*Worth hearing
**Recommended
***Essential listening
CHORAL CDs
**
BRYAN KELLY: ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI AND OTHER WORKS Selwyn College Chapel Choir / Katherine Mann (soprano) / Bradley Smith (tenor) / Stuart MacIntyre (baritone) / Morgan Pearse (bass) / Britten Sinfonia / Adam Field (organ and piano) / Sarah MacDonald ♦ Regent REGCD585
Not the work that gave this CD its title, nor the main secondary title, but it is the final sequence of five anthems that qualifies this disc for a church music review. Far from being a filler at the end, the upper-voice anthems that Bryan Kelly combined under the title For adoration provide a strong conclusion. Mostly unison, with some two-part writing, and accompanied here by organ (piano is also allowed in the score published by Encore Publications), they are five striking and quite easy anthems that should be taken up by more upper-voice church choirs. Sarah MacDonald’s singers respond well to the power of the opening Come, my way, my truth, my life and the joyful final For adoration seasons change. In between comes a gently reflective performance of Lord, I want to be a Christian, before two well-known texts, O thou who camest from above and My spirit longs for thee, both of which start contemplatively before a strong finish.
Kelly’s 45-minute cantata, St Francis of Assisi, is a major work in 14 sections describing events in the life of St Francis, along the lines of Britten’s Saint Nicolas. The performances are impressive and the choir excels, especially in the lively rhythmic sections. Between St Francis and For adoration comes At the round earth’s imagin’d corners, a sadly beautiful sequence of six pieces for solo tenor, choir and strings, with ‘Oh my blacke Soule!’ and ‘Drop, drop, slow tears’ in central position.
*
JONATHAN BIELBY: SEVEN LAST WORDS FROM THE CROSS AND OTHER CHORAL WORKS
Selwyn College Chapel Choir / Katherine Mann (soprano) / Ben Davies (baritone) / Adam Field (organ) / Sarah MacDonald ♦ Regent REGCD594
The Seven Last Words from the Cross has the figure of Mary Magdalene as soprano narrator contrasting with baritone singing the words of Christ. Intended as a contemporary alternative to Stainer’s Crucifixion, it includes two hymns for the audience/congregation. Katherine Mann portrays the role of Mary Magdalene with dramatic conviction and technical accomplishment, contrasting with the dignity of Ben Davies’s Christ. Organist Adam Field adds to the drama with precise playing and vivid registrations.
The ‘other choral works’ of the CD title start with Missa Wakefeldiensis, an early unaccompanied Mass setting that Bielby wrote shortly after he became organist of Wakefield Cathedral. The Windsor Service is a pair of evening canticles for ATB voices, written for St George’s Chapel, Windsor and featuring Mary singing the words of the Magnificat over the background hymn tune St George’s, Windsor. Two anthems conclude the disc: the Selwyn singers surmount the challenges of the exposed, unaccompanied Love’s endeavour, love’s expense, and then enjoy the festive and rhythmic Song of St Cecily in honour of the patron saint of music.
**
IN CHAINS OF GOLD: THE ENGLISH PRE-RESTORATION VERSE ANTHEM VOLUME 3
Magdalena Consort / Fretwork / His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts / Silas Wollston / William Hunt ♦ Signum Classics SIGCD931
These are not the sort of verse anthems discussed by Lionel Pike in the book reviewed below. For a start, at that time only the organ was used in church: these anthems are mostly accompanied by viols, although the first, This is a joyful, happy, holy day by John Ward (1589–1638), and last, Know you not by Thomas Tomkins (1572–1656), are large-scale works accompanied by sackbuts and cornetts. Even larger scale, though, is Tomkins’s O God, the heathen are come, accompanied by Fretwork, taking nearly 10 minutes and providing the centrepiece of the CD. This setting of verses from Psalm 79, which lament the destruction of Jerusalem, quotes from Byrd’s setting of the same text in Deus venerunt gentes and, like Byrd, uses the words as a metaphor as he bleakly contemplates the destruction wrought upon the English church by the Puritans.
