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Contents:
DDD Total time = 66.34 - Recorded at St. Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead, London Jenevora Williams and Connor Burrows worked closely together on the repertoire for this recording Programme Notes:A great deal of religious verse was written by English poets during the 17th century, much of which was set to music by the composers of the day. These musical settings became very popular, especially towards the latter part of the century. They were not intended for performance in church, but were designed rather for domestic music making. Several collections were published, the largest and best known being Henry Playford's Harmonia Sacra, published in two parts in 1688 and 1693 and reprinted several times up to 1726. Most of the songs in this collection were written for one or two voices with a Basso Continuo. The accompaniment would have been supplied by whatever domestic musical instruments were available: chamber organ, harpsichord, theorbo and bass viol. Performances with voice and bass viol only were also envisaged by the composers. Earlier in the century, sacred songs for voice and lute were frequently to be found amongst the many published collections of the English school of lutenists. Thomas Campion's First Book of Airs, published in about 1613, consisted almost entirely of sacred texts. Lute songs, as distinct from songs with continuo, had a fully notated accompaniment in lute tablature. Many of them also had additional voice parts, so that the songs could be performed in a variety of ways. Campion writes in his preface to his First Book of Airs : These Ayres were for the most part framed at first for one voyce with Lute, or Violl, but upon occasion, they have been filled with more parts, which who so please may use, who like not may leave. Most of the texts of the Lute songs are anonymous, though Campion, doctor, poet and musician, wrote his own words. Many of the poets of Divine Hymns were clerics, such as George Herbert, John Donne, Dean of St Paul's and William Fuller, Bishop of Lincoln. The use of a boy's treble voice in these songs is appropriate to the period. Not only were boys' voices used in cathedral and collegiate church choirs, but also in the theatre. It is more than likely that learning to sing, and sing at sight, would have been a normal part of a young boy's education. Samuel Pepys expresses his delight when, in 1664, he takes into his household a young ex-chorister of the Chapel Royal, Tom Edwards : All the afternoon my wife and I above, and then the boy and I to singing of psalms, and then came in Mr Hill and he sung with us a while; and he being gone, the boy and I again to singing of Mr Porter's mottets, and it is a great joy to me that I am come to this condition, to maintain a person in this house able to give me such pleasure as this boy doth by his thorough understand of music. Vocal PiecesThe music recorded here gives a selection of sacred songs for solo voice covering the whole of the 17th century and the first few years of the 18th. The first song, Miserere, my maker is an anonymous setting for voice and lute taken from Francis Turpyn's Book of Lute-Songs, a manuscript collection in the library of King's College, Cambridge, dating from around 1615. This is a strophic song with a remarkable descending chromatic passage at the end of each verse, with the singer's agonized cry of 'Miserere, miserere, I am dying'. The two Campion songs both come from his undated First Book of Airs. Since the last song in the book is a lament on the death of Prince Henry, the eldest son of James I, the date could not be earlier than 1613. Nothing is known of John Bartlet's life, but since his Book of Ayres, published in 1606, was dedicated to the Earl of Hertford, formerly Sir Edward Seymour, it may be assumed that he was employed in that household as resident musician. O Lord, thy faithfulness is the first song in the book as well as being the only one with a sacred text. John Danyel was lute teacher to Anne, the daughter of Sir William Grene of Milton Knight. His brother, Samuel Danyel, was court poet. Thomas Tomkins dedicated his madrigal O let me die for true love to Danyel. The first part of this madrigal, O let me live for true love, was dedicated to John Dowland. This bracketing of Danyel with Dowland shows in what high esteem he must have been held in his day. The song If I could shut the gate comes from his one published volume, Songs for the Lute Viol and Voice, 1606, which is dedicated to the above named Anne Grene. With John Hilton we move away from the lutenists to the early days of the songs with basso continuo. It is interesting to compare this early setting of John Donne's wonderful poem with the later one by Pelham Humfrey. Hilton's is a simple strophic setting; it was probably the one known to Donne himself and which, it is said, he often caused to be sung by the choristers of St Paul's, especially at evensong. It is appropriate that it should be sung in this recording by an ex-chorister of St Paul's. The setting of Donne's words by Pelham Humfrey has an austere beauty and expressive intensity that is far removed from the simplicity of Hilton's setting. Some of the earliest Divine Hymns come from the pen of the music publisher, John Playford. In his Psalms and Hymns, 1671, he included six of his own compositions as a sort of addendum to the Psalm settings. Amongst these is a song entitled Upon a Quiet Conscience. It is a setting of Francis Quarles's poem, Close thine eyes and sleep secure. Again, it is interesting to compare this with Purcell's setting (for two voices) of the same words, which appeared in Harmonia Sacra Book 1 in 1688, where the authorship of the poem was comically misattributed to Charles I. Once again, Purcell's setting has more intensity, but Playford's has an endearing simplicity. John Church was Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey and a Gentleman of the chapel Royal. His Divine Hymn, O God for ever blest is in effect a cantata, with the tempo and mood changing at the behest of the text. It did not appear in print until the second edition of Harmonia Sacra in 1703, by which time it may have sounded a little old fashioned. It is, however, a piece of great dramatic power, in contrast to the simple but beautiful King of all Joys by the same composer; this originally appeared in The Divine Companion, a collection published in 1701. The two examples by Purcell, from Harmonia Sacra Book 1, are both settings of words by William Fuller, Bishop of Lincoln, though Purcell made substantial alterations to the original text when setting the Morning Hymn, making it considerably more penitential than Fuller's original. The Evening Hymn, built on a simple descending ground bass, is one of the most strikingly beautiful pieces to come from the pen of this amazing composer. The subtle interplay between the vocal part and the ground bass, the key changes in the middle of the song and the treatment of the gentle 'Hallelujahs' all combine to make this a masterpiece. Jeremiah Clarke's Blest be those sweet regions and William Croft's A Hymn on Divine Music appeared together in 1700 under the title of Two Divine Hymns, being a Suppliment to the second Book of Harmonia Sacra. They were both incorporated into the second book of Harmonia Sacra in its subsequent reprints. The Clarke song illustrates the influence of Italian vocal music. Two arioso passages, with typically Italianiate bass lines, frame a seductive triple time aria, more Handelian than Purcellian. The Croft is elegant and melodious, but already moving towards the changes which would take place with the advent of Handel. The text of the Hymn on Divine Music comes from part of an elegy On the death of the late famous Mr Henry Purcell .... by 'R.G.', printed in Orpheus Britannicus Book II. Jeremiah Clarke's beautiful little Evening Hymn is a simple strophic song from The Divine Companion. It has since found its way into most hymn books as the tune 'Uffingham'. Instrumental PiecesWilliam Byrd's Fantasia in D minor is probably a late composition and is in a more concise form than his earlier long and elaborate fantasias. He included it in his manuscript collection of keyboard pieces known as My Ladye Nevell's Booke, dated 1591. It is interesting that he omitted the earlier fantasias when making this compilation of his keyboard works. The late Sir Jack Westrup did not entertain a very high opinion of Purcell's organ music. In his book on Purcell he only mentions it in passing as being of no particular merit. There are, in fact, only six pieces extant, some of which are of doubtful authenticity. For someone who was organist of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal this small output of organ music would seem strange, but it is probable that Purcell improvised his organ voluntaries and saw little reason to preserve them in writing. The voluntary in G follows the traditional form of the English voluntary; a slow opening is followed by a faster, fugal canzona movement. Ralph Downes described it as '.... a little gem of its kind'. Robert Johnson was lutenist successively to James I and Charles I from 1604 until his death in 1633. In 1628 he was appointed composer for the lute and voice. From 1607 onwards he was closely involved with the theatre and wrote songs for the plays of Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher, as well as being associated with Ben Jonson in the production of court masques. His pieces for lute are spread over a variety of different sources, emphasising the reputation he must have enjoyed among his contemporaries. Only about twenty of them have survived, but their value is considerable. The Alman and Galliard recorded here have no particular connection with each other, save that they both appear in the same manuscript volume of lute pieces in the British Library, known as the 'M.L.' Lute Book (referring to the initials at the front), dating from 1615. Both pieces appear in several other manuscripts. The Alman is also known as The Prince's Alman and may have been written for Prince Henry, the eldest son of James I, who died in 1612. In 1611 Johnson had been appointed one of Prince Henry's musicians in his private chapel. The prince was a greatly respected and loved patron of the arts, and his early death was much lamented. The Alman is in two sections, which are both repeated with delicate ornamentation. The Galliard in D minor, one of only two surviving by Johnson, is in the usual form of three repeated sections, each repeat being copiously and tastefully ornamented. Maurice Bevan: November 1996 Words1. Miserere My Maker Miserere My Saviour, I alas am for my sins, Holy Spirit Miserere, comfort my distressed soul 2. Author of light Fountain of health, my soul's deep wounds recure. 3. Never weather-beaten sail Ever blooming are the joys of Heaven's high Paradise. 5. O lord, thy faithfulness and praise 6. If I could shut the gate Or were there other rooms without my heart that did not to my conscience join so near; But O my Saviour, who my refuge art, let thy dear mercies stand 'twixt them and me; 7. Wilt thou forgive the sin where I begun? Wilt thou forgive that sin by which I've won I have a sin of fear that when I've spun 10. Upon a Quiet Conscience 11. A hymn to God the Father Wilt thou forgive that sin by which I've won I have a sin of fear that when I've spun 12. Blest be those sweet regions 13. O God forever blest And thou who sets at the right hand of bliss And thou most sweet and sacred Dove, Hear O most holy Trinity, 14. A Morning Hymn 16. An Evening Hymn On thy soft bosom will I lie, Let not the spirits of the air, 17. King of all joys What art thou? From what causes dost thou spring? 'R.G.' (from an Ode 'on the death of the late 19. An Evening Hymn Page revised 26.06.03 |
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