The World s Greatest Choral Music

Transcription

1 The World s Greatest Choral Music

2 CD1 [74 12] CARL ORFF O Fortuna from Carmina burana 2 36 Sydney Philharmonia Motet and Symphonic Choirs, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, ANTONIO VIVALDI Gloria in excelsis Deo (Glory to God in the Highest) from Gloria in D major, RV Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Zadok the Priest, HWV Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Jesus bleibet meine Freude (Jesu, Joy of Man s Desiring) from Cantata No. 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, FRANZ BIEBL Ave Maria excerpt 4 07 Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Michael Leighton Jones director CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI Deus in adiutorium...domine ad adiuvandum me festina (O God, in My Adversity... O Lord Make Haste to Help Me) from Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin) 2 04 Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Ave verum corpus (Hail, True Body), KV Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, HOWARD GOODALL b Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd from the television series The Vicar of Dibley 3 06 Jane Sheldon soprano, Cantillation, David Drury organ, Sinfonia Australis, David Stanhope conductor JOHN RUTTER b For the Beauty of the Earth 3 31 Gondwana Voices, Sally Whitwell piano, Mark O Leary conductor HUBERT PARRY Jerusalem 2 28 Cantillation, David Drury organ, Brett Weymark conductor GREGORIO ALLEGRI ! Miserere a 5 & Jane Sheldon treble, Belinda Montgomery soprano, Jenny Duck-Chong alto, Richard Anderson bass, Cantillation, Antony Walker conductor GEORGE FRIDERIC Hallelujah! from Messiah, HWV Sydney Philharmonia Motet and Symphonic Choirs, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN An die Freude (Ode to Joy) from Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op Sydney Philharmonia Motet and Symphonic Choirs, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, 2 3

3 GIUSEPPE VERDI $ Dies irae (Day of Wrath) from Messa da Requiem (Requiem Mass) 4 18 Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic and Motet Choirs, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, JOHN TAVENER b % Song for Athene 7 08 Cantillation, Antony Walker conductor GABRIEL FAURÉ ^ Cantique de Jean Racine, Op Cantillation, David Drury organ, Antony Walker conductor CD2 [70 05] JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 1 Magnificat anima mea Dominum (My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord) from Magnificat in D major, BWV Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL 2 For Unto Us a Child is Born from Messiah, HWV Cantillation, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Antony Walker conductor WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 3 Lacrimosa from Requiem, KV Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, GABRIEL FAURÉ 4 Pavane, Op Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER b Pie Jesu from Requiem 3 56 Jane Sheldon, Sara Macliver sopranos, Cantillation, Sinfonia Australis, David Stanhope conductor WILLIAM HENRY MONK arr. Michael Leighton Jones 6 Abide with Me 5 24 Suzanne Shakespeare soprano, Benjamin Namdarian tenor, Mark Fitzpatrick trumpet, Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Jonathan Bradley organ, Michael Leighton Jones director MICHAEL PRAETORIUS In dulci jubilo a Cantillation, Antony Walker conductor GIULIO CACCINI arr. Daniel Walker 8 Ave Maria 3 25 Gondwana Voices, Alexandre Oguey oboe, Helena Rathbone, Aiko Goto violins, Nicole Forsyth viola, Daniel Yeadon cello, Maxime Bibeau double bass, Paul Stanhope chamber organ, Lyn Williams conductor WILLIAM BYRD c Ave verum corpus (Hail, True Body) 4 40 Belinda Montgomery soprano, Jenny Duck-Chong alto, Paul McMahon tenor, Richard Anderson bass, Brett Weymark conductor JEAN SIBELIUS Be Still, My Soul 5 27 Cantillation, David Drury organ, Brett Weymark conductor CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI! Cantate Domino (Sing to the Lord) 1 57 Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Michael Leighton Jones director 4 5

4 SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Bogoroditse Djevo, radusia (Virgin, Mother of God) from All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Op Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic Choir, EDWARD ELGAR Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 Land of Hope and Glory 6 51 Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, JOHN HUGHES arr. Brett Weymark $ Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah 3 15 Paul McMahon tenor, Cantillation, Brett Weymark conductor GUSTAV HOLST verse 2 arr. Michael Leighton Jones % I Vow to Thee, My Country 3 08 Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Jonathan Bradley organ, Michael Leighton Jones director PERCY GRAINGER ^ Ye Banks and Braes (British Folk Music Settings No. 30) 3 27 Cantillation, Antony Walker conductor MICHAEL PRAETORIUS & Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming) 3 15 Cantillation, Antony Walker conductor RICHARD WAGNER * Beglückt darf nun dich, o Heimat, ich schauen (With Gladness I Gaze Once More on My Native Land Pilgrims' Chorus) from Tannhäuser 3 54 Cantillation, Brett Weymark conductor CD3 [71 15] GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL 1 And the Glory of the Lord from Messiah 2 26 Cantillation, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Antony