Subtitled ‘Ah, his glory! – Anthems of praise, prayer and remembrance’, the 15 tracks cover six other composers in addition to Ward and Tomkins, notably Richard Nicholson (1563–1639), whose When Jesus sat at meat describes the first meeting of Jesus with a contrite Mary Magdalene. The disc is rounded out by three of the keyboard pieces that Tomkins wrote in his final decade after the abolition of his cathedral post, plus a Pavan played by His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts.
Judith Markwith
ORGAN DVD
***
MESSIAEN’S MUSICAL UNIVERSE
Tom Bell plays the organ of Blackburn Cathedral / co-presented with Christopher Dingle / a film by Will Fraser ♦ Fugue State Films, 2 DVD pack FSFDVD018
Even by the high standards that Fugue State Films have established, their latest package is outstanding. Tom Bell performs three of Messiaen’s great cycles of organ music: La Nativité, Messe de la Pentecôte and the massive 18-piece Livre du Saint-Sacrement, plus Le Banquet Celéste, Messiaen’s first published work. These are filmed and recorded at Blackburn Cathedral, where the producers claim there is the best organ for playing Messiaen’s organ music in the UK. In the accompanying documentary, almost four hours long, Christopher Dingle explores Messiaen’s life and compositional styles and development in relation to these pieces.
Tom Bell’s performances are exceptionally well played and filmed. The documentary puts each piece in context with interviews with people with relevant memories of Messiaen, including Thomas Lacôte demonstrating the organ of Sainte Trinité in Paris, where the composer was organiste titulaire for 60 years, and a scene discussing Messiaen’s fascination with birdsong filmed in his summer house at Petichet. It explains his key musical ideas and how they transferred to the organ that he played. If you are already au fait with Messiaen’s organ music, this treasure trove of performances and surrounding documentation will be a delight. If you need a helping hand into Messiaen’s unique soundworld, I can think of no better introduction than these discs.
Julian Elloway
BOOKS
THE VERSE ANTHEM: BYRD TO TOMKINS
Lionel Pike
Austin Macauley Publishers 314pp.
PB £11.99 (eBook £3.50)
The verse anthem and verse service, in which verses for a soloist or soloists alternate with others for the choir, was an exclusively Anglican form of composition in the first part of the 17th century; it ceased when the Commonwealth put an end to English cathedral music. The choral tradition was broken and, after the Restoration, musical styles had moved on. The principal exponents described by Lionel Pike range from ‘early masters’ William Byrd (1543–1623) and Thomas Morley (c.1557–1602), through ‘provincial genius’ Thomas Weelkes (c.1575–1623) and ‘central classic’ Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625), to Adrian Batten (c.1590–1637), John Amner (1579–1641) and ‘the final virtuoso’ Thomas Tomkins (1572–1656). The anthems conform to the expectations of the Protestant reformers, with texts in English set syllabically (apart from Amens), and no prayers addressed to any of the saints.
It is surprising that such a unique but significant musical form has, apparently, not received a full-length, published study until now. The author argues that much of the most forward-looking music of the time was cast in the form of the verse anthem, and that for some of the composers it was their preferred type of religious composition. This authoritative and detailed book is not easy reading, but a huge amount of ground is covered in its densely packed pages. It should find a place on the shelves of anyone interested in the music and composers of the period.
‘NOT HALF BAD’: A LIFETIME OF MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND OTHER STORIES
Harry Bramma
OxfordFolio (available from RSCM Music Shop) 368pp.
HB £22.00 978-1-0687661-1-4
This is a lovely book that will be enjoyed by anyone interested not just in church music and liturgy but in the culture and the social history of the second half of the 20th century. Readers of CMQ are likely to turn first to over 50 pages devoted to the author’s time as director of the RSCM (there is much more about the RSCM scattered throughout the pages: 27 entries in the excellent index). A fair assessment of Lionel Dakers’s achievements concludes that he was ‘the man of the hour when he took over at the RSCM’ and takes note of the contribution of Elisabeth Dakers – but also, not surprisingly, is aware of the challenges left for his successor. There is also a self-aware assessment of Bramma’s own contribution, concluding ‘At the end of the day, the making of music is what the RSCM is all about.’ In between he covers the work of the RSCM at home and especially abroad, of popular and contemporary musical idioms and the need for the RSCM to support churches wanting a greater variety of musical and worship styles, support for girls’ choirs, the move to Cleveland Lodge and much more – even CMQ is given due consideration.
