for me.

Senhor, meu amo, dai-me dinheiro, My Lord, my master, give me money, muito dinheiro para eu comprar so much money that I can buy aquilo que é caro mas é gostoso that which is dear but oh so delightful, e na minha terra ninguém não possui. and which no one in my land can have.

Jesús meu Deus pregado na cruz, Jesus my God, nailed upon the cross, me dá coragem pra eu matar give me the courage to kill um que me amola de dia e de noite him who mocks me day and night e diz gracinhas pra minha mulher. and teases my wife.

Jesús Jesús piedade de mim. Jesus, Jesus have mercy on me. Ladrão eu sou mas não sou ruim não. Though a scoundrel, I am not bad. Porque me perseguem não posso dizer. Why they persecute me I can’t say. Não quero ser preso, Jesús ó meu santo. I don’t want to be arrested, Jesus, oh my saint.

Os romeiros pedem com os olhos, The pilgrims ask with their eyes, pedem com a boca, pedem com as mãos. ask with their mouths, ask with their hands.

Jesús já cansado de tanto pedido Jesus, weary of such supplication, dorme sonhando com outra humanidade. sleeps, dreaming of another humanity.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902–1987) Translation: Oskar McCarthy

8 Jubiabá

Pai de santo, Ê! Jubiabá, pai de Santo, High priest, eh! Jubiabá, High Priest, tem dó de mim! have mercy on me.

Dá-me um quebranto para mal de amô! Give me an evil eye for lost love!

Lá no morro do Capa Negro mora Jubiabá! There, at the hill of Capa Negro, lives Jubiabá!

Pai de Santo, Pai da Bahia, meu Pai Jubiabá! High Priest, Father of Bahia, my father Jubiabá!

Kumba, kumba, makumbá, Oh! There at the square of Father Jubiabá, Ô lá no terreiro de Pai Jubiabá, It is the festival of our Lord Oxalá

Hoje é festa de Oxalá é macumba de Oxalá! and the ritual of our Lord Oxalá!

Edurô demin lo nan êyê!

A umbó kówá Jô! Okê, okê, okê!

Iya ri dé gbê ô afi dé si ómóm lovô

Afi lé si ômón lérum.

Ômirô rón wón rón wón ô-mi-rô.

E i nun ó já lá ô i nun lia ô lô Êa!

Tumbum, tumbum, Tumborumbá, Êrô ójá é pará món

Pai de Santo Jubiabá! Ô!

Antiquae Preces Christianae

9 Gloria Patri

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, and to the Holy Ghost; et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:

Lesser Doxology world without end. Amen.

10 Rector potens

Rector potens, verax Deus, O God of truth, O Lord of might, qui temperas rerum vices, who orderest time and change aright, splendorum mane il luminas and sendest the early morning ray, et ignibus meridiem. and lightest the glow of perfect day.

Extingue flames litium, Extinguish Thou each sinful fire, aufer calorem noxium, and banish every ill desire: confer salutem corporem and while Thou keepest the body whole veramque pacem cordium. shed forth Thy peace upon the soul.

Office Hymn at Sext

11 Te lucis ante terminum

Translation: J.M. Neale

Te lucis ante terminum, To Thee, before the close of day rerum Creator, poscimus Creator of the world, we pray ut pro tua clementia that with Thy wonted favour, Thou sis praesul et custodia. wouldst be our Guard and Keeper now.

Procul recedant somnia

From all ill dreams defend our eyes, et noctium phantasmata; from nightly fears and fantasies: hostemque nostrum comprime, tread under foot our ghostly foe, ne polluantur corpora. that no pollution we may know.

Office Hymn at Compline

Translation: J.M. Neale

12 Cor dulce, cor amabile

Cor dulce, cor amabile, Sweet heart, loving heart, Amore nostri saucium, Wounded with love for us, Amore nostri languidum, Fainting with love for us, Fac sis mihi placabile. Grant that I may find favour with you.