Walker conductor FRANZ SCHUBERT Sanctus from German Mass, D Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Jonathan Bradley organ, Michael Leighton Jones director SAMUEL BARBER Agnus Dei, Op Cantillation, Antony Walker conductor JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 4 O Sacred Head Sore Wounded (Passion Chorale) from St Matthew Passion, BWV Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Jonathan Bradley organ, Michael Leighton Jones director GABRIEL FAURÉ 5 In paradisum (Into Paradise) from Requiem, Op Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, MORTEN LAURIDSEN b O magnum mysterium (O Great Mystery) 6 28 Cantillation, Brett Weymark conductor JOSEPH HAYDN Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God) from Die Schöpfung (The Creation), Hob.XXI: Sydney Philharmonia Motet and Symphonic Choirs, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, ANTON BRUCKNER Ave Maria (Hail Mary) 4 14 Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Michael Leighton Jones director 6 7

5 FELIX MENDELSSOHN Thanks be to God from Elijah, Op Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, ALEXANDER BORODIN Polovtsian Dance No. 17 from Prince Igor Sydney Philharmonia Motet and Symphonic Choirs, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, PERCY GRAINGER! Irish Tune from County Derry 4 15 Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, Antony Walker conductor ROY WILLIAMSON arr Lyle Chan and Brett Flower of Scotland 1 45 Cantillation, Brett Weymark conductor JOHN TAVENER Lament for Jerusalem excerpt 2 30 Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, The Australian Youth Orchestra, Thomas Woods conductor GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL $ Now Love, That Everlasting Boy from Semele 2 37 Cantillation, Sirius Ensemble, Antony Walker conductor HAROLD DARKE % In the Bleak Mid-Winter 5 02 Jane Sheldon soprano, David Drury organ, Cantillation, Antony Walker conductor RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS ^ All People that on Earth Do Dwell 5 40 Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Australian Chamber Brass Ensemble, Jonathan Bradley organ, Michael Leighton Jones director CD1 1 ORFF O Fortuna from Carmina burana Stravinsky described it as neo-neanderthal music, but this was a backhanded tribute to Carl Orff s success in writing perhaps the most popular choral-orchestral work of the 20th century. Using the rediscovered medieval songs and poems from the monastery at Beuron in Bavaria (hence the title Carmina burana, Songs of Beuron ), Orff in 1937 brought out a work combining dance, mime and singing with a simple orchestral accompaniment dominated by pianos and percussion. The work s opening and closing chorus is an invocation to the goddess Fortune, with her constant changeability, symbolised by the wheel of fortune. 2 VIVALDI Gloria in excelsis Deo from Gloria in D major Antonio Vivaldi was a violin-playing priest who spent much of his career teaching the girls and directing their music at an orphanage in Venice, the Ospedale della Pietà. He also wrote over 500 concertos for all kinds of solo instruments but especially for the violin, including the famous Four Seasons. His church music has the same brilliant effects, based on springing, energetic musical patterns; the opening movement of his Gloria, with its leaping strings and skirling trumpet, is full of vitality, a fitting setting of the exultant text, Glory to God in the highest. 3 HANDEL Zadok the Priest Mozart once said, When Handel chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt. Of nothing is this so true as of the anthem Zadok the Priest, composed for the coronation of King George II in 1727, and sung in Westminster Abbey at every coronation since. It begins with an extraordinary 22 bars of arpeggios: slow chords spread out into a constant flow of running semiquavers, the harmonic tension building inexorably to a staggering climax as the choir bursts in with its opening acclamation, a rich seven-part choral texture accompanied by trumpets and drums. The central section, And all the people rejoiced, is a stately dance in triple time, and the anthem finishes with triumphant shouts of Amen! Alleluia!. The text is a paraphrase of the Old Testament account of King Solomon s coronation: highly flattering to the new king, as Solomon was famous for his wisdom, and reigned over a prosperous and peaceful kingdom. 4 J.S. BACH Jesu, Joy of Man s Desiring from Cantata No. 147 Neither the words nor the tune of Jesu, Joy of Man s Desiring are by Bach (Salomo Franck wrote the former, and Johann Schop the latter); Bach s contribution is the 8 9

