English Choral Music in the 20Th Century
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KSKS55 AQA: GCE Music Unit 4 AoS3a – English choral music in the 20th century by Hugh Benham Hugh Benham has written principally on John Taverner (d1545) and other music in England from c1460 to INTRODUCTION 1575, but also on Baroque music, Ralph Vaughan AQA’s Area of Study 3a concerns ‘the development of English choral music in the 20th century with reference Williams, and topics to: connected with anthems and mass settings GCE A level music. He is an organist, oratorios and other orchestral settings of words. choir director, senior examiner and Composers… might include: Elgar, Walton, Britten, Howells, Vaughan Williams.’ composer. In this present article, we briefly consider Elgar’sThe Apostles rather than the relatively well-known Dream of Specification, pages 19–20: see here. Gerontius. There are also sections on Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and Britten’s War Requiem, and references For questions to other pieces from the categories listed in the bullet points above. from the 2014 examination, see here. Comments below concern context first and foremost, to help supply essential background. Extended remarks Consult also A on musical features are necessarily limited, but should provide some stimulus to further research. References level Music Unit4 to various printed and online resources also point the way to additional investigation. (MUSC4) Core Study here, which has the following remarks on Listening to any music selected for study is vital. All works referred to below are readily available online page 3: ‘teaching (eg via YouTube or from iTunes), and/or from CDs, BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Some students may have should focus on the opportunitues to perform as well as listen, in choral societies, church choirs, or at school or college. musical features of each [work]’; ‘it is not necessary to For concise definitions of unfamiliar musical vocabulary, see for exampleRhinegold Dictionary of Music in do every movement Sound by David Bowman (Rhinegold Education, 2002), volume 1. of each piece – be selective’, and ‘context is also important’. Works listed in this Core Study document are: ANTHEMS AND MASS SETTINGS Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Walton’s Anthems Belshazzar’s Feast and Britten’s War Requiem. Some An anthem is a piece of sacred music for choir, perhaps with some solo writing, and most commonly with organ analytical notes are accompaniment. Anthem texts are usually from the Bible, hymns or religious poetry, and they are generally in identified. English. Similar pieces with Twentieth-century anthems were normally composed for church services. Most commonly this meant the Latin text are usually Church of England service of Evensong. In fact, The Book of Common Prayer (1662) expects an anthem to be termed motets. sung after the prayer ‘Lighten our darkness’ (the third collect). Particular anthems are not prescribed in the Prayer Book. Instead, they are generally chosen to suit the season of the church’s year and/or the prescribed Bible readings. Some anthems were composed with small amateur church choirs in mind, while others were intended to command the attention of the most prestigious cathedral choirs (and to benefit from the wonderful acoustics References to and fine organs associated with cathedrals). For practical reasons, 20th-century anthems are rarely extended specific works and composers pieces (unlike some earlier examples, such as Handel’s Chandos Anthems). do not imply that these must be taught – see again the specification requirements. 1 Music Teacher September 2015 For more information on 20th-century English anthems, see The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie, (Macmillan, 2/2001) – hereafter referred to as Grove (2001). (For Grove Music Online, see here.) The account of the English anthem from ‘c1890 to the present’ is useful, but note the starting date and the references to motets by Stanford and Bax. Twentieth Century Church Music by Erik Routley (Herbert Jenkins, 1964) – well worth consulting, but clearly does not cover the last third of the century. Choral Cathedral Music in the Church of England: An examination into the diversity and potential of contemporary choral-writing at the end of the twentieth century by Georgina Clare Luck (see here). This has useful references to anthems by composers active in the later years of the 20th century such as John Tavener (1944–2013), Jonathan Harvey (1939–2012), Judith Weir (b1954) and Alan Ridout (1934–1996). The following anthems give some idea of the variety of scale and mood achieved in the mid 20th century: ‘O taste and see’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) and ‘God is gone up’ by Gerald Finzi (1901–1956). VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: ‘O TASTE AND SEE’ ‘O taste and see’ was composed for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. It