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BLESSING FOREWORD Serve Harmony. Evoke its spirit and free yourself of discord. THE MUSIC OF PAUL MEALOR (b. 1975) Voce’s mission, as articulated by Artistic Director Dedicate yourself to your ensemble, your section Mark Singleton, is to Serve Harmony. We strive and your neighbor. 1 Let All the World in Every Corner Sing [4.25] 0 Beneath Thy Compassion [3.51] to perform each piece as a unified ensemble – Be the embodiment of cooperation. Sam Middlebrook Percussion to get straight to the heart of each composition. Listen, connect and fulfill your duty to the music, q Ave Maris Stella [3.32] This cooperative spirit enables us to render the team and all those who hear you. 2 The Beatitudes [5.56] w Jubilate Deo [3.37] music that expresses, as closely as possible, Such is the substance of greatness - such is the To Seek Where Shadows Are the intent of the composer. foundation of Harmony. e Ave Verum Corpus [4.04] 3 Dreamland [3.48] Paul Mealor’s music, in turn, comes from a place Mark Singleton, 2017 4 Dreaming [2.54] r Let Fall the Windows of Mine Eyes [7.42] 5 of deep humility. It stirs the soul, allowing the In the Bleak Midwinter [5.26] Liz Bologna Soprano, Jack Anthony Pott Tenor Jared Graveley Bass spirit of all who hear it a direct, unconditioned t If Ye Love Me [3.01] experience of peace, love, compassion and 6 Behold a Tender Babe [4.57] Jennifer McCann Soprano, Stephen Scarlato a profound joy. When Paul came to work with Jack Anthony Pott Tenor, Jared Graveley Bass and Floyd Higgins Piano Voce in 2017, we knew that Voce and Paul Mealor were a perfect pairing. Some things are 7 A Spotless Rose, from Now Sleeps [4.52] y All wisdom cometh from the Lord [4.19] just meant to be. the Crimson Petal Jennifer McCann Soprano The Selwyn Service u Blessing [3.54] We will ever be grateful to Paul for his inspired 8 Magnificat [3.54] compositions and for the love he shared with us Total timings: [72.59] 9 Nunc Dimittis [2.38] during the process of recording this album. Voce Jared Graveley Bass has been truly blessed. Thomas Cooke, Co-Founder and President VOCE NEW ENGLAND’S CHAMBER CHOIR STEPHEN SCARLATO ORGANIST AND PIANO MARK SINGLETON ARTISTIC DIRECTOR www.signumrecords.com - 3 - Paul Mealor (b. 1975) is a Welsh composer with central passage, Mealor incorporates the settings from the collection are presented on petal. In setting extracts from In Freezing an international fame. He has been Professor words of Psalm 150 – beginning with a solo voice, this disc: the first,Dreamland , was written, for Winter’s Night (Robert Southwell, 1561–1595), of Music at the University of Aberdeen since gradually expanding the melodic line to include Clarissa Dickson-Wright, in memoriam. Rosetti’s Mealor takes up a commission by the Hauser- 2003 and his output spans opera, symphony, tutti soprani, then reprising and elaborating poem describes a woman’s escape from pain, Oberschneider family to celebrate the 150th concerto, and chamber music genres. Mealor with full chorus. This setting leaves its mark a journey from the physicality of the real world anniversary of Summer Fields School. Behold a is a major force in the choral music world with the addition of bells and a mighty organ to a meditative state of peace. Through its tender babe demands careful, rhythmic singing and much of his popular acclaim can be cadenza, signalling a return to the opening interweaving parts, Mealor invokes a gentle as antiphonal phrases between various traced to the performance of his setting of Ubi material in the praise of ‘my God and King’. lyricism which is wistfully underpinned by combinations of voice overlap with a recurrent caritas et amor at the wedding of the HRH harmony seemingly in search of its root. The quaver anacrusis. Even at its loudest and Prince William and Catherine Middleton in Mealor’s setting of The Beatitudes represents attention directed by Rosetti towards ideal love grandest moments, Mealor’s setting never loses 2011. His is a special voice; skilled at a welcome addition to the repertoire. The text, is seen in her poem, Dream Love. This poem its gentleness, presumably as he recalls the communicating across languages, contexts, from St Matthew’s gospel, sums up Jesus’ provides the text for Mealor’s Dreaming which birth of his own great-nephew (to whom the genres, and audiences. Indeed, he became the teaching about what it means to live as a child is written for Russ and Johann Mann. He work is dedicated). The memory of Audrey first composer to top both the classical and of God’s kingdom. Commissioned by St Machar’s creates a wholly different soundworld, employing Halliwell is recalled in Mealor’s setting of Now popular music charts at the same time. In this Cathedral, Aberdeen, and first performed by a rocking quaver movement in alto, tenor, sleeps the crimson petal (the fourth of Four collection, Voce