The pages devoted to the RSCM only take about a seventh of the total extent. First we have childhood in Yorkshire and in particular Bradford Grammar School, reading music and then theology at Oxford, teaching at Retford, assistant at Worcester and then organist of Southwark Cathedral. Particularly valuable are the descriptions and assessments of the people Bramma came to know, such as Bernard Rose at Oxford. At Worcester there were Christopher Robinson and then Donald Hunt, but we also have an appreciation of Edgar Day, Bramma’s predecessor as assistant for 50 years. There are the three deans during the time at Worcester, including a notable appreciation of Eric Kemp (‘a deceptive figure’) and the changes that he achieved there. Harry Bramma tries to see the positive side of people, as well as being frank about what could make them difficult, and includes details that he experienced personally that illustrate his judgements. This is especially true when we move to Southwark and read the eight pages about Bishop Mervyn Stockwood and his ‘strong and volatile’ personality. After the RSCM came All Saints, Margaret Street, followed by an active retirement. The book concludes with two related chapters (‘A spiritual pilgrimage’ and ‘Envoi’) and an appendix with four articles that Bramma wrote for CMQ, concerning girls’ choirs in cathedrals, the merits of pipe and electronic organs, proper financial remuneration for church musicians and the importance of silence in worship. Written in 1990, they remain thought-provoking and relevant.
Julian Elloway
CHORAL WORKS
E Easy
M Medium
D Difficult
ADVENT CAROLS
ADAM LAY YBOUNDEN [M]
Vicente Chavarría
SATB with divisions
Oxford X929 £2.95
ADAM LAY YBOUNDEN [D]
Laura Sheils
SATB with divisions and optional tambourine
Oxford X937 £2.95
Both these settings have a lively, dance-like feel and reflect the medieval origins of the words, with modal harmonies and rhythmic energy. Vicente Chavarría has more variety of texture, ranging from unison passages to six- or seven-part chords, often underpinned by vocal drones. The final ‘Therefore we moun singen “Deo gracias”’ occupies half the piece, with ‘Deo gracias!’ repeated in a wild fairground-like dance that crescendos from piano to fortissimo. Laura Sheils has more rhythmic variety, and with two-bar rhythmic ostinatos alternating 6/8 and 2/4. An optional tambourine adds to the fun in the final verse.
OF A ROSE [M]
Cecilia McDowall
SATB
Oxford X927 £2.95
TOTA PULCHRA ES [D]
David Bednall
SSATB
Oxford X714 £3.25
Written in 1993, included in 2009 in Novello’s Noël! 2 and recorded in 2021 by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen for their Carol of the Bells CD, Cecilia McDowall’s lively setting of Of a rose is eventually published as a separate octavo, with minor clarification of dynamic marks. As might be expected from this most thoughtfully musical of composers, each of the six verses shows a varied and sensitive approach to the words. Although modern translations are given of individual words where needed, conductors who are interested in recreating 14th-century pronunciations will need to refer to the notes in the previous Novello anthology.
David Bednall combines plainchant-like melodies with warm five-part harmonies. The canonic writing at the central part of the work at ‘Tu gloria Jerusalem’ forms a thrilling climax. For the final page, Sopranos 1 and 2 combine, but a solo soprano voice chants the opening ‘Tota pulchra’ words above what is now a four-part choir asking for the Virgin’s prayers. A fairly slow speed at the start becomes, by the end, ‘As slow as is comfortably possible’, and the work concludes with a feeling of timelessness.
