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You are here: Ex Cathedra Newsletter3 - March 2010

This is the first of what we hope will be regular website Newsletters, with paragraphs about composers, performances and anniversaries, as well as occasional mentions of items in our catalogue that we feel merit a timely word or so.

Francis Grier

We are delighted to announce that Francis Grier has decided to place his recent and forthcoming compositions with us.  Several anthems of his are already in print from us, and there are exciting plans ahead.  A Missa Spiritus Sancti has been commissioned by St Paul’s Cathedral, and its first performance will be at the 11.30am Eucharist there on Whitsunday (23rd May).  It is written for SATB soloists and choir, with accompaniment of Oboe (doubling Cor Anglais), Horn, Harp, ‘Cello, Timpani & Percussion, and will be performed by the Cathedral Choir and members of the City of London Sinfonia.  It will be available from us thereafter.

Anniversaries

S.S. Wesley (1810-1876)

With the anniversaries of composers such as Chopin, Schumann and Mahler falling this year (not to mention WF Bach), those of lesser composers might be expected to get forgotten. But the bicentenary of Samuel Sebastian Wesley should indeed be celebrated.  We have always seen one of our roles as keeping in the public eye works by composers such as him that should never have been allowed to slip into oblivion.  So over the years Cathedral Music has made available again several works of his.

Firstly, while his Evening Service in E is readily available (and we have reissued the Garratt edition CM 722/£3.00), the Morning Canticles are equally inspired – particularly the Jubilate, which can always be sung as a festive anthem. They are out of print otherwise than from us (Te Deum CM373 /£2.75, Jubilate  CM 374/£2.50).

Similarly while some of his anthems both large and small are frequently sung, others inexplicably remain completely neglected.  Of the short anthems, one of the most beautiful is

I am Thine (CM 942/£1.25), similar in mood to Thou wilt keep him, and like it for SSATB and Organ.

There are also two beautiful anthems whose words probably confine them to Funeral or Memorial Services:  All go unto one place (CM 941/£1.75) and Man that is born of a woman (CM110/£1.25).

We would also draw particular attention to three of his larger-scale works:

The face of the Lord (CM 167/£2.75) – a beautiful penitential anthem for double choir soloists and SSATTB,

Let us lift up our heart (CM 271/£3.50) –  similar in mood though with a larger emotional range, which includes the magnificent solo Thou O Lord God art the thing that I long for, usually sung by a Baritone and often accounted one of his finest inspirations.  Elgar was sufficiently impressed with this work to have orchestrated it for the Three Choirs Festival of 1923,   while our third choice is

O Lord, Thou art my God (CM 157/£4.25) – his longest work in any form, and written as his Mus.Doc. exercise.  This is no dry as dust piece, however. In fact the final three or four pages are amongst the most incandescent in the entire Anglican repertoire. It is astonishing this work is not better known. Like most of his longer works it is in several sections, and his love of Bach is beautifully shown in the 8 voice contrapuntal unfolding of several of these.  It can of course be argued that works such as this are too long for today’s services, but Wesley himself was not averse to performing movements from his anthems individually. Whatever happened, one might also ask, to the concept of a “Sermon in Music”?  In any case, a work such as this should most certainly still have a place in a cathedral concert programme. 

Cathedral Music has also reissued various of his organ works, and is also able to supply much more of his music than is listed in our Catalogue.   If you have any Wesley “wants”, especially in this bicentenary year, please ask!

William Boyce (1711-1779)

It is not too early for choral societies and chamber choirs to be planning their programmes for next season, so I make no apology for mentioning one or two anniversaries that fall in 2011. For us, principal among these is the tercentenary of William Boyce, and we would like first to draw particular attention to his Coronation Anthems. Since these were written for the Coronation of George III in 1761

Next year will also be their 250th anniversary.  Boyce was actually invited to compose all the music for the Service, an honour accorded to no one before or since, but – where Zadok the Priest was concerned Boyce rightly observed that Handel’s setting, written for the previous Coronation, could not be improved upon, thus starting the tradition that has seen the Handel performed at every subsequent Coronation.  Inevitably in his anthems Boyce cannot step entirely out of Handel’s shadow, but enough  of his own sturdy Englishness shines through to make these a worthy set of alternatives to Handel’s now almost over-programmed settings.