6 wonderful treatment of the voices in harmony, over an elegant, joyous accompaniment of flowing triplets which itself becomes a melodic feature. Bach used this chorale melody twice in his Cantata No Cantatas were an important part of the Lutheran church service: Luther himself had declared that the gospel must be preached and sung, and the cantata, a meditation on the themes of the day s bible readings, was sung between the reading of the gospel and the (hour-long) sermon. 5 BIEBL Ave Maria excerpt Biebl was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century German choral music. He studied at the Musikhochschule in Munich and during World War II was interned in America, where he arranged concerts of choral and chamber music. He returned to Germany, becoming organist and choirmaster at the Parish Church of St Magdalena in Fürstenfeldbruck, near Munich, before being appointed the first head of choral music programming for the Bavarian Radio Broadcasting Company. During these appointments, he produced many of his over 1500 compositions and arrangements for local and visiting choirs. His music remained unknown outside Germany until Chanticleer recorded the Ave Maria (written in 1964) in the mid-1990s. Its simplicity of form, clear texture and directness of approach are characteristic of much of Biebl s music. 6 MONTEVERDI Deus in adiutorium from Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Monteverdi begins his Vespers of the Blessed Virgin with a striking toccata in which a single chord is turned into an expression of grand ceremonial splendour. Not until the alleluia at the end is the choir given a melody to sing, but the unchanging harmony which makes up most of the piece is anything but static, as the orchestra weaves its energetic fanfares around the powerful chord. The music s dramatic quality is not surprising, considering that it was reworked by Monteverdi from the overture to his opera Orfeo. 7 MOZART Ave verum corpus The communion motet Ave verum corpus (Hail, True Body) is Mozart s very last completed work, composed at the request of a schoolteacher friend who was also a choirmaster. In other composers its richness within simplicity might be the sign of a late style but Mozart was only 36! 8 GOODALL Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd A happy conversion from secular to sacred use has been the fate of Howard Goodall s 1995 setting of The Lord is my Shepherd, which was originally written as the theme for the popular British TV series The Vicar of Dibley. My intention with the Dibley theme, wrote Goodall, had always been to treat the series as if it were not a comedy, and write a piece of popular church music that might have a further life. It is now, I m delighted to say, enjoying that further life and is performed in its full-length version both in churches and concert halls everywhere. A seasoned chorister, and composer of musicals, film and television music, Goodall comfortably adds a gentle syncopation to the harmonies of predecessors such as Wesley and Stanford, whose epic and tuneful chestnuts remain influential on his music. 9 RUTTER For the Beauty of the Earth For the Beauty of the Earth was commissioned by the Texas Choral Directors Association in This elegant anthem is a perfect example of the qualities which have made John Rutter s music so popular: memorable melodies well-crafted for the voice, with simple and immediately appealing harmonies drawing both on the English choral tradition and on the language of popular music. Rutter s experience in directing vocal ensembles, especially the choir of Clare College, Cambridge and his own Cambridge Singers, has given him a great sensitivity to the qualities of the human voice which comes across in his choral writing. 0 PARRY Jerusalem Parry set William Blake s stirring poetry to music for a meeting of the Fight for the Right, a women s suffrage movement, in 1916; after he conducted it in 1918 at a concert in London s Royal Albert Hall to mark the final stage in the Votes for Women campaign, it was adopted by the National Federation of Women s Institutes. It is still sung at meetings of WI groups all over Britain, but its vision of dark satanic mills vanquished and the shining city of God established in England s green and pleasant lands has been taken up much more broadly, and Parry s powerful anthem has become an icon of British national identity.! ALLEGRI Miserere This setting of the penitential Psalm 51 was composed by Allegri around 1638 for the Tenebrae services in the week leading up to Easter: an intensely dramatic night office in which the candles were extinguished one by one to the solemn chanting of psalms. The Miserere was the culmination of this office, during which the final candle was carried behind the high altar, leaving the church in total darkness. Gregorio Allegri, a tenor in the Sistine Chapel choir, gave his composition to the choir for its exclusive use, and for over a hundred years no-one outside the choir was permitted to set eyes on the music but the 14-year-old Mozart, on a visit to the Vatican, 10 11

7 was able to memorise the work on a single hearing, thus smuggling the music out in his own HANDEL Hallelujah! from Messiah For many people, a performance of Handel s Messiah is one of the highlights of the Christmas season, but in fact the oratorio was written to be sung during Lent, the solemn period of fasting and spiritual discipline in preparation for the festival of Easter. Of Messiah s three parts, only the first is about the Nativity; the Hallelujah Chorus comes at the end of Part II, which focuses on the death and resurrection of Christ, and is intended as an affirmation of Christ s victory over death and the establishment of his kingdom on earth. BEETHOVEN An die Freude (Ode to Joy) from Symphony No. 9 Beethoven saw himself as the heir of Haydn and Mozart in Vienna s great tradition. At the same time, he was inspired to take that tradition in new directions such as including a choir in the finale of his ninth (and last) symphony. The words of this Ode to Joy come from a poem by Schiller, and they proclaim a vision of all humankind as one family, with God as their loving father. Beethoven refined his tune through many sketches to its simple, clear and memorable form. But he couldn t