Sleeper's Prayer Choral Music from North America

SLEEPER'S PRAYER CHORAL MUSIC FROM NORTH AMERICA CHOIR OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD BENJAMIN NICHOLAS SLEEPER'S PRAYER CHORAL MUSIC 1 Nico Muhly (b. 1981) Senex puerum portabat f [7:18] FROM NORTH AMERICA 2 David Lang (b. 1957) again (after ecclesiastes) [4:22] 3 Nico Muhly Rev’d Mustard His Installation Prelude organ solo c [3:05] CHOIR OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD 4 David Lang if I sing (after psalm 101) [3:46] Benjamin Nicholas conductor, solo organ a 5 Nico Muhly A Hymn on the Nativity d [4:29] 6 Nico Muhly Take care (Hudson Preludes, No. 1) organ solo d [4:47] 7 Libby Larsen (b. 1950) I will sing and raise a psalm c [5:06] with Choristers of Merton College, Oxford b 8 Nico Muhly A Song of Ephrem the Syrian b [5:25] c d Alex Little , Tom Fetherstonhaugh organ 9 David Lang sleeper’s prayer d [7:20] e Claire Wickes flute 10 Philip Glass (b. 1937) Satyagraha, Act III: Conclusion organ solo a [7:43] f arr. Michael Riesman (b. 1943), adapted Donald Joyce Merton Brass (1952–1998) 11 Abbie Betinis (b. 1980) Cedit, hyems e [3:20] 12 arr. Gerre Hancock (1934–2012) Deep river [3:20] 13 Stephen Paulus (1949–2014) The Road Home [3:28] arr. from a tune (‘Prospect’) in The Southern Harmony, 1835 Total playing time [63:35] Tracks 4, 5, 8 & 9 are premiere recordings Track 11 is a premiere recording of the version for full choir This recording has been made possible by a grant from The Reed Foundation. Recorded on 30 June & 1-2 July 2019 Cover & design: John Christ delphianrecords in the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford Photography: Delphian Records Ltd @ Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter Booklet editor & translations: Henry Howard 24-bit digital editing: Matthew Swan Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK @delphianrecords 24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter www.delphianrecords.co.uk @delphian_records With thanks to the Warden and Fellows of the House of Scholars of Merton College, Oxford Notes on the music The University of Oxford consists of 45 northern wall of its glorious medieval chapel, by a Sunday choir of volunteer singers, drawn Given the strong Anglo-American bonds on colleges and halls – autonomous, self- which flanks the street alongside. The fact largely from Oxford’s student population which the new choral foundation and the new governing communities in which, broadly, that Merton Chapel lies in this unprotected and conducted by a student musician. But in organ rest, it’s not surprising that the choir’s students and teachers live and eat, study and position, instead of being buried deep behind 2008 the bold step was taken to establish a latest recording should turn its attention to the socialise, and to which every member of the the college walls, is accounted for by the new choral foundation, properly funded with sacred repertoire from the present generation university must belong. Scattered across the fact that for centuries it was one of the city’s scholarships for talented student singers of American composers, exploring currents and city, the earliest were founded in the thirteenth parish churches as well as the college’s own and organists, and charged with singing the trends in the music of some leading figures, and century; the most recent was established place of worship. And its location on Merton services nearly every day, under the direction their individual answers to the question of how in 2019. Many of the oldest resemble small Street means that, entering the college of a professional church musician. The funding to find a voice both authentic and appropriate fortresses: enclosed by high walls, heavily through the gatehouse, one of the first things for this remarkable venture was provided for the sacred music of our own day. secured with turrets and battlements, and the visitor sees is the stone tracery and through the Foundation of the American entered from the street through a gatehouse glass of the chapel’s mighty east window, businessman and philanthropist Reed Rubin, Nico Muhly aptly links US to UK since, though protected by imposing, ironclad doors (a completed in 1294. a former student at Merton. Just a few years a former student of Columbia University and reminder that relations between the university later, as part of the celebrations to mark the the Juilliard School and currently living in New and the city – ‘town and gown’ in Oxford The chapel itself is T-shaped, its medieval college’s 750th anniversary, the decision York, he is a regular visitor to Britain and has parlance – have not always been harmonious). chancel having been expanded in the late was taken to replace the chapel’s organ with collaborated with a number of prestigious thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries by a much larger instrument, more suited to British choirs and ensembles. He has worked in Some