ADVENT CALENDAR [M]
Richard Elfyn Jones
SATB
Encore Publications 020806 £2.25
GLORIA! ALLELUIA! [D]
Darius Lim
SATB with divisions and S semichorus
Oxford NH282 £3.25
Rowan Williams’s ‘Advent Calendar’ poem has inspired a good many musical settings over the past 20 years, and this one by Welsh composer Richard Elfyn Jones is one of the most interesting. In an overall tonal idiom, it starts on an A major chord and fleetingly passes across many keys before its final cadence on B flat. Particularly effective is a C major / E minor moment when the ‘shrinking earth opens on mist’. Textures are also varied, with a striking unison ‘alien sword-set beauty’. More difficult, perhaps, than it looks, but I hope that choirs will take the trouble to learn and perform this thoughtful piece.
Darius Lim’s 2017 Choir & Organ commission has now been published in Oxford’s New Horizons series. The piece is in two parts, with the quiet first part having the Advent antiphon ‘Rorate caeli desuper’ at its heart, surrounded by the angels’ words ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo!’ and ‘Alleluia!’. In the second part, a lively, syncopated setting of the repeated words ‘Alleluia!’ and ‘Gloria!’ broadens out into a triumphant climax.
ANKUNFT (ARRIVAL): THREE CHRISTMAS CAROLS [E/M]
Bob Chilcott
SATB, S semichorus and piano or orchestra
Oxford BC280 £9.50
In well-tried Advent tradition, the journey depicted in Bob Chilcott’s Arrival moves from ‘Darkness’ to ‘Light’, the titles of the first and last of this triptych of carols. The words are by the German author and director Friederike Karig, and the score has English and German singing text. Described as a dual-language publication, it would have been more helpful if the preliminary sentences about the orchestration and performance with piano accompaniment, and also the tempo marks for each carol, had included English translation.
The music has the familiar Chilcott mixture of warmly blended vocal harmonies, with strategically placed dissonances as if providing spice to the recipe and stopping the mix becoming cloying. ‘Darkness’ has the potential to be a standalone, three and a half minute Advent carol where in the darkness the promise of a saviour is described. The second carol, ‘A spark’, starts off indeed sparkily, but becomes more reflective as it contemplates how ‘the time is near’. The final ‘Light’ has charm and joy as the newborn child promises ‘I am the Light’. Friederike Karig is a distinguished writer: I suspect that a performance with the original German words would sound less twee than some of the English translation.
James L. Montgomery
ADVENT ANTHOLOGY
CAROLS AS WE WAIT [mostly M]
Compiled and edited by Timothy Rogers
SATB with and without organ
Encore Publications 020834 £9.95
This 80-page anthology has six introits by Eleanor Daley, two hymn arrangements by June Nixon, and then the main part of the book containing 10 anthems, all by living female composers, the youngest of whom is Jessica Macfarlane, who wrote There is a flower for her school carol service. The anthems are unaccompanied except the final two; organists will enjoy June Nixon’s organ part that accompanies the Christmas hymn When came in flesh the incarnate Word.
Eleanor Daley’s little introits are less than 10 bars each, apart from a more substantial setting of Lift up your heads, O ye gates. The new carols start strongly with a lilting 7/8 Ave Maria by Esther Bersweden that has more divisi of upper voices than other pieces here. Joy Williams’ Christ the apple tree takes its melody through a range of keys and major/minor changes, more artful than, say, the simplicity of Elizabeth Poston. In Drop down ye heavens, Alison Willis uses the Rorate coeli plainchant as a starting point for a setting of the words of the refrain and final verse (‘Comfort ye, my people …’) that builds to a forceful climax proclaiming ‘I am the Lord thy God, the holy one of Israel’.
Solo soprano and tenor are required by Sarah MacDonald’s For there shall be peace in his days, an anthem that stretches the definition of a carol, as does Alice Rivers in Never weather-beaten sail – a setting focused on repetitions of ‘O come quickly’ that captures the Advent feeling of quiet expectation. God who comes in wisdom, with new words by Sharon Grenham-Thompson and music by Sasha Johnson Manning, evokes the Walford Davies setting of God be in my head with not only short sentences beginning with the word ‘God’, but also the same opening rhythm for each. O nata lux, a hymn for the Transfiguration, has a hauntingly beautiful setting by Ghislaine Reece-Trapp; this and Gail Randall’s Seek him that maketh the seven stars celebrate light entering into darkness. Overall, it is a diverse collection, well edited and clearly printed, providing choirs with a modestly priced way of bringing their Advent repertoire into the 21st century.