hear it, and at the premiere one of the soloists had to turn him around to acknowledge the applause. $ VERDI Dies irae from Requiem Verdi s Messa da Requiem was described by Brahms friend the conductor Hans von Bülow as Verdi s latest opera, in church vestments. When Brahms heard this, he snorted that Bülow had made an ass of himself. Verdi s very Italian drama and colour was a completely different way of responding to the Mass for the Dead, but one Brahms recognised as equally inspired. The sequence, Dies irae (Day of Wrath), a text reminiscent of the frescoes in Italian churches reminding the faithful of the reckoning awaiting them at the end of time, is the most spectacular part of Verdi s setting. % TAVENER Song for Athene The Englishman John Tavener became a member of the Russian Orthodox church in There are two particularly Russian elements in his music: the use of parallel harmonies a simple chord moving in step with the melody and of course the deep bass sound. A third, more individual element of his musical style is the use of exact inverted counterpoint, where a melody sung in one voice is sung simultaneously as an exact mirror image in another, so that wherever one melody rises, the other falls by precisely the same interval. All three of these elements can be heard in Song for Athene. The work was written as a response to the sudden death of a friend (four years later, it was also sung at the funeral service for Diana, Princess of Wales). The text brings together Tavener s English heritage and his Orthodox spirituality by quoting both from the Orthodox funeral service and from Shakespeare s Hamlet. ^ FAURÉ Cantique de Jean Racine Racine s canticle, which Fauré would have found in the writer s collection of Cantiques spirituels (1694) that he wrote for use at the young girls school of Saint Cyr, is a fervent and eloquent prayer that produced from Fauré not only his first mature work, but also one of his very finest. With the Cantique de Jean Racine, Fauré won first prize for composition in 1865 at the École Niedermeyer where he studied for eleven years. CD2 1 J.S. BACH Magnificat anima mea Dominum from Magnificat in D major Bach spent the last 28 years of his life as the Kantor, or Director of Music, of St Thomas Church in Leipzig. Some of his greatest music was composed during this period, including the monumental Mass in B minor and the St John and St Matthew Passions. The Magnificat is on a smaller scale than these works, but every one of its brief movements is a masterpiece. Bach wrote it for Christmas Vespers in 1723, his first Christmas in Leipzig, and included several additional Christmas texts inserted at various points in the piece. Some years later he revised it, removing the Christmas interpolations to make the piece suitable for use throughout the year, and transposing it into D, a much brighter and more satisfactory key for the trumpets in particular, as is very clear from this opening movement, My soul magnifies the Lord. 2 HANDEL For Unto Us a Child is Born from Messiah This buoyant and graceful chorus is an expression of joy at the birth of the Christchild. Out of the light two-part writing which begins the chorus, Handel builds the voices together into an exultant affirmation at Wonderful, Counsellor.... Handel borrowed the music from a comic love duet he had 12 13

8 written a month or so earlier (to the very secular Italian words No, di voi non vo fidarmi No, I don t want to trust you ) and the clarity of his original chamber music version is preserved in this setting for full chorus. 3 MOZART Lacrimosa from Requiem The opening eight bars of the Lacrimosa may well be the last notes that Mozart ever wrote. The Requiem was commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg-Stuppach as a memorial for his wife. Mozart began work on the piece in October 1791 and was expecting to finish it the following year, but when he died on 5 December, only the opening movement was complete. He had made a start on several of the other movements, but there were some for which he had written nothing at all: the Lacrimosa, beyond those first eight bars, was a completely blank page. Mozart s widow Constanze, desperate to have the Requiem finished so that she could claim the full commission fee, turned to one of Mozart s pupils, Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who completed the piece to the best of his ability, even faking Mozart s signature so that Walsegg would think he was getting a genuine Mozart original. Not all of the passages Süssmayr wrote are quite up to Mozart s standard, but his completion of the Lacrimosa has become a favourite with both choirs and audiences. 4 FAURÉ Pavane Fauré composed his Pavane in 1887, at a time when he was immersing himself in the poetry of Paul Verlaine, and the piece is full of the nostalgia for the courtly world of fêtes galantes as celebrated in the 18th-century paintings of Watteau. The optional chorus adds lovers whispered confidences to the stately procession of the pavane dance. 