John Taverner (c1490-1545): Magnificat a 4 Nesciens Mater

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June 20, 2013

Taverner composed three Magnificats, one each for four, five and six voices, of which only the four-voice setting survives complete. It's a little unusual for English polyphony of the time because Taverner used the plainsong without embellishment rather than using the 'faburden'. It's an alternatim setting in which plainsong and polyphony alternate. Its long textual melismas are brilliantly decorated throughout for example at 'dispersit superbos mente cordis sui' when Taverner musically scatters the proud. Given its scale it was plainly intended for a special occasion but what that occasion was is now unknown. It has another unusual feature which is that it's scored for men only – no trebles, so perhaps it was intended for performance by the members of a sodality. It's sung below by The Sixteen conducted by Harry Christophers who sing it with its antiphon Nesciens mater which is how it would have been sung for Vespers under the usage of the Sarum rite which prevailed in England at that time. The normal practice under Sarum usage was that only the antiphon's beginning preceded the canticle with the the soloist continuing with the Magnificat and the sings the antiphon in its entirety at the end. Enjoy :-).

markfromireland

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Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 – 1924): Magnificat in C, op. 115 – Choir of Somerville College Oxford

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June 19, 2013

During the Anglican service of Evensong  the choir's main duty is to sing the Anthem and the two evening canticles – the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis. Composers who have set these pieces had to meet very precise requirements if they wanted to see their setting in regular use. It is precisely this very discipline that has stimulated many composers musical to work at the top of their form in many of the settings that you can hear performed on a regular  basis in Cathedrals and University chapels throughout England. One such composer was Charles Villiers Stanford the Dublin-born son of a prosperous Anglo-Irish lawyer whose influence on modern choral music particularly English religious choral music was profound (I have a brief biography of him here: Stanford: Song of Wisdom : Canterbury Cathedral Choir | Saturday Chorale). Much of what English religious choral music is today is owed to his labours and while Stanford's non-religious music is reasonably well known and of very good quality I would argue that his church music shows at his best as a composer.

All of his settings of the Great Service are very special but two of them the G major and the C Major are particularly appealing to me. That being so I was very happy to see that a video of a performance of Stanford's Magnificat in C given by The Choir of Somerville College, Oxford on April 21st last had been uploaded by the choir to their YouTube channnel. I've written about this choir on several occasions before and will confine myself on this occasion to remarking that this is a choir that consistently punches above its musical weight. Enjoy :-).

markfromireland

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For Laura: Morten Lauridsen (b1943): Ave, dulcissima Maria

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June 18, 2013

Ave, dulcissima Maria was commissioned by the Harvard University Glee Club and completed in 2005. It's a beautifully tender and gentle setting of a variant of the 'Ave Maria' petition. It's sung below by Polyphony  whose singing brings out the serene almost otherwordly qualities of the piece. The player of the  finger cymbals on this recording was Lauridsen himself the conductor was Stephen Layton. Enjoy :-)

markfromireland

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Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) : Salve regina a 8

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June 17, 2013

Tomás Luis de Victoria stands shoulder to shoulder with other musical giants of his age such as Byrd, de Lassus, Palestrina, and Tallis, while his output was relatively small – Palestrina for example published five times as much music as Victoria did, de Lassus published even more, and of the four only Victoria published no secular music, it was of such quality that nobody can doubt its merits. Victoria's religious beliefs inspired him to achieve a stunningly high level of musical craftsmanship ad majorem Dei gloriam. He polished his music again and again until he was satisfied even after it was published as the many differences to be found across the successive editions of his works published during his lifetime show. There is a passionate intensity to his music which none of his contemporaries could match.

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Sunday Concert: Zelenka: Missa Omnium Sanctorum, ZWV 21 | Collegium 1704

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June 16, 2013

In the years before he died Zelenka set about composing a cycle of half a dozen masses  of which this, the Missa Omnium Sanctorum ZWV 21 is the last. It's a grand scale affair with movements for chorus and instruments and some very fine solo arias. Sadly neither this nor his equally fine Missa Dei Patris were ever performed during Zelenka's lifetime as the new regime at the Dresden court where he had been fobbed off with the post chapel composer had decreed that Masses may not last longer than 45 minutes. Their loss is our gain – it's a fine piece of music on a magnificent scale and stuffed to the gills with musical interest. The performance below by Collegium 1794 conducted by Václav Luks was given on August 25th 2012 in the Cathedral, Utrecht. Enjoy :-)

markfromireland

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Thomas Weelkes (1576-1623): O Jonathan