Julian Elloway
CHRISTMAS ANTHOLOGY
CAROLS FOR ALL [E/M]
Arranged by Ian Higginson
SATB and organ
Parish Publications (Banks Music Publications) PPCFA001 £9.95
The ‘for all’ in the title is important: these 20 items are among the most popular congregational carols at Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, arranged and with organ introductions by Ian Higginson. Almost all the arrangements include a new, last verse descant. The introductions are more than playovers, and are often long enough to move into a more remote key before returning. Harmonies are often ‘spicy’ in the introductions and the last verse organ parts. Sometimes the introductions are more like a fanfare, marked for a solo Tuba (‘O come, all ye faithful’, ‘Good King Wenceslas’ and most strikingly for ‘Hark! the herald angels sing’). The most effective arrangements seem conceived for a festive service, or indeed concert, and would provide a more contemporary feel than some of the standard church carol settings. But gentle carols, such as for ‘Silent night’ or ‘Away in a manger’ with an introduction that also serves as a link between verses, have effective, mood-setting writing. The layout is carefully planned for ease of use and to avoid page turns, and the words of all verses are interlined within the music. The title was first published by Animus in the 1990s but five more carols are now included and the arrangements have been revised. They are recommended as an alternative to some of the well-established versions.
James L. Montgomery
PSALMS
THE RSCM BOOK OF PSALM SONGS [E]
Selected and edited by David Ogden and Alan Smith
Choirs, solo singers, congregations
RSCM Full music RS61 £20.00
Singers’ edition RS64 £10.00
Congratulations to David Ogden and Alan Smith for compiling such a wide-ranging collection of psalm songs! Fifty psalms are included in 70 different settings, some with optional SATB versions of refrains and verses, some unison, some divided between upper and lower voices. There are many other variations; even unaccompanied plainchant finds a place. All are responsorial, but several can be sung through by choir, singing group or solo singer as a psalm-anthem or equally could be sung throughout by a congregation. The editors emphasize that flexibility is the key.
Verses are laid out in full under the music, so there is no ambiguity in fitting in the words. Regular singers of responsorial psalms will recognize some of the settings, such as Philip Duffy’s ‘Have mercy on us, O Lord’ for Ash Wednesday or Bernadette Farrell’s ‘O God, you search me’. But although they may be found in different collections, here they are clearly combined in a single volume with five indexes of psalms (by number), liturgical year, times and seasons, themes and first lines. Design and layout are excellent: this is the clearest responsorial psalter that I know. Among many settings new to me, I was delighted to discover David Ogden’s setting of Psalm 146 (‘Come, Lord, and save us’) using the melody of Veni Emmanuel. Some of the keyboard accompaniments are pianistic, some more suitable for organ. A separate singers’ edition is available for purchase; guitar parts, melody instrument parts and congregational refrains are available for free download on the RSCM website.
Stephen Patterson
ORGAN MUSIC
E Easy
M Medium
D Difficult
MANUALS ONLY
ORGAN CONCERTO IN C MAJOR HOB XVIII NO. 1 [M/D]
Joseph Haydn ed. David Patrick
Fitzjohn Music Publications FMP233 £12.00
According to the introduction, this keyboard concerto was composed in 1756 and listed as an organ concerto in Haydn’s catalogue and by Breitkopf. It is in three movements, the first of which, headed Moderato and in 2/4, runs to 260 bars with a variety of rhythms and textures including repeated thirds in semiquavers against quavers, and demisemiquaver scales and arpeggiated triads. The central Largo of 44 bars is in common time and in F major. Its many right hand scale passages in hemidemisemiquavers warn against too brisk a tempo. The closing movement is a 3/8 Allegro Molto in binary form, amounting to 229 bars before repeats. A varied texture requires care with semiquaver runs in thirds in the right-hand and semiquaver triplet scalar and arpeggio figures in the left.
