Sing, Ye Birds, a Joyous Song Yale Schola Cantorum Simon Carrington, Conductor Thomas Murray, Organ

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Sing, ye Birds, a joyous Song Yale Schola Cantorum Simon Carrington, conductor Thomas Murray, organ

Music of the English Renaissance and 20th Century

John Taverner (c. 1490-1545) Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)

Western Wind Mass (18:45) 9. Glorious and Powerful God (5:16) 1. Western Wind melody & Gloria (5:53) 2. Sanctus (3:59) Second Evening Service (9:59) 3. Benedictus (2:09) 4. Agnus Dei (6:44) 10. Magnificat (6:20) 11. Nunc Dimittis (3:39) - Lucas Wong, organ Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012) Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) The Glory and the Dream (29:16) 5. There was a time (11.00) 12. Te lucis ante terminum (2:39) 6. Our birth is but a sleep (4:53) 7. Our joy! (6:09) 8. Then sing, ye Birds, a joyous song! (7:14) Total time: 65:57 - Thomas Murray, organ

RECORDED LIVE IN CONCERT 2 3 Conductor’s Preface: ing with George Shearing. I was sad that by 2010 he was not well enough to make the trip I was delighted to be able to program Sir to New Haven to hear my Yale choir and the Richard Rodney Bennett’s “The Glory and amazing Tom Murray perform The “Glory the Dream” with Yale Schola Cantorum and the Dream”. He died two years later on and organist Thomas Murray. This glorious December 24th 2012. It’s worth pointing out work was commissioned jointly by a num- that Tom was seated some distance from the ber of choirs all round the world in 2000 at choir with the only sight line between us be- the initiative of English composer Christo- ing a camera and tiny TV monitor. pher Brown. One of those choirs was my own Chamber Choir at the University of The Western Wind Mass, by the early Kansas, where I had started my conducting English Renaissance composer, John Tav- and teaching career having stepped down erner had been one of my very favourite from The King’s Singers after 25 years. works since I was a student at King’s Col- lege Cambridge. The year I arrived there As I had moved on to Boston by the time the to sing in the chapel coincided with the piece was written, I was never able to mount release of a recording of this wonderful a performance at KU and finally made Mass by the choir under David Willcocks, up for this 10 years later at Yale! Richard and I remember marveling at the expertise Rodney Bennett was one of the prominent of those boys and undergraduate singers composers most closely associated with The negotiating those extraordinarily melliflu- King’s Singers in the early years, composing ous but florid vocal lines. I wanted to give two marvelous extended works in his serious the students in the Yale Institute of Sacred contemporary style, “The House of Sleepe” Music’s graduate voice program the oppor- and “Sermons and Devotions”, but also ar- tunity to tackle this style, which demands ranging Gershwin, Arlen and Blossom Dea- such vocal expertise allied to excellent in- rie for us wearing his jazz and cabaret hat. tonation and acute ensemble skills. He accompanied the Singers on a number of occasions on stage, TV and record, and many Orlando Gibbons, writing in his “verse an- of his arrangements featured on our record- them” style with organ or viol consort accom-

4 paniment, left us some of the most stirring The “Western Wind” tune, consisting and exciting music of the early 17th century, of sudden upward leaps and long mel- and is music I have loved ever since I was a ancholy descents, is easily recognizable chorister in Oxford 60 years ago. His powerful throughout Taverner’s mass. It is stated settings of the Amen are second to none! clearly in the soprano at the beginning of the Gloria, and is subsequently heard 35 Towards the end of my academic career in more times over the course of the mass, the US, I was immensely proud and grate- migrating through all of the parts except ful to find myself directing a choir with the for the alto. The ubiquity of this tune im- voices, the musicianship, and the under- parts a certain sense of somber continuity standing of counterpoint to perform this to the disparate parts of this mass: each music with such assurance and dedication. section has the quality of a contrapuntal variation on the original tune. - Simon Carrington John Taverner (c. 1490-1545) was one of the most prominent English composers John Taverner • Western Wind Mass of the first half of the sixteenth century. His extant works include eight complete Taverner’s Western Wind Mass is one of masses (each of which excludes the Ky- three masses (along with two others by rie, which was traditionally performed Christopher Tye and John Shepherd) bear- in plainsong), three Magnificat settings, ing this title from the early sixteenth centu- over twenty motets, and several secular ry. The title comes from a popular secular songs and instrumental pieces. Despite tune that was used as the cantus firmus in his general renown, little is known about each, the poignant “Westron wynde”: his life and career. Both, however, were clearly embroiled in the political and re- Westron wynde when wylle thow blow ligious upheavals of the reign of Henry The smalle rayne downe can rayne VIII. Taverner began his career as a lay Cryst yf my love were in my armes clerk at the collegiate church in Tatter- And I yn my bed agayne shall, Lincolnshire. In 1526 he moved to

