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557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 12 Andrew Gant Andrew Gant was a Choral Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge under George Guest. After several years as a professional singer, including two years as a Tenor Lay Vicar in the choir of Westminster Abbey, he has followed a career as a choirmaster and church musician, holding positions at Selwyn College, Cambridge, Worcester College, Oxford, and The Royal Military Chapel (The Guards’ Chapel), Wellington Barracks. In 2000 he took up his present post of Organist, Choirmaster and Composer at Her Majesty’s Chapels Royal. Under his direction the choir has performed at a number of State events and other occasions as required by Her Majesty, has broadcast on BBC Radio HANDEL and television and Classic fm, performed at the Proms and worked closely with the Master of the Queen’s Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who has written four works specially for the choir and two other large-scale choral and orchestral works in which the choir has taken part. Andrew Gant’s compositions include operas, (including May we borrow your husband?, an a cappella opera commissioned by the Lichfield Festival), an oratorio, The Vision of Piers Plowman, for the Three Choirs Festival, works for James Bowman and Catrin Finch, A Hymn for the Golden Jubilee Music for the with Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate (recorded by the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral), church music, works for children and his British Symphony, commissioned for performances by the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra and Barry Wordsworth in February 2007. Current projects include a one-woman opera for Patricia Rozario, Don’t go down the Chapel Royal Elephant after Midnight. Let God arise I will magnify thee As Pants the hart O Sing unto the Lord Choir of the Chapel Royal Andrew Gant 8.557935 12 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 2 George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) The Musicians Extra-ordinary Music for the Chapel Royal For most of its history the English monarchy has maintained a variety of instrumental musicians on its staff in Let God arise, HWV 256b 12:32 addition to the singers of the Chapel Royal. Musicians (and others) who are directly employed by the monarch are 1 Chorus: Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him fly before him. 3:20 formally designated as being “in ordinary”: the adult members of the Chapel Royal choir are “Gentlemen-in- 2 Duet – Bass [AA] and Alto [JB]: Like as the smoke vanisheth, so shalt thou drive them away: 5:33 Ordinary”. Those employed on an occasional basis to perform with the monarch’s own musicians are thus described like as wax melteth at the fire, so let the ungodly perish at the presence of God. as “extra-ordinary”, both titles dating back to the very earliest records in the fifteenth century and before. The band 3 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [JB]: O sing unto God, and sing praises unto his name. 1:40 assembled to accompany the Chapel Royal for this recording continues this tradition, a modern amalgam of their 4 Chorus: Blessed be God. Alleluja. 1:59 forebears referred to in the records as “the musicians extra-ordinary for the violins” and “the musicians extra- ordinary for the windy instruments”. I will magnify thee, HWV 250b 18:11 5 Solo – Alto [JB]: I will magnify thee, O God my King: and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 3:51 6 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [MM]: O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 2:35 7 Chorus and quartet [JF-L, MM, JF, MO’S]: Glory and worship are before him: 1:55 power and honour are in his sanctuary. Violin I: Flute: 8 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [JB] and chorus: Tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King: 3:49 Emilia Benjamin (leader) Katy Bircher and that he made the world so fast it cannot be moved. Hannah Tibell 9 Solo – Alto [MM]: Righteousness and equity are the habitation of thy seat: 3:00 Wiebke Thormälen Oboe: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Katharina Spreckelsen (solo) 0 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [JB] and chorus: My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: 3:01 Violin II: Hannah McLaughlin and let all flesh give thanks unto his holy name. Amen. Persephone Gibbs Rebecca Rule Bassoon: As Pants the hart, HWV 251d 11:54 Peter Whelan ! Sextet [JF-L/AM, MM, JB, JF, MO’S, AA] and chorus: As pants the hart for cooling streams, 2:57 Viola: so longs my soul