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June 15, 2013

Despite the fact that there was at first no provision within the Prayer Book and that unlike the situation that obtained before the reign of Edward VI (January 28th 1547 – July 6th 1553) no provision was made for 'Propers' – texts relating to a specific feast day or season of the year, musical forms for the Anglican liturgy had matured into well-established and well-understood forms. The lack of propers did not mean that appropriate texts in English weren't sung after the third Collect far from it, such 'anthems' rapidly became a major focus of the musical repertoire for the Church of England. At the same time as the liturgical anthem was establishing itself composers such as Weelkes were setting texts such as 'O Jonathon'  (2 Samuel 1: 25, 26) for private use which is why they're preserved only in manuscript and printed sources containing secular – often madrigalian, music. Many of these such as O Jonathon were written by English composers as part of the outbreak of national grief caused by the premature death in 1612 of the young Prince Henry, son of James I. It's sung below by Winchester Cathedral Choir whose trebles rise magnificently to the challenge of Weelkes' setting expressing its grief without ever becoming maudlin. Enjoy :-).

markfromireland

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Henry Purcell (1659-1695): In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust Z16

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June 14, 2013

Purcell Closterman Small Purcell's verse anthem In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust (Z16) dates from around 1682 – the middle of the period during which Purcell composed most of his anthems with string accompaniment. Its source is the British Museum's 'Royal' manuscript but it's probably based on an earlier and rougher autograph now held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It's an unusual anthem in that it's opening symphony is set on a ground bass, and that ground bass is in itself unusual in that Purcell recycled it for use in the song O solitude, my sweetest choice something he almost never did.

The Symphony opens the piece it's one complete section and sets a gentle slightly melancholy mood as it progresses you can hear the how the six-note rising scale that characterises the ground bass creates a musical texture leading into the first vocal section. This starts with the soloists echoing each other in declaring their trust in The Lord and begging him to deliver them in his righteousness. The next line 'Incline thine ear unto me and save me' leads into a brief instrumental ritornello which gives way in turn to the countertenor—tenor,  duet 'For thou, O Lord God'. Countertenor and tenor are joined by the bass soloist for 'Through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born … '   with some dropping chromaticism for 'thou art he that took me out of my mother’s womb'. Purcell closes this the second section of the anthem with a lyrical and flowing Symphony full of the the bittersweet harmonies that so define his music.

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Granville Bantock (1868-1946): Song to the Seals

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June 13, 2013

BantockGranville Bantock's output was vast he composed numerous operas and incidental music, huge choral works, to say nothing of his prodigious output of orchestral music, chamber music, and songs. And yet his name is well-nigh unknown today. This is a great pity as  much of his music is very fine.  It may also be about to change as no less than five pieces of his music are to be performed during this year's Proms (the Guardian's Tom Service has a very good article on Bantock here: Proms 2013: Just who is Granville Bantock? | Music | guardian.co.uk). Amongst his no less than forty collections of song cycles there were many that were strongly influenced by traditional Scottish airs and songs. This one, 'Song to the Seals' was published in 1930 it's inspired by a melody Bantock heard while on a trip to the Hebrides, the singer, he recounted, was surrounded by seals who had gathered round attracted by her singing.  You can hear it below sung by Robert White accompanied by Stephen Hough. Enjoy :-).

markfromireland

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Christopher Tye (±1505 — before 15 March 1573): Omnes Gentes, Plaudite Manibus

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June 12, 2013

Tye’s life and career straddled four reigns Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I, Elizabeth I or to put it another way his life and career straddled some of the most turbulent and dangerous decades of English history decades during which men like Tye were forced to decide which side of an increasingly vicious struggle for men's religious allegiances was being waged. These were decades during which the State sanctioned religion switched from the Catholic faith to a reformed one  and back again repeatedly:

  • Henry VII: Catholic to reformed Church of England.
  • Edward VI: Protestant, Church of England became more profoundly protestant in both doctrines and practises.
  • Mary I: Returned English church and state to Catholicism.
  • Elizabeth I: Protestant monarch Catholic faith overthown in favour of reformed Church of England with Elizabeth as its supreme governor.

Tye survived all of this social, religious, and political tumult ending his career during the reign of Elizabeth I as a priest in the Diocese of Ely's famous Cathedral. His psalm motet Omnes gentes, plaudite manibus (O clap your hands together all ye people) is a bit difficult to date. Clearly we can eliminate the reign of Edward Vi (28 January 1547 – 6 July 1553) and  the years of Tye's life during which Elizabeth I was queen regnant (17 November 1558 and March 1573 or a bit before that month). So it has to be either Henrician or Marian. I think it's most likely Marian, Mary I (bloody Mary as English protestants soon came to call her) reigned for five years from July 6th 1553 until her death on November 17th 1558 she was determined to restore the Catholic faith and so far as possible undo what she thought of as the damage done first by her father and then her brother to England and its people and to that end commissioned new works from English composers to adorn the Liturgy. The style of the motet also argues for it being a more mature work composed during Mary's five-year reign:

  • First there's its triumphal and ebullient tone –  exactly the sort of tone you would expect from a church celebrating its triumphant return under a Catholic monarch determined to root out heresy.
  • Second it's a very tightly and concisely written piece of music with a driving duple metre rythmn which again suggests Mary's reign to me rather than Henry's.