Cor Jesu, melle dulcius, Heart of Jesus sweeter than honey,

Cor sole puro purius, Heart purer than the pure sun, Verbi Dei sacrarium, Sanctuary of the Word of God, Opum Dei compendium. Treasury of the might of God.

Tu portus orbi naufrago, You are the haven for a shipwrecked world, Secura pax fidelibus, You are sure tranquillity for the faithful, Reis asylum mentibus, A refuge for guilty minds, Piis recessus cordibus. A sanctuary for faithful hearts. Amen. Amen.

13 Oráculo

Iam redit et Virgo, Now the Virgin returns, redeunt Saturnia regna; the reign of Saturn returns; iam nova progenies Now a new generation caelo demittitur alto. descends from heaven on high. Tu modo nascenti puero, Only do you, pure Lucina, quo ferrea primum smile on the birth of the child, desinet ac toto under whom the iron brood at last shall cease surget gens aurea mundo, and a golden race spring up casta fave Lucina: throughout the world! tuus iam regnat Apollo. Your own Apollo now is king!

Ave Maria, cheia de graça, Hail Mary, full of grace, o Senhor é convosco; the Lord is with you. Bendita sois vós entre as mulheres, You are blessed among women, E bendito é o fruto do vosso ventre, Jesus. and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Santa Maria, Mãe de Deus, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Rogai por nós, pecadores, pray for us sinners, Agora e na hora da nossa morte. Amém. now and in the hour of our death. Amen.

15 Moreninha se eu te pedisse

Moreninha, se eu te pedisse Moreninha, if I asked you for a kiss, De modo que ninguém visse in a way that no one could see it, Um beijo, tu me negavas would you turn me down (Despierta la novia (Wake the bride up la mañana de las bodas) The morning of the wedding) Ou davas? Ou davas? or would you give me one?

Moreninha, se eu te encontrasse Moreninha, if I found you Na varanda costurando sewing on the veranda E me recebesses sorrindo and you welcomed me, smiling … Que lindo! Que lindo! How beautiful! How beautiful!

Moreninha, se eu visse o mundo

Moreninha, if I saw the world

Da janela dos teus olhos through the window of your eyes, O mundo seria um doce the world would be so sweet!

Se fosse! Se fosse! If only it were …

Ou ao menos encontrasse Or if I could find you, at least … Moreninha, se eu te pedisse Moreninha, if I asked …

Virgil, from Eclogue IV (c. 40 BC)

Revd Dr Cally Hammond

16 Ismália

Quando Ismália enlouqueceu, When Ismália went mad, she, Pôs-se na torre a sonhar … Dreaming in a tower high, Viu uma lua no céu, Saw a moon up in the sky, Viu outra lua no mar. Saw a moon down in the sea.

No sonho em que se perdeu, Then she started, dreamingly Banhou-se toda em luar … Bathing in moonlight, to sigh Queria subir ao céu, For the moon up in the sky, Queria descer ao mar … For the moon down in the sea.

E, no desvario seu, Lost in her insanity, Na torre pôs-se a cantar … She sung there a lullaby: Estava perto do céu, She was so close to the sky, Estava longe do mar … She was so far from the sea.

E como um anjo pendeu

Like an angel, finally, As asas para voar … She spread both her wings to fly Queria a lua do céu, Toward the moon up in the sky, Queria a lua do mar … Toward the moon down in the sea.

As asas que Deus lhe deu The two angel-wings that she Ruflaram de par em par … Got from God flapped and thereby Sua alma subiu ao céu, Her soul soared straight to the sky, Seu corpo desceu ao mar … Her flesh sunk deep in the sea.

Alphonsus de Guimaraens (1870–1921) Translation: Nelson Ascher

Missa breve sobre ritmos populares brasileiros

17 Kyrie / Modinha

Kyrie eleison. Lord have mercy. Christe eleison. Christ have mercy. Kyrie eleison. Lord have mercy.

18 Gloria / Cantoria e dança

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 worship 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.

19 Sanctus / Ponteado

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.

20 Benedictus / Toada

Benedictus qui venit

Blessed is he that comes in nomine Domini: in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in excelsis. Hosanna in the highest.