was performed in the same service as Parry’s ‘I was glad’ (originally written for Edward VII’s coronation in 1902) and Handel’s celebrated ‘Zadok the Priest’, and one might have expected something equally magnificent from Vaughan Williams. However, ‘O taste and see’, a setting of a single verse (Psalm 34, verse 8) lasting not much more than one minute, is remarkable for its simplicity and restrained dynamics. After a brief organ introduction, a treble soloist sings the complete verse unaccompanied to the following pentatonic melody: 4 O taste and see how gra- cious the Lord is: blest is the man that trust- eth in him. At the Coronation, the choir consisted of boys (trebles) and men (altos, tenors and basses). In some recent performances women or girls have sung the treble part. All the trebles repeat this melody, altos, tenors and basses entering in fugal style. The treble soloist re-enters with a new (higher) phrase with words from the second half of the verse. Full trebles (accompanied by altos) repeat this new phrase, slightly varied and extended, followed a bar later by tenors and basses. Music Teacher September 2015 2 The structure is reminiscent of, for example, Elgar’s short motet ‘Ave verum corpus’, Op. 2, no. 1 (1886–7, revised 1902), but Vaughan Williams achieves greater subtlety with his overlapping of sections. The music has a one-sharp key signature, and no accidentals at all. Tonal interest lies in the G major–E minor ambiguity inherent in the pentatonic melodic material: the notes G A B D E can represent G major, or E minor with a modal (Aeolian) D natural instead of a tonal D sharp. For two online performances, visit here (the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge), and here (the Cambridge Singers – without the organ introduction, but with the score displayed). The complete poem FINZI: ‘GOD IS GONE UP’ is available here. Finzi’s ‘God is gone up’ was specially composed for a St Cecilia’s Day Service at St Sepulchre’s Church, Finzi set only two stanzas, and not in Holborn, in 1951 with a text from Sacramental Meditations by Edward Taylor (c.1646–1729). It is sometimes the original order. used as an anthem for Ascension. The organ has an important and varied role. Reeds are prominent in the introduction to depict ‘a triumphant shout’ and ‘sounding Trumpets’ melodies’, but there is much more delicate writing for manuals only just before the choral entries on ‘Methinks I see’. Major tonality prevails, and there are exciting shifts of key, particularly between E major and A flat major – notably near the end where a fortissimo chord of F flat major in second inversion becomes, through enharmonic change, Ic in E major (B–E–G sharp) at ‘Glory’. ‘Divisions’ occur where two (or The ternary structure is effective, with similar, largely exultant outer sections enclosing the quieter ‘Methinks I more) notes occur simultaneously in the see’. Vocal textures are mostly homophonic, with the most triumphant words set in syllabic style for maximum same voice part. clarity, but imitative writing provides relief and variety. Some ‘divisions’ give additional vocal fullness (as at ‘Sing Praises out’) or brightness (divided sopranos and altos only at ‘Methinks I see Heaven’s sparkling courtiers fly’). 26 Sing Prais es- out, sing Prais- es out, Sing Prais es- out, sing Prais- es out, Sing Prais es- out, sing Prais- es out, Sing Prais es- out, sing Prais- es out, 3 Music Teacher September 2015 Mass settings For full Latin mass A mass setting normally involves all or most of the following Latin texts from the Roman Catholic Mass: Kyrie texts, and English eleison; Gloria in excelsis; Credo in unum Deum; Sanctus with Benedictus; and Agnus Dei. Walton’s Gloria translations, see, for (1960–61) is a rare example of the extended setting of a single text. example, here. The term ‘mass setting’ can be extended to See for example Settings of the corresponding English texts from the Anglican Holy Communion – sometimes referred to ‘Masses of Requiem’ in The Catholic as the Mass or Eucharist. For example, Herbert Howells (1892–1983) composed An English Mass (1955). Encyclopedia, vol. Settings of the Requiem Mass (the Mass for the Dead). Twentieth-century settings by English composers 12 (Robert Appleton may include additional texts that do not belong to the Latin Requiem. These are usually sacred (eg Psalm Company, 1911) here. For full Latin 23 appears both in Howells’s unaccompanied Requiem (1932) and the Requiem (1985) by John Rutter), but Requiem texts, and Britten’s War Requiem (see below) incorporates poems by Wilfred Owen. English translations, see, for example, Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi (1938, revised 1950) for soloists, chorus and orchestra, draws on the Requiem, here. using texts from the opening of Requiem aeternam, Sanctus (but not Benedictus) and the closing phrase of the Agnus Dei. The BBC Proms 2012 performance of Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi is available here.