No postings this week because of illness
I will not be posting this week, week 44 of 2016, because of illness. mfi
“Gaudeamus” INTROIT Gregorian Chant for All Saints
Enjoy :-) mfi
William Byrd (±1539-1623): Gaudeamus omnes in Domino (Sanctorum omnium)
This five-part (SSATB or AATTB) motet is part of the set of Propers for The Feast of Saints1 is published by Byrd in the Gradualia of 1605 (no. 29) as part of his project to provide music for the entire Church year on a scale suitable to circumstances in which he and his fellow English…
Hermannus Contractus (1013-1054): Salve Regina
The Marian antiphon Salve Regina sung here by the Hilliard Ensemble’s counter-tenor David James. This performance, the performance by Henry’s Eight about which I wrote on November 26, 2013, and the performance by the child choristers of Salisbury Cathedral about which I wrote on July 15, 2013 are three performances of it as chant that…
Sunday Concert: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K 219, Turkish
Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219, is the last violin concerto he ´wrote. He wrote it originally for his own use but re-worked it in favour of his friend the Neapolitan violin virtuoso Antonio Brunetti who succeeded Mozart as concertmaster the following year after one Mozart fell out with his employer…
Drakensberg Boys Choir: Stand by You – Rachel Platten
Stand by You – Rachel Platten – performed by the Drakensberg Boys Choir during their Wednesday afternoon concert on 9 March 2016. Starting the weekend with the Drakies is always a good idea. I’ve put both the lyrics and Rachel Platten’s original video below for purposes of comparison and your further enjoyment. Enjoy :-). mfi
Josquin Des Prez (±1450 – 1521): Domine Exaudi Orationem Meam
The contrast between Josquin’s setting of Domine Exaudi and Qui habitat about which I wrote yesterday or his setting of the Stabat Mater about which I wrote 5 days ago on October 23, 2016 could not be greater. The four-part (SATB) texture is severe, plain, and sparse and Josquin thins this already rigorous musical model…
Josquin Des Prez (±1450 – 1521): Qui habitat
This twenty-four part (6 × SATB) setting by Josquin of the text of first eight verses of Psalm 90 in the Vulgate. It’s composed of four interwoven six-voice canons augmented by some very intricate and detailed decoration underlain by a harmonic ostinato. Gabriel Jackson’s notes for the performance below can’t be bettered by me: Surviving…
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625): Short Service – Evening Canticles
This is the earlier of the two settings Gibbons composed, it is as I noted last week, for full choir and is almost entirely homophonic. It’s a four-part (SATB) setting and is a ‘full’ rather than a verse setting. It’s a simple setting, through-composed, and with rather plain contrapuntal writing and in this very plainness…
Spem in alium (Sarum plainchant)
The text for this respond at Matins in the Sarum liturgy is derived from Judith 6.19 and 8.19. There is no musical connection between this and any of the polyphonic settings of the text, so far as I know the performance below is the only recording of it ever made commercially. Enjoy :-). mfi
Gareth Malone: ‘I was a bohemian’
The choirmaster who used to sell ice creams on Bournemouth beach is angling for his next Christmas No 1 – and teaching Team GB how to sing the National Anthem properly
Robert White (±1538-1574): Magnificat
When Morley, was writing his A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (1597) he listed White as one of the greatest English composers saying that he was equal to de Lassus and included him in a list of seven eminent Tudor composers that included "Fayrfax, Taverner, Sheppard, Whyte, Parsons and Mr Byrd." Whenever I…
Feature: Josquin Des Prez (±1450 – 1521): Stabat mater dolorosa
An unusually short piece today compared to what I normally post on a Sunday but the quality of Josquin’s five-part (SAATB) setting of the Stabat Mater is such that I don’t think you will feel stinted. It’s somewhat unusual in that it sets only the first and third sections of the text which suggests to…
Libera in America: Ave Maria – YouTube
Surely not another rendition of Ave Maria? Yes, another rendition and a very good one in which the soloist Thomas Delgado Little instead of singing in Bb major takes the piece 2 keys higher to Db major and slows the pace somewhat. This could have gone very wrong indeed but Delgado Little (who outside of…
Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871 – 1927): I Seraillets Have
Stenhammar was a major figure in Scandinavian (especially Swedish) musical life at the turn of century. I Seraillets Have (In the Seraglio’s Garden) is his four-part (SATB) setting of a text1 by the founder of the Danish naturalist movement the novelist, poet, and scientist, Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847 – 1885). It’s one of three a…
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625): Second Service – Evening Canticles
There are two settings by Gibbons of the evening canticles that are extant. The First or Short Service which I’ll post about at some time in the near future, is for full choir and is almost entirely homophonic. The Second which you can hear below is quite an elaborate affair on a far grander scale.…