5 Oxford to become instructor to the cho- Gloria risters at Cardinal Wolsey’s newly-founded Cardinal College (later to become Gloria in excelsis Deo. Christ Church). Following Wolsey’s Et in terra pax hominibus bonae volun- downfall in 1529, Taverner was forced tatis. to leave the fledgling institution, and he Laudamus te. Benedicimus te. lived out the rest of his life in genteel re- Adoramus te. Glorificamus te. tirement in Lincolnshire. Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam. Several unusual features of the Western Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, Deus Pater Wind Mass may have been enabled by omnipotens. the religious changes afoot in England Domine Fili unigenite, Iesu Christe. during Henry’s gradual distancing from Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris. – and eventual break with – Rome in the 1530s. The practice of basing sacred Qui tollis peccata mundi, music on a secular tune was virtually miserere nobis. unknown in England during Taverner’s Qui tollis peccata mundi, time, as was the four-part SATB texture suscipe deprecationem nostram. of this mass. These features, in fact, had Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, more in common with Lutheran musical miserere nobis. practices than with English musical tra- Quoniam tu solus Sanctus. Tu solus ditions during Cardinal Wolsey’s time. Dominus. While Taverner’s own religious beliefs Tu solus Altissimus, Iesu Christe. and the date of composition for the Cum Sancto Spiritu, in gloria Dei Patris. Western Wind Mass remain unknown, Amen. the mass was clearly the product of this transitional time in the history of English Glory be to God on high, sacred music. and on earth peace, good will towards men. -Karen Jones We praise thee, we bless thee, 6 we worship thee, we glorify thee, Sanctus we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Father Almighty. Dominus Deus Sabaoth. O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Christ; Hosanna in excelsis. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Holy, holy, holy Thou that takest away the sins of the Lord God of hosts. world, Heaven and earth are full of your glory. have mercy upon us. Hosanna in the highest. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, Sherezade Panthaki, Kathryn Aaron, receive our prayer. soprano; Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Debi Wong, alto; Father, Joseph Mikolaj, Dann Coakwell, tenor; have mercy upon us. Dashon Burton, Paul Max Tipton, bass For thou only art holy; thou only art the Lord; Benedictus thou only art most high, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God Benedictus qui venit the Father. in nomine Domini. Amen. Osanna in excelsis.