The concerto is full of the richly varied writing found in Haydn’s solo keyboard sonatas, with twists and turns between rhythms, textures and tonalities with carefully marked phrasing. There are several passages that demand nimble fingers. The switches between tutti and solo, including wide-ranging dynamics, need care, especially if on a two-manual instrument. The printing is in a large enough font to facilitate reading even the smallest note values, but the introduction is very brief with no mention of source or hints on performance. If added to a recital programme, the piece would be much appreciated by player and audience.
John Collins
VOLUNTARIES
TWO RHAPSODIES OP. 29 [D]
Charles Quef ed. David Patrick
Fitzjohn Music Publications FMP229 £7.00
I reviewed David Patrick’s first collection of five reflective pieces by Charles Quef (1873–1931) in SbyS, December 2022. Here are rather more flamboyant pieces, although there remains what I described then as ‘a sort of wistful yearning’, especially in the second of the two. Quef was titulaire at La Trinité in Paris in succession to Alexandre Guilmant, and highly popular in Britain as a result of his many recital tours. However, his musical heart was in his native Brittany and the full title of each piece is Rhapsodie sur des Thèmes Bretons. Both pieces contain what sound like contrasting folk tunes, giving a distinctive colour to the music. One doesn’t need to recognize the tunes to enjoy these attractive compositions.
18 PIECES FOR ORGAN [E–M]
Alexandre Guilmant
ed. Kurt Lueders
Dr J. Butz 3078 €22.00
Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911) assembled his own collection of 18 Pièces nouvelles Op. 90 in 1904, collecting various pieces that had not made it into his previously published collections. This new collection by Guilmant expert Kurt Lueders collects a further 18 pieces that either remain unpublished or that had only been published in what the editor considered to be ‘marginal printings’. Organists purchasing this volume are likely to find few, if any, duplications of pieces that they already have. Many of the pieces only cover one or two pages. The longest and most difficult is an eight-page Fughetta de Concert, originally published just as a Fughetta for harmonium (Op. 29), but here included in a three-stave organ version that Guilmant made shortly before his death. Most of the pieces are easier and would be useful as short voluntaries before or after services.
Duncan Watkins
RECITAL PIECES
SONATA NO. 3 IN B FLAT [D]
Percy Buck ed. David Patrick
Fitzjohn Music Publications FMP228 £15.00
David Patrick has completed his re-publication of the three sonatas by Percy Buck (1871–1947) with this final one that Buck dedicated to Basil Harwood; the first two were reviewed in SbyS in December 2022 and June 2023 respectively. As with the first two sonatas, the opening movement of the third is a ‘Fantasie’, here with a forceful Maestoso start and finish surrounding a more flexible and wide-ranging central section. The second movement is a funeral march, sombre and plaintive. The final, multi-sectioned Toccata is more like a fantasy, where some of the sections have the character of a toccata. One such section builds to a ferocious climax with a wild pedal solo. The conclusion is a solid ‘Molto maestoso’.
PASSACAGLIA AND FUGUE IN C MINOR [M/D]
Henry Hackett ed. David Cook
Fitzjohn Music Publications FMP231 £8.00
Henry Hackett (1872–1940) was an organist working in a series of Midlands churches, before and after a 13-year appointment to Bideford. Many of his organ compositions were published, several by Novello, but not this Passacaglia and Fugue, which receives its first publication. The editorial notes are not able to tell us anything about the circumstances of its composition in 1932, nor where the manuscript has been since then.
The subtitle is ‘Homage to J.S.B.’ and clearly the reference is to Bach’s BWV582 with the same title and key. However, to enjoy Henry Hackett’s homage one should not compare it in stature with that great work but simply appreciate Hackett’s own inventiveness. That said, there are many references from one to the other, not least in the passacaglia bass itself, and also in baroque figuration and textures. Yet it is not pastiche: more a case of a 20th-century composer enjoying playing with a similar sort of material in his own different way – an enjoyment that players and listeners can share.
Duncan Watkins
