‘Time Stands Still’ Elizabethan & Jacobean Songs and Keyboard Music Simon Ponsford countertenor David Ponsford virginals & organ 24 NI 6255 NI 6255 1 Bach’s Clavierübung Part 3, and the complete Handel recorder sonatas with Alan Davis. He has been Publications Officer for the British Institute of Organ Studies, and together with Anne Page he founded the Cambridge Academy of Organ Studies. Recently, he has given concerts in Germany, Singapore, Poland, New York and Montreal, in addition to those in the UK. His edition of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas was published by Ut Orpheus, Bologna, in 2007, and his book ‘French Organ Music ‘Time Stands Still’ in the Reign of Louis XIV’ was published by Cambridge University Press in May 2011. The first two of a series of CDs of seventeenth and eighteenth-century French organ music recorded on French historic organs were released by Nimbus in 2013. Elizabethan & Jacobean Songs and Keyboard Music Simon Ponsford - countertenor David Ponsford - virginals & organ 2 NI 6255 NI 6255 23 As an ensemble singer, Simon has sung 1 Byrd: Prelude Virginals 0:57 with many professional choirs including Polyphony, English Voices and Tenebrae, 2 Dowland: Can she excuse my wrongs? Virginals 2:40 was an Apprentice in the Monteverdi 3 Dowland: Time stands still Virginals 4:43 Choir, and is a founder member of the 4 Rosseter: Shall I come if I swim? Virginals 1:25 Platinum Consort. He is currently a lay clerk in the choir of St. George’s Chapel, 5 Byrd: Fantasia in C Organ 5:45 Windsor Castle, and has just been appointed a Lay Vicar in the choir of 6 Dowland: I saw my lady weep Organ 5:03 Westminster Abbey. This is his debut recording as a soloist. 7 Dowland: Wilt thou, unkind, thus reave me? Organ 1:24 8 Byrd: Rowland, or Lord Willoughby’s Welcome home Virginals 2:29 9 Campion: Never weather-beaten sail Organ 2:39 David Ponsford is an organist, harpsichordist, musicologist and 10 Anon. Miserere, my maker Organ 4:48 conductor, and an authority on keyboard music of the seventeenth and eighteenth 11 Gibbons: Fantasy in A minor Organ 5:21 centuries. He was Greenwood 12 Johnson: Where the bee sucks Virginals 0:52 Exhibitioner at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, studied organ with Peter 13 Johnson: Full fathom five Organ 2:27 Hurford, Lionel Rogg and Piet Kee, and 14 Johnson: Come, heavy sleep Virginals 1:46 harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert and Gustav Leonhardt. On graduating from 15 Byrd: The woods so wild Virginals 4:59 Cambridge, he was appointed Assistant Organist at Wells Cathedral. Later, he 16 Dowland: In darkness let me dwell Virginals 3:29 studied for a PhD on performance practice 17 Dowland: Were every thought an eye Organ 1:52 in French Baroque organ music with Professor Peter Williams. He is now 18 Tomkins: A sad pavan for these distracted times Virginals 3:17 Associate Lecturer at Cardiff University, where he conducts the University 19 Ford: Since first I saw your face Virginals 1:53 Chamber Orchestra and gives lectures in performance practice. He also teaches organ and 20 Dowland: Flow my tears Virginals 4:02 harpsichord at Bristol University, and gives series of lectures at Madingley Hall, Cambridge. 21 Dowland: Fine knacks for ladies Organ 2:40 Recordings include Bach’s complete violin sonatas with Jacqueline Ross, ‘Parthenia’ (1612), J. S. 22 NI 6255 NI 6255 3 Simon Ponsford (countertenor) 22 Byrd: Ut re mi fa sol la Organ 4:00 recently graduated MA with distinction from the 23 Dowland: Awake, sweet love Organ 2:01 Royal Academy of Music, where he was also awarded the S & M Eyres Wilson Scholarship 24 Dowland: Now, O now I needs must part Virginals 4:51 and a Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music for outstanding performance. At the RAM he Total: 75:35 studied with Michael Chance and Ian Partridge, and took part in masterclasses given by Ann Murray and Helmut Deutsch. Simon began his musical training as a chorister in Gloucester Acknowledgements Cathedral Choir, before going on to study at This recording was made with the generous sponsorship of the organ builders Goetze King’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 2008 with a BA in English Literature following two & Gwynn Ltd, for which we are enormously grateful. We acknowledge particular years as a Choral Scholar of King's College help from Dominic Gwynn, the Parochial Church Council and the organist of St John Choir. Baptist, Marldon, and the Revd. Deborah Parsons for her generous help in making this recording such an enjoyable experience. A busy soloist and recitalist, Simon’s solo performances have included Handel’s Messiah (Blenheim Palace), Bach’s Matthäus Passion (St Organ tuning: Dominic Gwynn Peter’s, Oxford), Purcell’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day (Wendover), Handel’s Saul (Oxford Town Recorded at the Parish