Sherezade Panthaki, Kathryn Aaron, Blessed is he who comes soprano; In the name of the Lord. Fabiana González, alto; Hosanna in the highest. Dann Coakwell, tenor; Paul Max Tipton, bass Sherezade Panthaki, Kathryn Aaron, soprano; 7 Debi Wong, alto; Richard Rodney Bennett • The Glory Dann Coakwell, tenor; and the Dream (2000) Dashon Burton, bass The Glory and the Dreamwas commis- Agnus Dei sioned by the New Cambridge Singers, with assistance of a grant from Eastern Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Arts Board, and the following choirs: miserere nobis. Albany Pro Musica (Albany, USA), Agnus Dei, Bel Canto (Denver, USA), Canticum qui tollis peccata mundi, (London, UK), Choral Arts Ensemble miserere nobis. (Rochester, USA), Grand Rapids Cantata Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Choir (Grand Rapids, USA), Hljomeyki dona nobis pacem. (Reykjavik, Iceland), New Choral Soci- ety (Scarsdale, USA), Ohlone Chamber Lamb of God, Singers (San Francisco, USA), Pasade- who takest way the sins of the world, na Classical Singers (Pasadena, USA), have mercy on us. Seattle Pro Musica (Seattle, USA), St Lamb of God, who takest way the sins of Michael’s Church (New York, USA), the world, Susquehanna Chorale (Hershey, USA), have mercy on us. Sydney Chamber Choir (Sydney, Austra- Lamb of God, who takest way the sins of lia), University of Kansas Chamber Choir the world, (Lawrence, USA), Vancouver Bach Youth grant us peace. Choir (Vancouver, Canada). It was first performed on March 3, 2001 in St. John’s Sherezade Panthaki, soprano; College Chapel, Cambridge by the New Joseph Mikolaj, tenor; Cambridge Singers with Peter Barley Paul Max Tipton, bass (organ) and conducted by Christopher Brown. This work is a setting of William Wordsworth’s Ode Intimations of Immor- tality from Recollections of Early Child-

8 hood. The seventh stanza (‘Behold the ting’, disconnects us from that home, and Child…’) and the eighth, (‘Thou, whose each subsequent stage of maturity, from exterior semblance…’) are omitted in this infancy to manhood, increases that dis- version. The piece is divided into four connection. Combined with this, howev- movements which are performed with- er, is the notion of corruption by worldly out a break. My thanks to Peter Barley for experience. The ‘sleep’ of birth metaphor- his help with the organ registration. ically shuts man’s eyes to the ‘glories he hath known’ by clothing the soul in sinful -Richard Rodney Bennett human flesh, and earthly pleasures continue the process of distraction. William Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations The piece’s third and fourth sections, of Immortality from Recollections of Ear- however, make clear the error of con- ly Childhood, first published in 1807, has sidering this ‘forgetting’ as an unmiti- long been famed for its valorization of gated disaster, providing hope for the youthful existence. Wordsworth’s princi- mature, experienced human being who pal preoccupation, however, is not simply has travelled far from childlike percep- with the wonders that one may perceive tivity. Wordsworth suggests that while in childhood. The poem fits intriguingly we cannot reclaim precisely our early into a long literary tradition – as engaged convictions and sensations, we may trea- in by authors including Thomas Traherne sure our ‘shadowy recollections’ of them and William Blake – of regarding chil- as a ‘fountain light’ to illuminate even dren as pure beings with a special kind of profoundly altered perspectives. In the access to divine glory that is lost with age. ‘Author’s Note’ that precedes the poem, To some extent, this loss is simply a re- Wordsworth states that ‘nothing was sult of time passing, as mapped out in the more difficult for me in childhood than second section of the piece. The human to admit the notion of death as a state soul, in this poem, has a kind of Platonic applicable to my own being’, but new pre-existence, and comes ‘trailing clouds understanding emerges in reconsidering of glory…/ From God, who is our home’, this youthful conviction of immortality but birth, in itself ‘a sleep and a forget- from a more experienced viewpoint. If we