5 LLOYD WEBBER Pie Jesu from Requiem Son of a London organist and composer, and brother of a classical cellist, Andrew Lloyd Webber grew up surrounded by music, although, as he admits, My father insisted that I should not be over-trained musically. The Requiem, from which this setting of the Pie Jesu is excerpted, was in fact written in memory of his father. It had its ritual tryout at the Sydmonton Festival on the grounds of Lloyd Webber s own home in 1984 and was extensively polished during the subsequent six months before reaching the final version, hugely popular when first released in A more disarmingly simple setting of the Pie Jesu could scarcely be imagined, recalling as it does the similar treatment found in Fauré s famous setting. Lloyd Webber still enjoys popping into evensong and comments about his Requiem, I don t know what place it will find in the music of today, but to me it is the most personal of all my compositions. 6 MONK arr. Leighton Jones Abide with Me Henry Lyte won prizes for poetry while a student at Trinity College, Dublin, and was ordained soon after graduating. He wrote Abide with Me a few months before his death from illness, writing to his future daughter-in-law that it was his latest effusion. It was published in a collection of his poetry in 1850 and, with his own tune, was printed as a hymn-sheet in Bristol in In 1861, however, it had appeared in Hymns Ancient and Modern, set to a specially composed tune by William Henry Monk (one of the hymnbook s editors), with which it has been associated ever since. Now one of the most famous of all Christian hymns, the poem takes its theme from Luke 24:29 at the end of life s brief span, the faithful ask God to stay with them through the darkness, until they awake in the light of heaven. 7 PRAETORIUS In dulci jubilo The text of the Christmas chorale In dulci jubilo, half in Latin, half in German, is said to have been sung by angels to the mystic Heinrich Seuse (or Suso): After he had spent many hours in contemplating the joys of the angels... there came to him a youth... and with him many other noble youths... then they drew him by the hand into the dance, and the youth began a joyous song about the infant Jesus, which runs thus: in dulci jubilo... The melody is one of the best known in the entire Lutheran tradition, and in Praetorius time would have been sung by the congregation, led by a Cantor who stood among them, with the harmony provided by a professional choir from the local Latin school, singing from the organ loft. 8 CACCINI arr. Walker Ave Maria Giulio Caccini was a singer and composer in the Medici court and a member of the Florentine Camerata, an artistic circle that history recognises for having laid the foundations for opera as we know it today. His compositions included secular songs and madrigals but hardly any sacred works. And the Ave Maria (in English, Hail Mary ) popularly attributed to him is a strange composition: while the prayer has been set to music hundreds of times over the centuries, very rarely have these settings used just the first two words. Scholars now believe that the work is either by someone else entirely, or else loosely based on a Caccini original, perhaps a fragment that was completed by another hand. 9 BYRD Ave verum corpus William Byrd was a devout Catholic who relied on his musical talent to protect him from the persecution being meted out to Catholics under Elizabeth I. Others were not so lucky: there is, for example, a record of 14 15

9 someone being arrested for possessing a copy of Byrd s Gradualia, his setting of all the mass texts for the major feasts of the Catholic church year. Ave verum corpus, for the feast of Corpus Christi, comes from this collection: music for private, even secret, worship. It is an intimate and concentrated work; as Byrd wrote in the dedication of Gradualia, There is a certain hidden power, as I learnt by experience, in the thoughts underlying the words themselves; so that, as one meditates upon the sacred words and constantly and seriously considers them, the right notes, in some inexplicable manner, suggest themselves quite spontaneously. 0 SIBELIUS Be Still, My Soul Katharina von Schlegel s six-verse hymn Stille, mein Wille; dein Jesus hilft siegen ( Be still, my soul, your Jesus will help you overcome ) appeared in a book of sacred songs in 1752; Jane Borthwick s translation was published in Edinburgh in 1855 in a series called Hymns from the Land of Luther. In 1899, Sibelius composed a series of dramatic historical tableaux as a contribution to the anti-russian Press Celebrations held in November. The following year, Sibelius rearranged the seventh tableau, Finland Awakes, into the orchestral piece Finlandia, but it was not provided with words until 1937, after which Sibelius rearranged it as a male-voice nationalist song (1938) and finally for mixed voices in It is not known who first decided that the tune was suited to Schlegel s German hymn, but its earliest appearance in English is in the Revised Church Hymnary (Church of Scotland) of 1927, well before its use as a hymn in Finland itself.! MONTEVERDI Cantate Domino Monteverdi is best known as the Maestro di cappella (Director of Music) of St Mark s in Venice, a post he held from 1613, and for writing large-scale works such as the Vespers of 1610 and the operas Orfeo and The Coronation of Poppea. He introduced a revitalised and vibrant style of sacred music to Venice, and this work, published in 1620, contrasts sections of older-style polyphony with rapid, homophonic passages. The text, from Psalms 96 and 98, is not specific to any one day, so this motet may have been written for performance at any of the many religious festivals held at the RACHMANINOFF Virgin, Mother of God from All-Night Vigil (Vespers) Audiences without the key to the language of his vocal works know Rachmaninoff largely through the piano. Many Russians, however, prize his vocal music