Church of St John Baptist, Marldon, Devon, on 9-11 April, 2013 Hall), and many of Bach’s Cantatas. He has also recently given recitals of Schubert’s Winterreise Recording and post-production: Paul Arden-Taylor (www.dinmore-records.co.uk) in Gloucester Cathedral and Windsor Castle, and recitals of early English song in Souvigny (France), Madingley Hall (Cambridge), Ashridge, and Discoed (Powys). Cover image : Still life, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, b.1686 Simon’s opera roles include David in Samuel Hogarth’s David and Goliath (Cambridge c & © 2013 Wyastone Estate Limited University Opera Society), Athamas in Handel’s under licence from David Ponsford Semele and the countertenor roles in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen (Benslow Baroque Opera), Narciso www.wyastone.co.uk in Handel’s Agrippina, Eustazio in Handel’s Rinaldo, Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina and the Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight (RAM Opera Scenes). 4 NI 6255 NI 6255 21 Dear, if I do not return The music Love and I shall die together, For my absence never mourn, English artistic and intellectual life in the latter part of the sixteenth and the earlier part of Whom you might have joyed ever. the seventeenth centuries during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth 1 and James 1 fully justifies Part we must, though now I die, the appellation ‘Golden Age’. In poetry, prose, plays, scientific achievements and in music, Die I do to part with you. Him Despair doth cause to lie, England excelled as never before, strengthened with a new confidence supported by the Who both lived and died true. defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Sad despair doth drive me hence, This despair unkindness sends. Composers such as William Byrd, John Dowland, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Morley and If that parting be offence, Thomas Weelkes developed and refined their styles of composition in both sacred and It is she that then offends. secular genres. Music publishing was able to satisfy the demand for music making of all kinds: church music, secular instrumental and vocal consort music, solo keyboard music and solo songs. The publication of Dowland’s Firste Book of Songes or Ayres in 1597, which ran to several editions, marks the first of about thirty volumes of lute song collections that were published during the next quarter of a century. Somewhat earlier, the development of instrumental polyphony led to the creation of instruments in soprano-to-bass families: viols, recorders, lutes, brass and wind instruments, and this concept applied also to organs and harpsichords. There was flexibility too: madrigals could be sung by a group of voices, by a solo voice with lute accompaniment, or played by a consort of viols (‘apt for viols or voices’). Wealthy families often had their own professional music-master (who was both a composer, performer and teacher) as well as a chest of viols, an organ and harpsichords. Queen Elizabeth herself is known to have played the virginals ‘excellently well’. The 450th anniversary of the birth of John Dowland (1563-1626) has been a catalyst for a new appraisal of his lute songs. This recording is therefore an experiment in the use of virginals and organ to accompany his exquisite songs. During the period in question, plucked keyboard instruments were made in a wide range of shapes and sizes under the generic name of virginals, one of the most famous makers being the Ruckers family of Antwerp. In 1971, Gustav Leonhardt published an article entitled ‘In praise of Flemish virginals of the seventeenth century’, in which he drew attention to this rectangular instrument with 20 NI 6255 NI 6255 5 plucked strings that was extremely popular in Dutch, Flemish and English households from Though long in vain I lov'd. 1600 until about 1700. These instruments were built in two different ways. Those with the If she at last reward thy love, keyboard to the left, often called ‘spinet’, plucked the strings close to the bridge, creating a And all thy harms repair, sound very like a conventional harpsichord of the time. Those with the keyboard to the Thy happiness will sweeter prove, Rais'd up from deep despair. right, called ‘muselar’, plucked the strings in the middle, which gave a wonderfully rich and And if that now thou welcome be, sonorous tone that was quite unlike any other keyboard instrument. Both types had their When thou with her dost meet, two bridges placed directly on the soundboard, which contributed to the amplification of She all this while but play'd with thee, sound. To make thy joys more sweet. 24. Dowland: Now, O now I needs must part The tone of the muselar, as used on this recording, lends itself most effectively to textures Now, O now, I needs must part, based on melody and accompaniments, rather than counterpoint.