…our
latest website Newsletter, 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.
Royal
Anniversaries
The
diamond anniversaries of the Queen’s Accession and Coronation have been and
gone, but the associated celebratory concerts included a number of performances
of Boyce’s Coronation Anthems, and it is perhaps fair to say now that these
have made a festive entry into the choral & orchestral repertoire! Cathedral Music publishes them all, in
Maurice Bevan’s exemplary editions, and details may be found in Section 11 of
our Catalogue.
Another
seemingly associated development has been the increase in the number of
concerts featuring brass and organ, with or without choir. Their often
celebratory nature has often picked up the royal themes, but it cannot be
denied that part of their attraction is that a concert featuring or accompanied
by a brass ensemble is considerably cheaper to mount than one with
orchestra! Our list of publications in
these areas is growing fast – see below and Catalogue Sections 4c and 11b.
Francis
Grier
We
are delighted to be strengthening our association with the music of Francis
Grier by the publication of several significant works. A remarkable proportion of these have been
newly commissioned, but despite the fast-growing list, the flame of inspiration
seems only to be burning the more strongly.
Amongst
the most important works is a celebration of Vespers interspersed with settings
of poems by Elizabeth Cook, and entitled lit by holy fire… (CM 1096). This
was commissioned by King’s College, Cambridge, and while individual movements
have already been performed there, the first complete performance will take
place later in the year.
With
it we have published a heartfelt earlier work, Sword in the Soul (CM 1099),
a devotion of readings and music for Good Friday, with words by Rowan Williams,
with accompaniment for cello and organ.
A
joint commission from Christchurch, Oxford, and the Ballet Rambert resulted in
a Missa
Aedes Christi (CM 1090) for unaccompanied choir which was premiered and
danced liturgically last Whitsun in the Cathedral. While the element of dance is neither indispensable
nor always going to be possible, the dancers certainly add a further spiritual
dimension to the work.
The
Missa
Brevis (CM 1078) for choir and organ, which was written for St Paul’s
Cathedral, receiving its first performance there on 22nd May 2011
within the Festival of the London Forum for Contemporary Church Music, won in
December 2012 the Liturgical section of the British Composer Awards (BAFTA),
which in turn led to the commissioning by the Worshipful Company of Musicians
of an unaccompanied choral work entitled At midnight, (CM 1120) to Christmas
words by Elizabeth Cook.
Other
recent choral works have included Two Poems (CM 1107) to words by D H
Lawrence, commissioned and first performed by the chamber choir Pegasus, and a New
Year Song (CM 1127), for double
choir, written for the 30th anniversary of the Rodolfus Choir, which
was given its first performance at St John’s, Smith Square this New Year’s Eve
by the Rodolfus Choir and Inner Voices under their conductor Ralph Allwood.
We
have also made a start on the publishing of Francis’ significant corpus of
music for Organ, beginning last
summer with a beautiful quiet Meditation, written for Thomas
Trotter and given its first performance at the Three Choirs Festival. This has
been followed by Deo gratias, a magnificent three-movement neo-Baroque work,
written for Thomas Trotter in 1991 and now published for the first time. Other works are in the pipeline, including a Te
Deum, whose five movements can either be played straight through or
alternated with the plainsong on which it is based, and an Organ Sonata.
Anniversaries
While
2014 has several significant anniversaries in the wider musical world (CPE
Bach, Gluck, Richard Strauss), it is not
so notable where Cathedral Music’s composers are concerned! Nonetheless, anniversaries are a useful peg
upon which to plan performances, so we offer ours:-
1814
is the birth bicentenary of TA Walmisley,
by whom we publish the Evening Service in Bb for double
choir which deserves to be better known, and the anthem Remember O Lord, which
has a stunningly beautiful opening Sarabande-like movement for TTBB and organ. We
can of course supply many others of his services and anthems, while in the
background are interesting works eg for oboe! Exactly fifty years later his
father died, having outlived his son.
By TF Walmisley we publish
the glee Music all-powerful.
80
years ago – 1934 - is a year that
features prominently in the musical births and deaths columns. Of composers
whose music we feature, we note the deaths in that year of Elgar, George Henschel,
Holst, EH Lemare and EW Naylor ( Organist of Emmanuel College Cambridge, who
are making a feature of his music this year). We salute the 80th
birthdays of several of “our” composers, including Sir Nicholas Jackson, Neil
Butterworth and Barry Rose, while noting sadly that Alan Ridout, born that
year, is no longer with us.
This
year Paul Drayton is 70, Paul Trepte is 60, and Jeremy Filsell is 50.
The
First World War
But
principally 2014 marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World
War. Several works in our catalogue are
particularly relevant to the commemorative concerts and services that will
undoubtedly be held.
Most
immediate is Alan Gray’s short
choral suite 1914, which consists of 3 movements set to poems by Rupert
Brooke (Now God be thanked, Blow out ye
bugles, If I should die). These would be eminently suitable for Remembrance-tide. This is music of astonishing power and
heartfelt beauty, and should be far better known. Within a couple of years, Gray was mourning
the loss of two of his own sons on active service, and in their memory he wrote
the stirring anthem What are these that
glow from afar, to words by Christina Rossetti. For many years, especially
at Remembrance-tide, it enjoyed an extraordinary popularity, but in recent
years it has become less often performed, though it well deserves revival.