even more highly, and above all his greatest contribution to the Russian Orthodox liturgy, the All-Night Vigil (Vespers) of Here Rachmaninoff was drawing on an age-old tradition of unaccompanied chant and choral music for Orthodox worship, clothing it in his own lyricism and affecting harmonies. Wonderfully satisfying to sing, this music asks its interpreters to sound like the deeply resonant Russian voices for which it was written. ELGAR Land of Hope and Glory I ve got a tune that will knock em knock em flat, announced Elgar in May It was the melody of the middle section of his march in D major, the first of what was to become a series of five marches that Elgar named Pomp and Circumstance. Elgar was of course quite right about the impact his melody would have, to the point where he came to resent the work s mammoth success, as its popularity eclipsed much of the rest of his output. That popularity came especially with the marriage of the music to A.C. Benson s patriotic poem; God Save the Queen may be the national anthem of the United Kingdom, but Land of Hope and Glory is the anthem of England the official anthem at the Commonwealth Games, and of course unofficially at the Last Night of the Proms! $ HUGHES arr. Weymark Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah William Williams was an 18th-century Anglican priest who spent 43 years travelling throughout Wales on horseback, preaching and singing the gospel in his native Gaelic. This sweet singer of Wales wrote some 800 hymns, but very few of them have been translated into English. The tune, Cwm Rhondda, was written in 1907 by the Welsh composer John Hughes for the annual Baptist singing festival at Capel Rhondda church in Pontypridd, near Cardiff. % HOLST I Vow to Thee, My Country Sir Cecil Spring Rice was a career diplomat who served in the British Foreign Office and then in Berlin, Constantinople, Tehran, Cairo, St Petersburg and Stockholm; his final posting, from 1912, was as Ambassador to the United States. Spring Rice originally wrote this poem during his Stockholm posting ( ); the first verse concerned allegiance to one s country, while the second paralleled this with religious faith in heaven. After his sacking as ambassador in 1918 (and only weeks before his death), a depressed Spring Rice rewrote the first verse to reflect the losses of the world war. The poem was put to music by Gustav Holst, set to the Jupiter theme from his orchestral suite The Planets

10 ^ GRAINGER Ye Banks and Braes The poem Ye Banks and Braes was penned by Robert Burns in 1791: the source of the tune has never been completely resolved. There is a letter from Burns claiming that the melody was written by a James Miller, who had been advised, partly as a joke, that the way to compose a true Scots air was to simply keep to the black keys of the harpsichord and preserve some kind of rhythm. It has also been claimed that the tune has its origins in Ireland, the Isle of Man and England! This arrangement is by the eccentric Australian composer and pianist Percy Grainger, who marked it to be sung Very clingingly throughout, with a chorus of whistlers providing a descant in the second verse. & PRAETORIUS Es ist ein Ros entsprungen When Michael Praetorius collated Musae Sioniae ( The Muses of Sion ), an extensive compendium of German hymnody published in nine volumes from 1605, he included a four-part setting of the 15th-century folk carol Es ist ein Ros entsprungen. The text follows the messianic prophecy found in the book of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah: A shoot will come up from the stem of Jesse [the father of King David] and from his roots a branch [Mary] will bear a little flower [Jesus]. Loosely translated as A rose did spring, the title refers to a convention of medieval iconography wherein the stem of Jesse was depicted as a rose plant. * WAGNER Pilgrims Chorus from Tannhäuser Wagner s opera Tannhäuser is an epic tale of the human struggle between the spiritual and the sensual. The minstrel Tannhäuser, after a year of orgiastic pleasure in the city of Venus, breaks free through his love for the pure Elizabeth. Unable to completely repudiate the memories of the physical delights offered by Venus, Tannhäuser is sent on a pilgrimage to Rome to seek absolution from the Pope who refuses to grant it, and ultimately it is only through the intercession of Elizabeth, who by this time has died and gone to heaven, that Tannhäuser finally receives the forgiveness he needs, at the moment of his own death. The Pilgrims Chorus comes in Act III, as the returning pilgrims (with Tannhäuser no longer part of their company) sing of their joy at seeing their native land again, now that their ordeal is over. CD3 1 HANDEL And the Glory of the Lord from Messiah The writings of the prophet Isaiah are rich with poetic visions of the coming of the Messiah. In this passage, Isaiah describes how all flesh shall see the glory of God; Handel expresses this musically by introducing the full chorus, for the first time in Messiah, to exclaim at the wonder to come. Each phrase of the text is set to a distinctive melodic phrase, and these motifs are passed from voice to voice to weave a joyous dance pulsing with anticipation. 