Boyce wrote eight anthems in all (as well as using his Te Deum in A), of which four are orchestrally accompanied and - naturally enough at a celebration such as this – in a festive D major with trumpets and drums. Even so, the individual movements or sections manage to encompass (as Handel’s did) a variety of moods through changes of key, scoring etc. in response to the words being set. He was under orders from the Archbishop of Canterbury to avoid too much repetition of the words, so they are more concise and sectionalised than Handel’s more spacious settings.  They are:-

The King shall rejoice – sung at the recognition (of the Monarch by the People), this is a three movement work of which the middle one His honour is great provides a gentler contrast to the festive D major outside movements. The work begins in 4 parts, expanding at the end to SSAATB.

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem – sung just after the Crowning, this is the shortest and perhaps the most dramatic of the four, concluding with a magnificent swinging polyphonic movement setting the words So will we sing and praise thy power.  Hallelujah!

The Lord is a sun and a shield – the Homage Anthem, sung while the Peers of the Realm in turn swore their loyalty to the new King.  This is therefore the longest of the anthems, and for SSAATB throughout.   Of the four movements the first and last are splendid D major choruses, the second is in a graceful triple-time A  major, while the third “movement” is in fact a series of short sections, dramatically contrasted, as Boyce sought to comply with the Archbishop’s instructions!

My heart is inditing.  This was the last of the anthems, sung at Queen Charlotte’s crowning at the end of the Service.  Like Handel’s setting it therefore has a rather more feminine charm and grace to it. It is the only anthem to feature soloists – first a Tenor, later a treble duet.  But as befits the end of the whole service, the writing expands to double choir antiphony and a climax of telling splendour.

The other four anthems include I was glad, which opened the Coronation service and was sung unaccompanied by the Abbey Choir during the initial procession. This is the only one of these anthems to have been published before now.

Come Holy Ghost was written to be sung before the anointing, although the words of course are equally appropriate for Whitsunday, Confirmations or Ordination Services.  It is a singularly beautiful setting for SSATB and continuo organ.

The other two short anthems Behold O God our defender and Let my prayer come up were sung during the Communion part of the Service.  They are miniatures most appropriate perhaps as introits.

All these Anthems are available now as vocal scores.  The Full Scores and instrumental parts are at proof-reading stage and will be available shortly.   We also publish more church music by Boyce, and are always happy to deal with enquiries for other works by him.

Other anniversaries:-

2010    Congratulations to Mark Blatchly who is 50 this year.  His two St Paul’s Evening Services, for Boys’ and Men’s voices respectively, are fast becoming cathedral classics.

Also 50 this year is Ian Higginson, Director of the Jubilate Chamber Choir of Cheltenham. We publish his Missa Brevis, written for the Choir’s tour to Paris in 2007 with the wide spaces of Notre Dame Cathedral in mind, and imbued with a real Gallic atmosphere.   Highly recommended.

2011   will be the 400th anniversary of Gesualdo’s death.   We publish only his Miserere, an alternative to the perhaps over-famous Allegri setting!  1611 was also the year of  Victoria’s death.  We publish his 6-part Requiem of 1605, often accounted his masterpiece, also his Missa Pro Victoria and several motets.

It will also be the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Alcock and the centenary of Robert Ashfield.   We will be anticipating these anniversaries with further reissues of their church and organ music.  It is also the 150th anniversary if the death of Albert, the Price Consort, whose Jubilate in A we publish, and for whose memorial SS Wesley wrote All go unto one place.

I should observe that Ex Cathedra Newsletters 1 & 2 appeared some years ago and related only to issues new at the time.  From now on the Newsletters will appear on our Website, and each will stay up while its contents remain current.  

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