for thee, O God. Rachel Byrt Trumpet: @ Solo – Alto [MM] and quartet [JF-L, JB, JF, AA]: Tears are my daily food: while thus they say, 2:23 David Hendry where is now thy God? Cello (and continuo, tracks 11–13 and 15): Robert Vanryne Recit – Bass [AA] Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself: Joseph Crouch for I went with the multitude, and brought them out into the house of God. Organ: # Chorus: In the voice of praise and thanksgiving: among such as keep holy day. 1:45 Double-bass: Andrew Gant (tracks 14, 22 and 23), $ Duet – Alto I [MM] and Alto II [JB]: Why so full of grief, O my soul: why so disquieted within me? 3:25 Christine Sticher Joseph Nolan (all other tracks) % Chorus: Put thy trust in God: for I will praise him. 1:24 Organ supplied and tuned by Nigel Gardner O Sing unto the Lord, HWV 249a 11:19 ^ Solo – Alto [JB] and chorus: O sing unto the Lord a new song, all the whole earth. 2:03 & Solo – Alto [MM]: Sing unto the Lord, and praise his name: declare his honour unto the heathen, 2:59 and his wonders unto the people. 8.557935 2 11 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 10 shifts from A minor chords to F major chords, using the London choirs as regular members or as deputies, and as * Accompagnetto – Bass [AA] The Lord is great, and cannot worthily be praised: 1:05 note A as a pivot, could be Schubert. The last movement soloists in oratorio and opera. The Chapel Royal, its he is more to be feared than all gods. joyously combines a long-note theme (derived from the history, its traditions, its buildings, its place at the heart ( Solo – Bass [MO’S]: Glory and worship are before him: power and honour are in his sanctuary. 2:22 ancient Non nobis tune, used before by Handel) with a of the British court, its personnel, provided Handel with ) Duet – Bass [AA] and Alto [JB] and chorus: O worship the lord in the beauty of holiness: 1:37 rapid fugue in quaver runs. This technique appears a constant throughout his life on which he could draw let the whole earth stand in awe of him. several more times in Handel’s later work, for example for inspiration and musical comradeship. Some of the ¡ Solo – Alto [MM] and chorus: Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad: let the sea make a noise 1:12 in the chorus I will sing unto the Lord in Israel in Egypt, fruits of that remarkable relationship are on this disc, and all that therein is. where the full theatrical possibilities of this combination music of unequalled variety, vigour, vitality and sheer of different kinds of tune are thoroughly exploited. beauty. The music is a lasting testament not just of the Two movements from As Pants the hart, HWV 251a 6:59 Handel composed several more works for grand, man who wrote it, but of the men and boys who sang and public Chapel Royal events in the two decades played it, and the institution which nurtured it. We can ™ Solo – Alto [JB]: Tears are my daily food: while thus they say, where is now thy God? 4:03 following 1727, returning to composition for the regular, only hope Handel would have been pleased that this Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself: for I went with the multitude, more private services of the Chapel in the last years of music has come back home. and brought them out into the house of God. his working life. His association with the institution thus £ Duet – Treble [JF-L] and Alto [JB]: Why so full of grief, O my soul: why so disquieted within me? 2:56 lasted some four decades, the whole of his working life Andrew Gant in England. The Chapel Royal had always been, and still is, a community of musicians working together, and The writer acknowledges with gratitude the help of Handel clearly knew and admired his singers at the Professor Donald Burrows, whose Handel and the English Chapel well. Many of them worked with him elsewhere: Chapel Royal (OUP 2005) has been the source of much Choir of the Chapel Royal then, as before and as now, they were part of a close-knit included here and will be a valuable resource for those who professional circuit of singers, performing with other seek further information. Andrew Gant Children of the Chapel Gentlemen-in-Ordinary: Ralph Warman (Head Boy) Alto: Jacob Ferguson-Lobo (Deputy Head Boy) [JF-L] James Bowman [JB] Oliver Fincham Michael McGuire [MM] Mark Loveday Alexander May [AM] Tenor: Joseph Jackson Jerome Finnis [JF] Ivo Almond Ben Breakwell (gentleman extraordinary) Daniel Barber Allan Ross Bass: Orlando Byron Maciek O’Shea [MO’S] Andrew Ashwin [AA] 8.557935 10 3 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 4 George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) the downward semitone transposition.