21 Agnus Dei / Acalanto

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.

Magnificat-Alleluia

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Magnificat anima mea Dominum. My soul doth magnify the Lord: Et exsultavit spiritus meus: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. in Deo salutari meo. For he hath regarded: Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae: the lowliness of his handmaiden. ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes For behold, from henceforth: generationes. all generations shall call me blessed.

Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est: For he that is mighty hath magnified me: et sanctum nomen eius. and holy is his Name.

Et misericordia eius a progenie And his mercy is on them that fear him: in progenies timentibus eum. throughout all generations.

Fecit potentiam in brachio suo: He hath shewed strength with his arm: dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. he hath scattered the proud in the imagination Deposuit potentes de sede, of their hearts.

et exaltavit humiles. He hath put down the mighty from their seat: Esurientes implevit bonis: and hath exalted the humble and meek. et divites dimisit inanes. He hath filled the hungry with good things: Suscepit Israel puerum suum, recordatus and the rich he hath sent empty away. misericordiae suae. He remembering his mercy hath holpen his

Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, Abraham servant Israel: et semini eius in saecula. as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham Gloria Patri et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto; and his seed, for ever.

Sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper: et in Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to saecula saeculorum. Amen. the Holy Ghost.

Alleluia!

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

after Luke 1: 46-55 Alleluia!

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. 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 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, 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 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 Joseph Rheinberger, Giacomo Puccini, Leonardo Leo and Charles Gounod. The choir has 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 Zürich),

and the complete anthems of Charles Wood. Themed CD releases include a recording of modern and medieval vocal music entitled All the ends of the earth, a further recording of modern and medieval Christmas music, Into this world this day did come (Delphian DCD34075), and a disc of music from the early twentieth-century Tudor revival, Haec Dies (DCD34104).

The choir has also joined together with the Choir of King’s College London for several concert performances and two recordings –Rodion Shchedrin’s ‘Russian liturgy’ The Sealed Angel (DCD34067) and, in 2013, Deutsche Motette: German Romantic choral music from Schubert to Strauss (DCD34124). Meanwhile, its own recording projects continue to achieve consistently high acclaim: a 2011 recording of music by the leading British composer Judith Weir (DCD34095) was BBC Music Magazine ’s Choral and Song Choice in December of that year, an accolade repeated in September 2014 by the Choir’s groundbreaking collaboration with scholar and piper Barnaby Brown, In Praise of St Columba: The Sound-world of the Celtic Church (DCD34137).

www.cai.cam.ac.uk/choir

Sopranos

Susannah Bagnall

Caius Fund 2011 Choral Scholar

Elunyd Bradshaw

Caius Fund 2012 Choral Scholar

Katie Braithwaite

Sir Keith Stuart Choral Scholar

Polly Furness

Emily Kay

Eloise Pedersen

Caius Fund 2013 Choral Scholar

Billie Robson

Imogen Sebba

Ellie Walder

Altos

Edward Button

Liam Crangle

Emmalee Hinson

Corinne Hull

Sophia Sosnina

Tenors

Louis Bickler

Robert Humphries

Philip Kennedy

James Robinson

James Pitman Choral Scholar

Joshua Stutter

Caius Fund 2012 Choral Scholar

Basses

Stephen Bick

Nicholas Doig

John Chumrow Choral Scholar

Malachy Frame

Caius Fund 2011 Choral Scholar

Stephen Fort

Patrick Burgess Choral Scholar

John Gowers

Jack May

Caius Fund 2013 Choral Scholar

Organ Scholars

Liam Crangle

Wilfrid Holland Organ Scholar

James Leitch

Peter Walker Organ Scholar

Geoffrey Webber studied music at Oxford University, where he was Organ Scholar at New College. 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 on German Baroque music he became Director of Music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge and now divides his time between conducting, lecturing, teaching and research. He has recently established the first degree in choral conducting at the University of Cambridge, which attracts students from all over the world.