Two final points before I go, the first is about the sound of the voices you'll hear – bright, clear, and glittering, this brilliant sound is only obtained where the voices particularly the treble and contratenor part maintain a high tessitura throughout. Such a sound is entirely appropriate to the text, which Tye's contemporaries whether they were Catholics or Anglicans associated with the Feast of the Ascension. However, this very high tessitura can be very difficult for modern trebles to attain and maintain not least because today's trebles voices tend to change somewhat younger than was the case in tudor times. Difficult, but not impossible, particularly when the choir in question is the Westminster Cathedral Choir who sing this and other renaissance polyphony as their daily bread and butter. Any singing of music from a different era involves compromises but this performance is as close to what Tye would have expected and wanted to hear as possible. It also happens to be very beautiful. Enjoy :-).

markfromireland

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William Byrd (±1539-1623): Salve regina a 5

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June 11, 2013

William Byrd captioned 150x220px When Byrd took his family away from London with it's surveillance and denunciations to live in the comparative safety of Stondon Massey in Essex he did so in large part so that he could be nearer to his patron Sir William Petre and could participate in the recusant Catholic rites – particularly the Mass, that took place at Ingatestone Hall organised by the Petre family. Byrd soon established himself as an integral part of the Petre's community and produced a lot of music specifically for Catholic liturgical use. The change obviously suited him because he produced a lot music including that found in the Cantiones Sacrae of 1591. If anyone had doubted Byrd's allegiance to the Catholic faith a quick glance at his dedication to the notorious Catholic sympathiser (and Ridolfi's co-conspirator) Lord John Lumley and the fact that the fourth item published in the collection was Byrd's setting of the Marian antiphon 'Salve regina' would have immediately dispelled them. There was absolutely no place in protestant England for this piece of Marian devotion and for Byrd to publish it was both brave and a clear declaration of faith and defiance.

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Louis Armstrong (1901 – 1971): What a Wonderful World — Poznańskie Słowiki – YouTube

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June 10, 2013

How about we start the week with some Louis Armstrong sung by the brilliant Polish choir the 'Poznańskie Słowiki' (Poznan Nightingales)? Enjoy

markfromireland

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Sunday Concert: Jan Dismas Zelenka: Requiem in D major | Collegium 1704

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June 9, 2013
This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Zelenka: Officium Defunctorum and Requiem | Collegium 1704

In this the second of two postings dealing with music composed by Zelenka for the funerary and commemorative ceremonies of Frederick Augustus the Elector of Saxony known as Augustus the Strong I deal with his Requiem in D major. (You can find the first posting here: Sunday Concert: Jan Dismas Zelenka: Officium Defunctorum | Collegium 1704 – YouTube | Saturday Chorale). It's a stunning piece of music that is very large in scale, and very lavishly set. Zelenka obviously felt the normal orchestral accompaniment wasn't enough for such an august person's Requiem so he added a brass section and timpani to provide further attack to the choral and orchestral sound. As if that were not enough he cheerfully mixed and matched Gregorian plainchant with state of the art harmonies, some very dramatic orchestration, and eloquent chromaticism to accentuate the text. It's a Requiem that despite the fact that it follows the traditional liturgical pattern is full of unexpected moments, and while it expresses grief and lamentation most eloquently can in no way be described as downbeat – the spirit of this Requiem is a defiant one that in places such as the Kyrie or the Tuba Mirum  is both joyous and energetic. One of the joys of this Requiem is Zelenka's use of the Chalumeau this instrument – now mostly defunct, sounds a bit like a clarinet you'll hear it first in the Christe eleison it's a lovely sound and worth keeping one ear cocked for when it makes appearances as an extra, almost unearthly voice shadowing the soloists to provide moments of intense emotionality.

Zelenka's brilliant treatment of the text is also worth bearing in mind as you listen. Just as the Chalumeau shadows the soloists so does the music shadow the text. He doesnt go in much for operatic repetitions of words preferring instead to repeat entire lines at the ends of some phrases where the exigencies of musical logic require it. He also builds many very expressive relationships between text and music and on occasion engages in word-painting. The end result is music that illustrates the text in a devotional, graphic, and moving fashion that expanded the boundaries of what was considered to be musically allowable at the time.  I'd be remiss not to mention the frequent displays of orchestral virtuosity demanded by the score, no matter how many time I hear it I still find the arpeggios of the Pleni sunt coeli thrilling to listen to and love how they're revisited in the Hosanna in excelsis. I could go on and on like this, but you're here because you want to listen to beautiful music not to read reams of text about it. So I'll end by saying that how Zelenka ends the work is one of those quiet and gentle musical enigmas that stays with you long after you've heard it. Enjoy :-).

markfromireland

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