Chamber Choir present a disc the University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir and and bass parts to suggest a cloud-like cushion. Madrigals on Rose Texts). Unmistakably of of Mealor’s choral music – a genre with which St Salvator’s Chapel Choir, the slow-moving Above this, the soprano part paints a delicate Mealor’s oeuvre, a gentle harmonic language, his name has become truly synonymous. harmonies and restrained melodic lines create a and dreamy melody. The third, a setting of the with the judicious incorporation of notes into calm and cerebral atmosphere. This real drama Christmas carol, In the bleak midwinter, was the basic triad, creates a work which is richly The disc opens with a setting of the famous of Mealor’s setting is revealed in the words written for Michael Zaugg and Julie Barron. scored, yet with a lusciousness that never words of George Herbert (1593–1633): Let all Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, at which point The rich, eight-part vocal writing captures overpowers the text. the world in every corner sing. Dedicated to textures and tessiturae suddenly become the warmth of the light of the stable set Tim and Wendy Parsons, and commissioned expansive and we become viscerally aware of against the harshness of the wintry weather The Selwyn Service was composed during by RSCM Canterbury Area Cathedral Festival the glory of Christ’s teaching. outside – a fresh contribution to the Christmas Mealor’s time as a Visiting Fellow at Selwyn to mark 150 years since the first such event in carol repertory. College, Cambridge. In writing with a specific Canterbury Cathedral 1862, this vibrant paean To seek where shadows are is a collection of ensemble and instrument in mind, and for a of praise is characterised by strong, homophonic settings of texts by Christina Rosetti (1830– Our attention is further attracted to the chapel with specific acoustic properties, Mealor’s choral singing set against a sparkling organ 1894) which was commissioned jointly by John Christmas story in Mealor’s settings of Behold musical aesthetic is clearly afforded another accompaniment. Symbolically, and in a reflective Armitage Memorial and Pro Coro Canada. Three a tender babe and Now sleeps the crimson dimension. Inspired by the young, flexible, and - 4 - - 5 - highly-skilled voices of the Chapel Choir, the century) presents Mary as a merciful and loving Let fall the windows of mine eyes is a sequence rhythmic snaps to great effect. A chorale-like Magnificat incorporates particularly memorable Mother and is often used as a prayer for the safe of three texts by William Shakespeare (1564– passage, richly-scored for eight voices forms a vocal writing around the text ‘and hath exalted passage for travellers. Mealor’s customary lilt, 1616). Drawing on extracts from Hamlet, middle section, before a return to the textures the humble and meek’ which is full of energy derived from his immersion in the music of the Richard III, and King John, Mealor constructs a of the opening – wordless accompaniment and vitality. Out of the bass solo which opens Celtic nations, infuses this setting with charm. sequence in response to a commission by the underscoring a free, folk-like melody. the Nunc dimittis grows a full choral texture. Voices of Shakespeare Festival in Brecon. Notable is the attention lavished on the Gloria Receiving its first performance in the Carnegie Mealor’s instinctive melodicism, and his careful This collection of Mealor’s choral music Patri which concludes the Selwyn Service, Hall in New York, Mealor’s setting of Jubilate crafting of textures, pervades these settings. concludes with a Blessing, written in 2013 which confirms final arrival in the key of A Deo was commissioned by Distinguished Wordless passages, set against text; solo for the installation of HRH The Duchess of flat major and which leaves the brooding key of Concerts International New York. The words of passages, set against multiple vocal divisions; all Cornwall GCVO as Chancellor of the University f minor (which opened the Magnificat) far behind. Psalm 100 are combined with original text by attentively handled to deliver a new, imaginative of Aberdeen. Perhaps here we catch a glimpse Grahame Davies (b. 1964). Performed here in reading of Shakespeare’s old, famous words. of Mealor at his most comfortable – melodic Commissioned for the enthronement of the the version for chorus and organ, it is the writing that is expressive, rising and falling Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man, Beneath thy setting of Davies’ words which make for a In a setting for upper voices and organ, Mealor with the demands of the text, and set in a compassion uses a translated text of the striking addition to a popular text; provoking emphasises the simplicity underlying If ye supportive harmonic context.

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