9 accept the questions, changes and com- in 1979 to New York City, away from plexities that earthly existence brings, if the pernicious British habit of pigeon- we attempt to attain a ‘philosophic mind’, holing - they proved capable of feeding our sensations may be enriched, as illus- fruitfully into each other. Bennett was trated by the lines ‘I love the Brooks…/ born into a musical family, and began Even more than when I tripped as lightly composing as a child. Informal sessions as they’ – lines that Bennett sets appro- with the pioneering British serialist Elis- priately to a slightly altered recapitula- abeth Lutyens aroused an interest in the tion of the opening melody. The possible avant-garde which was left unsatisfied by significance of immortality, then, when the traditional teaching of Lennox Berke- considered in that ‘philosophic’ light, can ley and Howard Ferguson at the Royal in fact expand infinitely and tantalizingly Academy of Music, but assuaged by visits beyond that understood by ‘the simple to the Darmstadt summer schools, and Creed of Childhood’. a two-year period of study in Paris with Pierre Boulez. A fellow-student was the -Tessie Prakas pianist Susan Bradshaw, with whom Ben- nett later collaborated on a translation of Boulez’s theoretical writing, and formed Sir Richard Rodney Bennett a long-standing piano duet partnership. Other significant performing partner- Among musicians of our era, there can ships were to be with the soprano Jane be few more versatile than Sir Richard Manning, the horn player Barry Tuckwell Rodney Bennett, and none better at ev- and The King’s Singers. erything he did: composing for concerts and films, playing the piano in contem- As a composer, Bennett never fully took porary music and in jazz idioms, singing on board the whole complex Boulezian and playing classic show tunes in cabaret. apparatus, instead adopting what Stephen For many years all these activities seemed Walsh has called “a neo-Romantic seri- tightly compartmentalized; but in later alism closer to Berg than Webern”. This life - perhaps with the help of his move proved well suited to operatic composi-

10 tion, but he never found the experience led later to partnerships with singers in- of working in the opera house congenial, cluding Karin Krog, Marian Montgom- and after 1970 he abandoned the medi- ery and Mary Cleere Haran, and to his um. However, he continued to cover a own cabaret performances as both pia- wide range of other genres, ranging from nist and singer. He also composed con- the major orchestral and choral works cert works in a true jazz idiom, including Epithalamion, Spells and three sympho- most recently Rondel, in centenary hom- nies, by way of concertos for almost every age to Duke Ellington. For some years instrument - if you include such notable Bennett considered the different strands concertante pieces as Actaeon with solo of his compositional activity - concert horn and Sonnets to Orpheus with solo music, film music, jazz, and (yet another cello - to song-cycles and instrumental area of expertise) simple music for young solos. Many of his smaller works of the performers - as entirely separate from 1970s fall into series, including the se- one another. But the direct contact with quence of pieces called Scena for solo audiences which his cabaret performanc- instruments, and the group of ensemble es brought him encouraged him to reach works called Commedia, schematic in out to the general concert-goer. In the ground-plan but dramatic in approach. later 1980s, a group of pieces suggested Meanwhile, Bennett had also been com- by Debussy’s Syrinx for solo flute exem- posing film scores since his student years: plified a trend to bring some of the co- an activity which he described as musical louristic sensuality of his film scores into “journalism”, but one to which he brought his concert works; and in 1990 a Concer- a strong gift for melody and for the im- to originally intended for the jazz saxo- mediate creation of mood. His film work phonist Stan Getz had at least an element brought him many awards, as well as the of “crossover”. By 1995, the BT Celebra- financial security which, in his words, tion orchestral commission Partita was “allowed me to write the music I wanted clearly, unashamedly tonal. And in those to write”. One of his first film scores was pluralist days, Bennett seemed confident in a jazz idiom, and he supported himself and relaxed enough to have settled into a as a student by playing jazz piano. This freely tonal idiom, encompassing equally