2 SCHUBERT Sanctus from German Mass Most of the famous mass settings are settings of what is commonly referred to as High Mass, where a choir sings more or less elaborate settings of the Latin texts used in the Catholic liturgy. Schubert s German Mass belongs to a different tradition. In a Low Mass, up until the 1950s, the texts of the mass were recited in a low voice by the priest, to the point where much of the service was inaudible to the congregation. To compensate for this, music was written for the choir or congregation to sing at significant points in the service. For example, while the priest was reciting the Kyrie eleison prayer ( Lord, have mercy ), the congregation would sing a hymn in German asking God for mercy. The style was kept deliberately simple; Schubert s hymn Zum Sanktus, to be sung at the Sanctus, with its sense of quiet dignity and awe, is a fine example of the style. 3 BARBER Agnus Dei The Agnus Dei is the last of the five texts traditionally set as part of the Catholic mass, along with the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo and Sanctus. Samuel Barber s Agnus Dei, however, was not written for performance in church. The music comes from his immensely popular Adagio for Strings of 1938 (itself a transcription of the slow movement of his String Quartet in B minor). The Adagio has come to be particularly associated with funerals it was played at the funerals of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Albert Einstein and Princess Grace of Monaco, and was broadcast in the United States when John F. Kennedy was killed and the composer had apparently been deluged with requests for a choral version. The Agnus Dei text fits well with the poignant simplicity of the music, and the flowing melody recalls the simple and sincere Gregorian plainsong which, said Barber, warmed all the corners of my heart left cold and untouched by the magnificent pageantry [of St Peter s, Rome]

11 4 J.S. BACH O Sacred Head Sore Wounded from St Matthew Passion This chorale comes from Bach s St Matthew Passion, his musical setting of the biblical narrative of the crucifixion of Christ. As the story unfolds, at key points Bach intersperses arias and chorales, settings of religious poetry designed to encourage the listener to enter into the spirit and emotion of the story, and to make a personal response. O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded comes at the point in the story where Christ, after being flogged, is presented to the crowd dressed in kingly robes of purple, with a crown of thorns on his head: the mocking laughter of the crowd, Hail, King of the Jews! is transformed into a hymn of quiet dignity and power. Bach uses this tune five times in the course of the St Matthew Passion, harmonised differently each time; as a result, it has become known as the Passion Chorale. 5 FAURÉ In paradisum from Requiem The Requiem is Fauré s most famous work, composed when he was choirmaster at the fashionable Madeleine church in Paris. He later declared, My Requiem wasn t written for anything for pleasure, if I may call it that, going on to say that he directed its first performance at the funeral of some parishioner or other. Immediately after that funeral, the vicar called Fauré over and asked what that new Requiem was. Fauré replied that it was one from his own pen. The vicar went on, Monsieur Fauré, we don t need all these novelties; the Madeleine s repertoire is quite rich enough, just content yourself with that. Nevertheless, despite this initial reception and the composer s own nonchalance, the work, since its publication in 1900, has become a firm favourite with audiences the world over. In Paradisum is the last movement, an evocation of the angels leading the departed soul into Paradise. 6 LAURIDSEN O magnum mysterium Morten Lauridsen is Professor and Chair of Composition at the University of Southern California, and one of the most performed American choral composers today. O magnum mysterium is probably his bestknown work; its long, arching melodic lines are embellished with carefully prepared and controlled dissonances to create its intended aura of a great mystery and wondrous sacrament. Lauridsen has described the piece as a quiet song of profound inner joy. 7 HAYDN The Heavens Are Telling from The Creation Haydn s oratorio The Creation was inspired by performances he had heard in England of Handel oratorios, and its text, based on the poetry of Milton and on the Bible, had originally been intended for Handel. The story of the creation of the world is told by solo angels, and at the conclusion of each day of creation, the whole heavenly choir celebrates, as in this chorus: The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth his handiwork. 8 BRUCKNER Ave Maria Bruckner was a choirboy at the monastery of St Florian before training as a teacher and studying music only as a sideline. His music sits firmly in the Viennese orchestral traditions of Beethoven and Schubert, but with a harmonic and instrumental idiom similar to that of Wagner. First performed on 12 May 1861 by the Linz Cathedral Choir, this, his second setting of the Angelic Salutation, was published in 1887 as number two of Zwei Kirchen-Chöre (Two Church Choruses). 9 MENDELSSOHN Thanks be to God from Elijah Mendelssohn was only 39 when he died, but he had in the course of his career made ten visits to England. There he was a superstar, and few works have been as eagerly awaited as his oratorio Elijah, composed for Birmingham in It became the most popular oratorio of the 19th century. Elijah the prophet leads the people of Israel to trust that God will relieve the drought afflicting them, and when it breaks, they rejoice in this chorus, with vivid illustration of the rushing of water. 