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Contents:
DDD 78:50 Recorded: Cathedral Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, Portsmouth –July 1984 (tracks 1–12) and November 2003 (tracks 13–18) Standing as a lighthouse at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth Cathedral has been a welcoming beacon to seafarers throughout the ages, and it has also served to draw together the wider community’s remembrance of those whose lives have been given in sacrifice to their country. The music on this anthology explores these two themes further. The hymn Light’s abode, celestial Salem is sung to one of Henry Smart’s best known tunes ‘Regent Square’, and here includes a bold introduction on brass instruments and a descant specially composed by David Thorne. The words of Henry VIII’s prayer O Lorde, the maker of al thing are simple and direct, and this setting by John Joubert won fi rst prize in the Novello Anthem Competition in 1952. Henry’s fl agship Mary Rose capsized suddenly in the Solent in 1545, within sight of the cathedral, and one member of her company is buried in the Navy Aisle. Herbert Sumsion’s descriptive setting of part of Psalm 107 They that go down to the sea in ships conjures up the changing moods of the sea. At fi rst gently swaying, the waves are later whipped up by the ‘stormy wind’ causing the sailors to ‘reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man’. The storm subsides and calm returns with an atmospheric change of key at the words ‘and so he bringeth them unto the haven where they would be’. Mark Blatchly’s evocative setting of part of Laurence Binyon’s famous poem For the Fallen was written for the British Legion Festival of Remembrance in the Royal Albert Hall on November 8th 1980, and performed then by the choristers of St Paul’s Cathedral directed by Barry Rose, to whom it is dedicated. Its opening lines are specially apt for the D-Day and Normandy Fellowship’s annual service in Portsmouth Cathedral - ‘With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea’. The nostalgia of the words is matched by the Elgarian mood of the music which, towards the end, incorporates the Last Post played on a solo trumpet. The hymn Love divine, all loves excelling is sung to the tune ‘Blaenwern’ with a spacious descant and organ part written by Anthony Froggatt. Sir Hubert Parry’s Chorale Prelude on Croft’s 136th reveals the skill of a true craftsman, as evident here as in his well-known choral music. Eternal Father, strong to save could well be described as the seafarer’s hymn, with its recurrent fervent prayer ‘O hear us when we cry to Thee for those in peril on the sea’.What are these that glow from afar is a fi ne Saint’s Day anthem by Dr Alan Gray, who was Organist of Trinity College, Cambridge. Christina Rossetti’s words encompass a wide range of moods, from the heroic declamation ‘Strong as a lion, pure as a dove’ through amore reflective section ‘They, the blessed ones gone before . . . out of great tribulation they went to their home of heaven content’ to the atmospheric moment where the words ‘As a king with many crowns he stands’ are woven into the plainsong tune ‘Jesu, dulcis memoria’ and the emphatic climax ‘God Almighty, God Three in One, God alone’. In Give us the wings of faith, another Saint’s Day anthem, Isaac Watts’s words from the early Eighteenth Century are set to music by Sir Ernest Bullock, Organist of Westminster Abbey from 1928 until 1941. The Ricercare IX del 12° Tono is a piece of ceremonial brass music written by Andrea Gabrieli, who was Organist of St Mark’s Cathedral, Venice during the latter half of the sixteenth century. It is highly imitative and switches frequently from duple to triple time. The hymn He who would valiant be brings together the two themes of pilgrimage and fighting for truth. John Bunyan’s robust words are are sung to the tune ‘Monk’s Gate’ by Pearcy Dearmer. John Ireland studied with Stanford at the Royal College of Music and was organist at St Luke’s Church, Chelsea from 1904 until 1926. His varied output includes the fine Piano Concerto and his famous setting of Masefi eld’s poem, Sea Fever, but he also wrote much church and organ music, of which his setting of Te Deum laudamus, the Church’s ancient hymn of praise, from his set of morning and evening canticles in F, is one of the grandest. Parry’s 1916 unison setting of Blake’s Jerusalem has the status of a national song, in which the bold imagery of the text is complemented by the composer’s typically warm harmonies and his innate feel for melodic shape. Sir Michael Tippett’s oratorio A Child of our Time received its fi rst performance on March 19th 1944. One of its most striking features was the substitution of congregational hymns by Negro Spirituals, several of which punctuate the libretto, and provide breathing points or moments of collective refl ection. Steal away to Jesus expands from a gentle unison start to flamboyant and multi-layered climaxes, conjuring up the ‘trumpet sounds within-a my soul’. Funeral Ikos by Sir John Tavener is one of his most serenely beautiful works. Setting words from the service for the burial of priests it has a hypnotic simplicity, and owes much to the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and Gregorian chant. Composed in 1888, shortly after the death of his mother, Fauré’s Requiem has many of the lyrical and harmonic traits of his later song cycles. In Agnus Dei he establishes a peaceful mood in F major, but then surprises the listener fi rst with an atmospheric shift to A fl at major at the words ‘Lux aeterna luceat eis’ which leads to a powerful climax, and later with a return to the slow mesmeric chords from the very opening bars of the work – ‘Requiem aeternam’. The peaceful mood then returns, but now in the brighter key of D major. Karl Jenkins wrote his mass The Armed Man in response to a millennium commission from the Royal Armouries and is dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo crisis. This compelling contemporary mass setting is based on the Fifteenth Century French melody, L’Homme Armé, and alongside the traditional words of the Latin mass are found sacred and secular texts from Tennyson, Kipling, Hindu authors and the Koran. The Benedictus begins with gentle dialogue between treble and tenor, followed by urgent fanfare-like Hosannas, after which the opening theme returns.Sir Henry Walford Davies was a former Organist of the Temple Church in London and Master of the Queen’s Music, but he also played a signifi cant role in the early days of broadcasting through his many popular talks on the radio. His beautiful setting of Psalm 121 sets the verses with alternating treble and tenor solos. Page revised 12.05.04 |