colleges announce their presence two transepts, surmounted by a colossal the needs of the expanded daily liturgy. The a wide range of musical genres, and his music boldly, either through their architecture (as tower, a plan that became (without the tower) contract was awarded to the American firm of displays a glittering range of connections and with Tom Gate, the mighty Tudor tower which the prototype for many other college chapels in Dobson Pipe Organ Builders from Iowa, and associations, from pop to the minimalists – forms the entrance to Christ Church) or through succeeding centuries. And this design – like a the new instrument was installed in 2014. leavened by a huge affection for the English their location (as with Queen’s, University and truncated, small cathedral – perhaps accounts choral tradition, especially its sixteenth- and Brasenose colleges, all of which sit squarely on for the chapel’s famously beautiful acoustic, In the decade or so since it was established, seventeenth-century composers. In fact the High Street, Oxford’s main thoroughfare). with a sound which is always clear and the new Merton College Choir has gone inspiration for using the text of Senex puerum Others lie in quieter waters, away from the transparent and a resonance that warms and from strength to strength: its daily work, portabat, the Muhly piece with which the hurly-burly of the city centre, and Merton encourages, but never obscures. leading the worship in chapel, has become an programme opens, came from the composer College is one of these – tucked away on a back important part of Oxford’s choral landscape; himself who, as a young chorister, had fallen street, overlooking the fields and meadows The primary purpose of the chapel, since the a highly adventurous commissioning policy in love with the setting by William Byrd. The which lead to the River Thames. college’s foundation in 1264, has been to act has added many important new works both words tell of the elderly Simeon, assured by as the focus for its Christian community, with to its own repertoire and to the liturgy more God that he will not die before he has seen the Although mostly walled and gated in typical services held every day for visitors and college generally; and the choir’s now regular concert Messiah, holding the infant Jesus in his arms. collegiate fashion, an unusual feature of members alike. In recent years, the musical performances and Delphian album releases The repeated notes treading throughout the Merton’s border with the outside world is the element of these services had been provided have brought admiring reviews. piece perhaps suggest the weary footsteps Notes on the music of the old man while the glorious climax, sustained and lushly chordal – is one of Muhly’s specially by Lang for this recording project, depicting Christ’s coming into a wintry, troubled accompanied by Stravinskian brass chords, Hudson Preludes and is dedicated to the as a ‘thank you’ to the Merton choir. world – portrayed at the outset by the bleak, recalls the moment of Christ’s birth. composer’s friend and frequent collaborator, lonely sound of a solo flute but evolving into the organist James McVinnie. Minimalism itself is one of the most influential joyous cries which bid winter depart because A Hymn on the Nativity sets words by of all developments in contemporary music and Christ has come. the seventeenth-century English poet and David Lang’s music embraces a number of a musical language which is almost hypnotic in playwright Ben Jonson. It joyfully describes forms, but a common thread is that of physical the way it uses patterns of repetition to break The range of music on this recording the manger scene while reminding us that ‘this drama: many of his pieces are operas, or free of the narrative nature of traditional forms. demonstrates the powerful diversity and babe, all innocence’ is yet ‘A martyr born in our operatic, or incorporate (or imply) movement Indeed the composer of the next work in this confident eclecticism which characterises defence’ – Muhly clothing the words in music of and staged action. In again, words from the recording, Philip Glass, prefers to use the label American sacred music today: sometimes tender, hushed excitement. A Song of Ephrem biblical book of Ecclesiastes describe the ‘music with repetitive structures’. The piece is acknowledging Old World traditions, more often the Syrian, the fourth-century poet and mystic cycle of earthly existence: human life, the sun, a transcription for solo organ of the conclusion creating something entirely free of them. So, for who is venerated today as a saint in both the winds and rivers – all come round again, Lang to Act III of Glass’s opera Satyagraha, based the last two pieces in this recording, it seems Orthodox and Catholic churches, ecstatically illustrating this through a circular sequence loosely on the life of Mahatma Gandhi.

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