0 BORODIN Polovtsian Dance No. 17 from Prince Igor The opera Prince Igor would have been Borodin s masterpiece as it is, neither the libretto nor the music was finished, but concert halls resound to what Borodin did achieve, and so does the Broadway musical Kismet. The tunes of the barbarically splendid Polovtsian Dances constantly remind us that a Russian genius was uniquely placed to interpret the orient in this case the Turkish nomads, living in 12th-century southern Russia, called Polovtsi, who capture Prince Igor, and dance and sing in praise of their benevolent ruler, Khan Konchak.! GRAINGER Irish Tune from County Derry This famous tune is best known today as Danny Boy, but although the song seems to evoke the very soul of Ireland, the poem was penned by an Englishman, the barrister Frederick E. Weatherly, who matched it up with the tune in When Grainger wrote this setting, in 1902, the melody was an old Irish tune, wordless and nameless. It existed in just one source, George Petrie s 1855 collection Ancient Music of Ireland; Petrie had the tune from a Miss J. Ross of Newtown Limavady in the County of Londonderry, who according to a Ross family 20 21

12 tradition had learned the melody from a very old man in a distant mountain cabin who had himself learned it from a harper. Grainger wrote six different versions of the melody, all of them wordless; the rich harmonies of this version for unaccompanied choir reveal Grainger s inexhaustible inventiveness and his clear love for the WILLIAMSON arr. Chan / Weymark Flower of Scotland This song commemorates the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 when the Scottish army under Robert I (the Bruce), King of Scots defeated Edward II, King of England. Like Land of Hope and Glory for the English, Flower of Scotland is the Scottish national song, for those occasions where being Scottish comes before being British the Rugby World Cup being the most famous example. The composer, Roy Williamson, was for 25 years one half of the Scottish folk duo The Corries. TAVENER Lament for Jerusalem excerpt Tavener has described the Lament for Jerusalem as a mystical love song... The title might suggest a work written for the wartorn place that contemporary Jerusalem has become, but...for me, Jerusalem is a universal symbol which signifies the changeless and celestial synthesis of the Cosmos, and the primordial longing of man for God. The Lament is a sign, therefore, and a lament for the lost paradise that is universal. The texts are drawn from Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions; this excerpt from Stanza V is a setting of Christ s lament over Jerusalem: O how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! $ HANDEL Now Love, That Everlasting Boy from Semele Handel is famous for his oratorios Messiah being the obvious example and he was also immensely successful as a composer of operas, such as Julius Caesar and Alcina. With Semele, however, he created something that was neither oratorio nor opera: though it was originally performed in oratorio style, without costumes or sets, as if it were a piece of sacred music, its secular, even erotic tale from Ovid s Metamorphoses was clearly operatic, as was the extensive use of recitative. But one quality which Semele shared with Handel s oratorios is his brilliant use of the chorus. The fashionable Italian operas of the day generally confined the involvement of the chorus to the finales of each act; in Semele, Handel gives the chorus plenty of opportunities to shine, as in Now Love, That Everlasting Boy, set to the bright dance rhythms of a hornpipe. % DARKE In the Bleak Mid-Winter Harold Darke set Christina Rossetti s poem In the Bleak Mid-Winter in 1911, only five years after Gustav Holst had written his version for The English Hymnal. Rossetti s poem seems not to have been intended as a carol or hymn, but its subject matter lends itself perfectly to the application. While some commentators have pointed out its scriptural liberties (there are no references to ox, ass or camel in the bible and neither is there evidence to suggest Christ s birth took place in mid-winter), it would be churlish to concentrate on these minor details and ignore the carol s many delights. ^ VAUGHAN WILLIAMS All People that on Earth Do Dwell This famous text, a metrical paraphrase of Psalm 100 (Jubilate Deo), is almost certainly by William Kethe, a Protestant working in exile in Geneva during the reign of Queen Mary. So fine is the text and so famous its tune, that the Hundredth Psalm received mention in works such as Shakespeare s The Merry Wives of Windsor and Bunyan s The Pilgrim s Progress. Vaughan Williams wrote two arrangements of this psalm, one in 1929, and the other, sung here with trumpets, and incorporating a setting by John Dowland for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle Chan Mastering Thomas Grubb Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb Publications Editor Natalie Shea Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd Cover Photo Jim Reed/CORBIS/APL ABC Classics thanks Alexandra Alewood and Melissa Kennedy CD1 1-4, 6, CD2 1, 3, CD3 5, 7, 9-!; 2001 CD1 ^; 2002 CD1 5, 8, %, CD2 2, 5,!, CD3 1, 3, 6, 8; 2003 CD1 9-!, CD2 7, 9, 0, $, *, $; 2004 CD2 &, CD3, %; 2006 CD2 6, 8, %, ^, CD3 2, 4, ^ This compilation was first published in 2006 and any and all copyright in this compilation is owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited