Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 Pm Page 12

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. Handel inverts to show off a few more top F sharps before the chorus Music for the Chapel Royal the parts, giving the original treble music to the bass, the bursts in with dramatic shouts of “Amen” and a tenor to the alto, the whole wrapped in a halo of strings magnificent final fugal section. Again it is perhaps the This recording restores some of Handel’s finest but Coronations, where the music was always under the playing the opening vocal phrase as a kind of chorale- sheer variety and inventiveness of the conception which least-known music to the choir for which he wrote it and direction of the Chapel Royal choirmaster and those ritornello at various points throughout. It is a typically is so impressive and satisfying. to the building where he performed it, probably for the musicians who were members of both the Chapel and original touch, and as so often with Handel it is hard to Let God arise has the fewest movements of these first time since his own performances there. the Abbey choirs (like Purcell) would always perform in believe that this unutterably gorgeous piece of music pieces- just four. Like O Sing unto the Lord it can be By Handel’s day the Chapel Royal was already an their Chapel capacity, providing deputies for their represents a re-writing of earlier music: uniquely among paired with a setting of the Te Deum, this time the ancient and famous musical institution. It emerges from Abbey employment. Slightly confusingly, the chapel the great composers his ideas sometimes seem to grow setting in A. Both are short- perhaps the King had had a the mists of history alongside the Christian Kings of inside St James’s Palace is, as the oldest Royal chapel in and mature each time he re-visits them. The third bad crossing and wanted his Thanksgiving kept brief. England, the earliest records speaking of its having continuous use, referred to by tradition as The Chapel movement, Glory and Worship, again takes a Cannons The first and last movements are again adapted from the existed before the Norman Conquest. During the 200 Royal. The Chapel Royal (people) became based here in chorus and re-scores it, this time for the rather odd Cannons setting of the same text. The first movement is years before Handel all the greatest names of English the Chapel Royal (building) in 1714, shortly after layout of seven-part voices, four solos and three tutti. As in two distinct sections, the second of which, a splendid music worked there, including Fayrfax, Cornyshe, Handel’s association with the institution began, and elsewhere in these works, the solos are not really triple-time depiction of the ungodly flying before the Tallis, Tye, Byrd, Gibbons, Weelkes, Morley, Purcell services are now sung here and at the Queen’s Chapel independent solo lines, rather a means of varying the Lord, is largely unchanged from Cannons (though “flee” and Blow as well as many others. By Handel’s time the just outside the Palace. Handel knew and worked in both texture within the choir. Typically, Handel often doubles becomes “fly” for some reason). The first section is glory days perhaps were over, but this German places, and most (probably all) of the music on this disc a solo line with a chorus line of a different voice part more substantially altered, and has a number of highly composer and his German monarchs certainly provided was performed by him in the Chapel Royal at St James’s (treble solo with chorus alto, tenor solo with chorus distinctive features: the first chorus entry comes not on the English Chapel Royal with one magnificent last where this recording was made. His Chapel Royal choir bass), suggesting a concern principally for choral the first beat of a bar but on the third, starting with the hurrah before the long slide of English music into proto- was a little bigger than it is today (perhaps 12 boys and sonorities, especially across the two sides of the Chapel. dominant chord of a perfect cadence. The downward Victorian dullness began. 12 men, compared with 10 boys and six men today), but The fourth movement tightens up the structure of yet quaver figure scattered through the parts and the The term “Chapel Royal” is strictly a collective for were he to attend a service at St James’s tomorrow the another Cannons original. Handel replaces his original theatrical scales and rests to mark the dispersal of his the body of clergy, musicians and vestry officers choir (complete with distinctive State uniforms setting of the word “can’t” with “cannot”: perhaps enemies is one of those musical devices which the attached to the Royal Household, and its function today introduced a few decades before his arrival), the someone pointed out the inadvisability of slang in Baroque composer seems obliged to use for texts of this is the same as it was in Handel’s, and indeed in building, the liturgy and (at least some of the time) the church anthems. This is one of several examples on this kind- compare the similar effects at dispersit superbos in Cornyshe’s day: to sing the regular services in the music would be thoroughly familiar to him. disc of a movement in two sections, each setting a Magnificats by both J.S. and C.P.E. Bach- but is great Chapel of whichever Palace the monarch wishes, and to Handel’s association with the Chapel Royal began different piece of the text to different music, the two fun none the less. The second movement is entirely new. accompany the monarch to major state services and early in his residence in England, and was clearly an themes being combined together at the end. This is a It is not really a duet at all but two arias joined together. other events elsewhere as commanded. The Chapel important factor in establishing him in English musical technique Handel was to develop further in his oratorios, They are in different keys but share musical themes and Royal is in one sense not therefore a place at all: in 1715 life and in the favour of the monarch and court. As Pants and lends splendid weight to the endings: the dominant textual ideas. Wheely, the high bass, gets a wider range the Sub-Dean of the Chapel Royal called St Paul’s the Hart, HWV 251a was the first anthem he composed pedal in this movement must be one of the longest the Hughes, the high alto. The third movement, a Cathedral “the King’s Chappell upon this occasion” for the Chapel Royal. Written probably between Handel ever dared. The fifth movement is again one of genuine duet for the same singers, is another wholly when the King attended a service there with his own December 1712 and May 1713 it is (with its partner those re-workings of a Cannons movement which makes original conception: the swinging bass-line is almost a Chapel in attendance. This leaves little doubt that the HWV 251d) Handel’s only anthem with accompaniment the modern listener wonder if it would not have been mediaeval pendulum bass, the voices and instruments, monarch’s own establishment is the senior partner on for organ and basso continuo alone, and was written not easier simply to start again and write a new piece: major including a bassoon obbligato, putting a swaying these occasions, not the host Cathedral, and this pecking for a grand public occasion like the other anthems in this becomes minor, chorus becomes solo, only occasional descending semiquaver figure over the top. The changes order is equally clear from the records of events such as collection, but for use in the regular routine services of musical phrases are retained. Finally Wheely is allowed of tonality are also strikingly modern- the unprepared

8.557935 4 9 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 8

disc began life in the Chapel Royal and were then Mayor, James Lamb, in his brand new Lamb House (still the Chapel Royal. It is significant that soon after the salaried position like other Chapel Royal musicians. One recomposed as anthems for Cannons (and in the case of the grandest house in the town and later home of Henry introduction of this work to the Chapel Royal repertoire is that the two posts of Composer to the Chapel were As Pants the Hart subsequently recomposed again for James). While he was there Lamb’s wife gave birth to a Handel received his first pension from Queen Anne: already taken (by Croft, Handel’s sometime nemesis, the Chapel Royal); the other two, I will magnify Thee baby (perhaps inspired by the joint shock of a fierce £200 per annum. The music of this anthem then begins and Weldon), but this does not explain why Handel did HWV 250b and Let God arise HWV 256b went the other storm and the unexpected appearance of the King in her a journey through his creative processes which as much not then proceed to the salaried post on Croft’s death in way round, beginning as Cannons anthems and being spare room), and the enforced royal house-guest stood as any other work illustrates the extent to which Handel 1727 (the place went to Maurice Greene). Another recomposed later for the Chapel Royal. godfather to the new arrival. The silver dish given by the was prepared to borrow, steal and reinvent existing explanation offered is that Handel as a German citizen In January 1715 State Thanksgiving services were King to his new godchild is still on display at Lamb music to suit new occasions and new requirements. The could not according to the Act of Settlement hold a court finally discontinued. They began again in 1720 in their House. Such were the journeys marked by the second version, HWV 251b, was written for Cannons in position; but surely this could have been got around- new role as celebrations of the King’s safe return from Thanksgiving services. 1717, adding an orchestra. 1720-1722 saw the there had after all been a great many foreign musicians trips to Hanover, but for the first two Handel was It is impossible to be sure exactly which anthem was appearance of HWV 251d marking Handel’s return to on the royal pay-roll for centuries. Perhaps another himself abroad and the music was composed by Croft. sung at which Thanksgiving service during this period, active participation in the life of the Chapel Royal. This explanation is that Handel was simply not the man to be After 1720 Croft appears to fall out of favour much as but Professor Donald Burrows suggests 5 January is another continuo-only anthem, and there is no direct employed and told what to do by anyone, monarch, dean Handel had done after 1714, and Handel, aided by a 1723/4 as a possible date for the performance of I will evidence that it was actually performed: Handel almost or anyone else. Famously his own man, he brought his rapprochement between King and Prince, was back in magnify Thee HWV 250b and 16 January 1725/6 for Let immediately made a fourth version, HWV 251c, with stubborn determination and self-will to everything he active participation at the Chapel Royal. Between 1722 God arise HWV 256b. Unlike the other two anthems on orchestra again, perhaps suggesting that he only became did- choice of texts (Burney famously quotes him and 1727 Handel’s music was used at each Chapel this disc, these two were conceived and began life at aware of the need for orchestral accompaniment once receiving the Bishops’ instructions regarding the texts Royal Thanksgiving service for the King’s return. He Cannons, reaching maturity in these later versions for 251d was complete. A fifth version, HWV 251e, for the Coronation anthems with the muttered riposte “I composed six new works for these services after 1720, the Chapel Royal. followed a full quarter of a century after the first, in have read my Bible well and shall choose for myself”), including the two remaining anthems on this recording. I will magnify Thee retains only its first and last 1738, for a benefit evening at the King’s Theatre, choice of performers, circumstances and style of It has always been (and still is) part of the Chapel movements from its Cannons pair, the last movement Haymarket. performance, and every aspect of his own career. He was Royal composer’s role to write pieces marking the largely unaltered, the first completely rewritten from a The third version, HWV 251d, is recorded here, the world’s first professional freelance composer (and various events in the life of his sovereign. The attentive three-part “chorus” to become an alto solo (for the along with two movements from the first, HWV 251a. remained the only one to make a success of it for another listener can perhaps hear varying levels of sincerity and higher of Handel’s two alto soloists, Mr Hughes) with a Like 251a, 251d marked the beginning of a period of century), and he was very good at it. As a pensioner, enthusiasm in these encomiums across the centuries ritornello for oboe and strings. The middle four work with the Chapel Royal for Handel. And like its rather than an employee, he had no superiors and no according to the character of the individuals concerned movements are all derived from three other Cannons earlier stable mate it seems to have led directly to royal fixed duties: he could contribute as an when it suited and the health or otherwise of the working relationship anthems, giving this piece four parents in all. The favour: Handel’s second pension, granted to him as him, using the opportunities it afforded him to write the between musician and monarch. Handel certainly gave second movement duet provides a detailed insight into “Composer to the Chapel Royal” followed soon after its music he wanted to write and thereby gain favour with of his best to these pieces, though perhaps sensibly he Handel’s recreative processes. The music of this duet composition, in 1723. (Interestingly, Handel also began the monarch and recognition from the public. This is chose texts of a general character rather than potentially rather confusingly comes from the appearance of the his work at Cannons with his second setting of this same exactly what he did, entirely on his own terms, and he limiting the scope of his imagination by honouring the same text in the Cannons version of O Sing unto the text- it seems to have become a totem with him to begin did it brilliantly. King directly as other Chapel Royal composers had Lord (for the Chapel Royal version of which Handel each new phase of anthem composition with a version of The texts of all Handel’s settings of As Pants the done. There is no doubt that crossing the Channel safely composed a new and completely different setting). The this work.) This second pension brought Handel’s total Hart are the same. He seems to have found this text in was an occasion for thanksgiving: on one occasion early Cannons duet was for treble and tenor in B flat major. annual income from court pensions and his position as John Church’s 1712 publication Divine Harmony, a in his reign George I was forced ashore at Rye in Sussex Handel re-writes it for his alto Hughes and his bass Music Master to the Royal Princesses to £600- a very word-book of anthems currently in the repertoire at the by a violent storm, the weather so bad that he could not Wheely, both clearly men with good high ranges, but not considerable income. Various explanations have been Chapel Royal, where they are linked to a lost musical leave the town for several days. He was put up by the quite able to maintain the original part writing even with offered as to why he was put on a pension rather than a setting by Dr John Arbuthnot, who was Queen Anne’s