Meanwhile,
within the first few days of the outbreak of War, Gray’s Cambridge colleagues
at Emmanuel College were mourning their first losses at sea. The College
Organist E W Naylor wrote a
beautiful setting of In paradisum for
the Men of the Chapel Choir, which was incorporated (as alternative words for
the Nunc dimittis) into his Evening Service in D (Double ATB and Organ).
Another
work written in 1914 was Stanford’s Thanksgiving
Te Deum in Eb op 143, for Choir, Brass and Organ. In some ways this is
a puzzling work. It is based on the hymn-tune “St Anne”, and features the Last
Post at the words “the noble army of martyrs praise thee,” so perhaps one has to assume that it was
written very early in the War, in honour of the first casualties, but before
the full horror and futility of trench warfare became apparent. In this it mirrors perhaps the poetry of
Rupert Brooke rather than Wilfrid Owen.
Stanford’s anthem For lo I raise up, also written in
1914, is perhaps a much more prophetic view of the apocalyptic events about to
unfold. A completely different reaction
to the War may be seen in Charles Wood’s
setting of Expectans expectavi (This sanctuary of my soul), a poem by C H
Sorley, son of a colleague of Wood’s, who was killed in the War. Wood’s tribute was a deeply personal response,
and the music’s warmth and emotion makes a remarkable contrast to his usual
less subjective style.
Lawrence
Binyon’s Poem For the Fallen was
memorably set by Elgar as part of his Choral Suite The Spirit of England. It is not generally known that Cyril Rootham, the Organist of St
John’s College Cambridge, had already set the same words, but agreed - somewhat
unhappily - with Novello’s to defer publication to allow Elgar’s setting a
“clear run”. A few performances were given after the War and it has been
recently revived through the efforts of the conductor Alistair Jones. Many who
have heard it rate as at least equal in inspiration to the Elgar. Vocal scores and all orchestral material are
available from us on sale or hire.
Plans
for a concert in the Royal Albert Hall to commemorate those who had died in the
Battle of Jutland in 1916 resulted in the last of Parry’s major choral works, the elegiac Chivalry of the Sea, to
words by Robert Bridges, with whom he had often collaborated in the past. We
publish the vocal score, and can access the orchestral material. His Songs of Farewell, too can be seen
as a reflection of the world-weariness brought on by the War’s dragging on and
on.
But
music written in response to the War was not only choral. Composers and teachers such as Parry and
Stanford saw many of their most promising pupils cut off in their prime. Stanford’s Piano Trio no 3 sometimes
subtitled In memoriam, was dedicated to the memory of five
members of the Royal Flying Corps, including the two sons of his colleague Alan
Gray mentioned above. Three of his wartime Organ Sonatas (no 2, the Eroica, no 3, the Britannica, and no 4, the
Celtica)
all draw on patriotic themes ( - those in the Eroica, which is dedicated
to Widor, being French).
Mention
of Widor brings to mind his Salvum fac populum tuum, a
remarkable piece for brass and organ, written at the time of the Battle of
Verdun in 1916, when France was fighting for its life. Widor even recalled how a piece of shrapnel
landed on his desk as he was writing the work!
It opens as a sombre but majestic march, but ends in a magnificent
fanfare – representing, one might imagine, Widor’s indomitable hope of ultimate
victory. The work was given its first
performance in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris a week after the Armistice in
November 1918. Score and parts are in our Catalogue.
Music
for Choir, Brass and Organ (Catalogue section 11b)
The
fact that we have made several references already to music featuring or
accompanied by Brass and Organ shows how rapidly this genre has grown in
popularity recently. Our involvement
began in 2002 when John Scott asked us for an arrangement of Parry’s I was glad, which was
performed in St Paul’s Cathedral at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Service. This has now been performed all over the
world, and is a firm favourite.
The
music of Parry and Stanford seems to lend itself particularly well to this
scoring, and we have arrangements of Blest pair of Sirens, Hear my words and Stanford’s
Te
Deum in Bb. Mention has already been made of the
latter’s Thanksgiving Te Deum in Eb, and an arrangement of his Coronation
Gloria is in preparation.
Remaining
for a moment with coronation music, the orchestrally accompanied Boyce Coronation
Anthems also lend themselves to accompaniment by trumpets and organ, and
the brass parts may be had in sets. We should also mention a new work by Francis Grier, called Audi
filia (Hearken, O daughter) commissioned
for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and first performed last summer in Eton College
Chapel.
Brass
and Organ (Catalogue
section 4c)
Pride
of place must go to Widor’s Salvum
fac populum tuum, mentioned three paragraphs previously. We
have also reissued a majestic work suitable for Easter: Flor Peeter’s Chorale-Fantasy on Christ the Lord has
risen, op 101. In general, however, the works we have published in this
section are arrangements by Paul Walton, the Sub-Organist of Bristol Cathedral,
who has worked closely with the Fine Arts Brass Quintet, and they have premiered
many of these pieces. Most of these
arrangements exist in two versions: either for 3 Trumpets and 3 Trombones,
often with tuba and timpani, or for Brass Quintet. Amongst the pieces in our
catalogue are versions of Brewer’s Marche
Hëroique, Gigout’s Grand Chœur Dialogué and Verdi’s Grand March from Aida.
From now
on Newsletters will appear on our Website, staying up while their contents
remain current, and will then be placed in this Archive section. (NB Newsletters 1 & 2 preceded the
Website).
Ex Cathedra Newsletter 3 - March 2010
Ex Cathedra Newsletter 4 - January 2011
Ex Cathedra Newsletter 5 - Mary 2011