Kate Symonds-Joy was educated at the University of Cambridge, where she graduated in Music with a first- class degree from Gonville & Caius College. She then studied on the Royal Academy of Music’s opera course with Lillian Watson and Audrey Hyland, graduating with a DipRAM and the Charles Norman Prize. She was the winner of the 2011 Thelma King Vocal Award and was awarded the Basil A. Turner Prize for her role as Bianca in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with British Youth Opera.

Further roles include Mrs Herring in Britten’s Albert Herring (Aldeburgh), Noye’s Fludde in Westminster Cathedral, Wild Girl in Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet (Wexford Festival Opera), Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus (Opera Danube, St John’s Smith Square), and the title role in Bizet’s Carmen (Regents and Kentish Opera), as well as several roles for RAO –Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Medea in Cavalli’s Giasone (conducted by Jane Glover), Ino in Handel’s Semele (conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras), and Florence Pike in Britten’s Albert Herring (directed by John Copley).

She has appeared at the Wigmore Hall as part of the Royal Academy Song Circle, and performed Janáček’s The Diary of one who Disappeared at Kings Place, Berio’s Sequenza III for NonClassical and the same composer’s Folksongs with the Psappha Ensemble, and featured in an audiovisual operatic installation in the Metropolitan Museum in New York with ERRATICA. Other concert work includes Ravel’s Chansons madécasses at the Purcell Room, John Rutter’s Feel the Spirit at the Barbican, Mahler’s Second Symphony in Cadogan Hall, Handel’s Messiah with Bordeaux Opera, Dixit Dominus in the Salzburg and Aldeburgh festivals with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and Verdi’s Requiem in the Royal Albert Hall. Kate also appears as soloist in Giles Swayne’s Stabat Mater (Naxos) and Richard Strauss’s Deutsche Motette (Delphian DCD34124).

In Praise of St Columba: The Sound-world of the Celtic Church

Barnaby Brown triplepipes,

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge / Geoffrey Webber

DCD34137

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 work with scholar and piper Barnaby Brown.

‘Webber and his formidable choir give a bracing vigour and unusual freedom to this ancient music’

— The Observer, July 2014

Deutsche Motette

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

Geoffrey Webber & David Trendell conductors

DCD34124

Delphian’s superchoir reunites after its highly successful recording of The Sealed Angel, this time for a unique programme of German music from Schubert to Richard Strauss. Strauss’s sumptuous Deutsche Motette is the last word in late Romantic choral opulence, its teeming polyphony brought to thrilling life by this virtuoso cast of over sixty singers. The rest of the programme explores the vivid colours and shadowy half-lights of a distinctly German music that reached its culmination in Strauss’s extravagant masterpiece.

‘Credit to conductor David Trendell for eliciting that sustained intensity of expression from his combined college choirs, whose youthful timbre imparts a freshness which … suits the imprecatory nature of Rückert’s poem perfectly’ — BBC Music Magazine, August 2013

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 (trombone and marimba as well as the more usual organ). 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 solo organ works, which are now established classics of the repertoire. The athleticism, intensity and clarity that mark out Geoffrey Webber’s choir are ideally suited to this 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

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

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, often in premiere recordings, ranging from small-scale liturgical works to one of his grandest creations, the Te Deum and Jubilate in D.

‘invigorating and highly persuasive … a reminder of the still unknown riches of English Baroque music’ — Gramophone, October 2007

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

Haec Dies: Byrd & the Tudor Revival

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge / Geoffrey Webber

DCD34104

In this highly original programme, the Choir of Gonville & Caius College explores the fascinating relationship between sixteenth- and early twentieth-century music as understood by the pioneers of the Tudor revival in England. Centring on Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices – revelatory and influential listening for a whole host of later composers – this mosaic of reworkings, reimaginings and lovingly crafted homages is brought to life with all the scholarly acumen and full-throated fervour that we have come to expect from one of Britain’s finest choirs.

‘The choir sounds responsive and light in texture … The contours of this music might be Tudor, but the autumnal sensibility is pure late Romantic’ — The Times, July 2012

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

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