8.557935 8 5 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 6

doctor and clearly a musical amateur (a common quartet of soloists spitting the accusation in Hughes’ ear Anthem was also sung” until the fire there in 1698). aspiration for an educated gentleman- Samuel Pepys as he muses on his fate. This dotted figure actually (The London “Evening Post”, The text of O Sing unto the Lord is from Psalm 96. tried his hand at composition under the guidance of appears first as orchestral music in 251c, but is so well 25-28 September 1714) Again, Handel seems to have found the text in Church’s Chapel Royal composers William Child and Christopher suited to these words that Handel may have thought of it Divine Harmony, where it features as the text to an Gibbons). The text opens with verses from Tate and in vocal terms first. Of such was his genius. The Another paper makes equally frustrating reference to the anthem by Weldon, and once again Handel slightly Brady’s well-known metrical version of Psalm 42, choruses are based on those of 251a with some anthem without saying what it was: changes the selection of verses taken from the Prayer reverting at verse 2 to the Prayer Book text (Handel tightening of counterpoint and some transposition. The “Mr Handel’s Te Deum…was very excellently Book to increase the dramatic possibilities. Once again makes a slightly different selection of verses from whole is a beautifully paced and varied setting of a perform’d there, as was also a very fine Anthem” some of the soloists are named: Elford, the lower of the Arbuthnot’s). Typically, Handel names the soloists for carefully-chosen text, showing consummate (The “Weekly Packet”, two altos, takes the first movement. The second does not whom he was writing, giving a fascinating insight into contrapuntal skill (one pair of parallel unisons 25 September- 2 October 1714) bear the soloist’s name, but the higher-pitched alto the strengths of his particular singers and Handel’s notwithstanding) and Handel’s unsurpassed human writing makes Hughes the more likely. The following sensitivity to individual performers, particularly when sympathy for the human voice and the human heart. A few weeks later, on 17 October, another service was recit and aria were written for bass Thomas Baker, music composed for one singer is re-written later for O Sing unto the Lord HWV 249a was Handel’s next held to mark the safe arrival of the King’s daughter-in- clearly quite a singer: the recit has a two-octave range. another. In HWV 251a of 1713, the singers are Mr anthem (as opposed to liturgical settings such as the Te law and granddaughters: This movement is strikingly Purcellian in feel: the vivid Hughes (Alto I), Mr Elford (Alto II) Mr Wheely (Bass I) Deum) for the Chapel Royal, and his first for a national “On Sunday [17 October] the Prince and Princess vocal writing recalls Purcell’s for that other celebrated and Mr Gates (Bass II). The treble soloist is always service of Thanksgiving. These events had become an of Wales accompanied the King to the Chapel Chapel Royal bass John Gosling (still nominally on the referred to simply as “The Boy”. Elford also gets the odd increasingly regular part of the Chapel Royal’s life since Royal, St James’s Palace, where Te Deum, with payroll); the ground-bass played tasto solo at the start is little aria and recit (in that order) which form movement the first one, held to mark the defeat of the Spanish another excellent thanksgiving piece with music far more of a feature of Purcell’s work than Handel’s; 2, with its unusual written-out right-hand organ part, and Armada in 1588. Under William III they were often held composed by the famous musico Mr Händel, the little string playout at the end, the strings unusually the duet with “The Boy”. Several changes occur to mark the success (or to give the public the impression was sung on account of the joyful arrival not having featured before in the movement, could be a between this version and the 1723 HWV 251d. Handel’s of success) of that year’s military campaigns. Queen of the princess of Wales and the sailors’ hornpipe from Dido and Aeneas. Purcell command of English, never great, had slightly Anne’s reign saw the service marking the Peace of young princesses” famously set this text himself: could Handel be making improved: in the earlier setting Elford is called “Eilfurt”, Utrecht in 1713 among others, but by the time of George (reported by the London correspondent musical homage to his Chapel Royal predecessor here? and the word “pants” comes out as “paints” throughout. I’s accession political and public pressures were moving of the “Hamburg Relations-Courier”) The fifth movement wrings splendidly dramatic effect This is corrected by 1723. Elford died in 1714, so in the against foreign wars and the Thanksgiving services took from the division of the text into two sections, and the 1723 setting his music is allocated to Mr Bell, a new on a different character, being used to mark the arrival Te Deum had become the canticle of choice for final movement is a brief blaze of D major, the only second movement appears (for Mr Hughes) and the of the king and other members of the Royal family from national celebrations, particularly since Purcell’s grand appearance on this disc of trumpets. The effect is of a treble/alto duet becomes a duet for the two altos Hughes their native Hanover, and to celebrate the king’s safe setting in D, and there is evidence (based on the grand accumulation of texture and mood, though the and Bell. This duet had already been re-composed for return to London after his periodic trips back to Hanover orchestration, similar idiosyncratic spellings in both trumpets do commit Handel to ending the anthem in a the Cannons setting 251b, and appears again in the throughout his reign. There are two such occasions scores and the type of paper used) which links O Sing different key from the one in which he began: two of the second orchestral version 251c in very similar form which may have seen the premiere of O Sing unto the unto the Lord with Handel’s setting of the canticle four anthems on this disc have this slightly eccentric except that Mr Bell, oddly, seems to have made the Lord. 26 September 1714 was George I’s first Sunday in composed for Princess Caroline. In any event, this is feature. career move from singing alto to singing tenor more or London after his ceremonial entry into his new capital Handel’s first independent church anthem with After 1714 social and political pressures connected less overnight (he is also named elsewhere as a bass- earlier that same week: orchestral accompaniment, and very probably the first with a falling-out between King and Prince of Wales clearly a versatile man to have in your choir). Hughes’ “On Sunday morning last, his Majesty went to his orchestral anthem ever heard in the Chapel Royal at St pushed Handel away from court. In 1717 he began work solo Tears are my daily food makes typically operatic Royal Chapel at St James’s;…Te Deum was sung, James’s Palace where this recording was made for James Brydges, later Duke of Chandos, at his house use of reported speech at “where is now thy God?”, a compos’d by Mr Hendel, and very fine (Purcell’s Chapel Royal was based at Whitehall Palace Cannons in Middlesex. Two of the four anthems on this

8.557935 6 7 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 6

8.557935 6 7 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 8

8.557935 8 5 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 4

8.557935 4 9 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 10

8.557935 10 3 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 2

8.557935 2 11 8.557935 557935bk Handel US 12/2/07 4:08 pm Page 12

Andrew Gant

Choir of the Chapel Royal Andrew Gant

8.557935 12 557935rear Handel US 12/2/07 4:07 pm Page 1

CMYK NAXOS NAXOS This recording restores some of Handel’s finest but least-known music to the choir for which he wrote it and to the building where he performed it, probably for the first time since his own performances there. Forming one of the most impressive areas of Baroque music, Handel’s English church music spans his entire active career in London, from his first anthem composed soon after his arrival, to his last works nearly forty years later. 8.557935 HANDEL: HANDEL: Most of it was stimulated by Handel’s creative contact with the English Chapel Royal, a group of professional singers in a different tradition from the opera stars with whom he DDD worked in the theatre. Playing Time George Frideric 60:55 ui o theChapelRoyal Music for ui o the Chapel Royal Music for HANDEL (1685–1759) Music for the Chapel Royal

1-4 Let God arise, HWV 256b 12:32

5-0 I will magnify thee, HWV 250b 18:11 Made inCanada www.naxos.com/libretti/557935.htm Sung textsareincludedandalsoavailableat: Booklet notesinEnglish !-% As Pants the hart, HWV 251d 11:54 www.naxos.com &

^-¡ O Sing unto the Lord, HWV 249a 11:19 2007 NaxosRightsInternationalLtd. ™-£ Two movements from As Pants the hart, HWV 251a 6:59 Choir of the Chapel Royal Musicians Extra-ordinary Andrew Gant Recorded in the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, London, UK, from 18th to 20th July 2005 8.557935 by gracious permission of Her Majesty The Queen 8.557935 Producer: Mark Brown • Engineer: Julian Milliard • Booklet Notes: Andrew Gant Please see the booklet for a detailed track list Cover Picture: The German Chapel, St James’s Palace from The History of Royal Residencies engraved by Daniel Havell (1785-1826) (Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library)