11 the chromaticism of the choral work The The sunshine is a glorious birth; Glory and the Dream, the sophisticated But yet I know, where’er I go, simplicity of the nursery-rhyme cycle That there hath passed away a glory from Songs before Sleep and the lyricism of the earth. Reflections on a Scottish Folk Song, written at the request of HRH The Prince of Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous Wales in memory of Her Majesty Queen song, Elizabeth the Queen Mother. And while the young lambs bound As to the tabor’s sound, - Anthony Burton To me alone there came a thought of grief: A timely utterance gave that thought relief, There was a time And I again am strong. The cataracts blow their trumpets from There was a time when meadow, grove, the steep, and stream, No more shall grief of mine the season The earth, and every common sight, wrong; To me did seem I hear the Echoes through the mountains Apparelled in celestial light, throng, The glory and the freshness of a dream. The Winds come to me from the fields of It is not now as it hath been of yore;- sleep, Turn wheresoe’er I may, And all the earth is gay; By night or day, Land and sea The things which I have seen I now can Give themselves up to jollity, see no more. And with the heart of May The Rainbow comes and goes, Doth every Beast keep holiday, And lovely is the Rose, Thou Child of Joy, The Moon doth with delight Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, Look round her when the heavens are bare; thou happy Shepherd-boy! Waters on a starry night Ye blessed Creatures, I have heard the call Are beautiful and fair; Ye to each other make; I see 12 The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee; And cometh from afar: My heart is at your festival, Not in entire forgetfulness, My head hath its coronal, And not in utter nakedness, The fullness of your bliss, I feel – I feel it But trailing clouds of glory do we come all. From God, who is our home: Oh evil day! if I were sullen Heaven lies about us in our infancy! While Earth herself is adorning, Shades of the prison-house begin to close This sweet May-morning, Upon the growing Boy, And the children are culling But He beholds the light, and whence it On every side, flows, In a thousand valleys far and wide, He sees it in his joy; Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm, The Youth, who daily farther from the And the Babe leaps up on his Mother’s East arm:- Must travel, still is Nature’s Priest, I hear, I hear, with joy I hear! And by the vision splendid -But there’s a Tree, of many, one, Is on his way attended; A single Field which I have looked upon, At length the Man perceives it die away, Both of them speak of something that is And fade into the light of common day. gone: Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her The Pansy at my feet own; Doth the same tale repeat: Yearnings she hath in her own natural Whither is fled the visionary gleam? kind, Where is it now, the glory and the dream? And, even with something of a Mother’s mind, And no unworthy aim, Our birth is but a sleep The homely Nurse doth all she can To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: Man, The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, Forget the glories he hath known, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And that imperial palace whence he came.

13 Sherezade Panthaki, Kathryn Aaron, But for those first affections, soprano; Those shadowy recollections, Debi Wong, Fabiana González, alto; Which, be they what they may, Joseph Mikolaj, tenor; Are yet the fountain light of all our day, Paul Max Tipton, bass Are yet a master light of all our seeing; Uphold us, cherish, and have power to O joy! make Our noisy years seem moments in the O joy! that in our embers being Is something that doth live, Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake, That nature yet remembers To perish never; What was so fugitive! Which neither listlessness, nor mad The thought of our past years in me doth endeavour, breed Nor Man nor Boy, Perpetual benediction: not indeed Nor all that is at enmity with joy, For that which is most worthy to be blest- Can utterly abolish or destroy! Delight and liberty, the simple Creed Hence, in a season of calm weather, Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest, Though inland far we be, With new-fledged hope still fluttering in Our souls have sight of that immortal sea his breast:- Which brought us hither, Not for these I raise Can in a moment travel thither, The song of thanks and praise; And see the Children sport upon the But for those obstinate questionings shore, Of sense and outward things, And hear the mighty waters rolling Fallings from us, vanishings; evermore. Blank misgivings of a Creature Moving about in worlds not realized, Sherezade Panthaki, soprano; High instincts before which our mortal Debi Wong, alto; Nature Joseph Mikolaj, Dann Coakwell, tenor; Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised: Paul Max Tipton, bass

14 Then sing, ye Birds, a joyous song! To live beneath your more habitual sway. I love the Brooks which down their chan- Then, sing ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous nels fret, song! Even more than when I tripped as lightly And let the young Lambs bound as they; As to the tabor’s sound! The innocent brightness of a new-born We in thought will join your throng, Day Ye that pipe and ye that play, Is lovely yet; Ye that through your hearts to-day The Clouds that gather round the setting Feel the gladness of the May! sun What though the radiance which was Do take a sober colouring from an eye once so bright That hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality; Be now for ever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Another race hath been, and other palms Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the are won. flower; Thanks to the human heart by which we We will grieve not, rather find live, Strength in what remains behind; Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and In the primal sympathy fears, Which having been must ever be; To me the meanest flower that blows can In the soothing thoughts that spring give Out of human suffering; Thoughts that do often lie too deep for In the faith that looks through death, tears. In years that bring the philosophic mind. Text from William Wordsworth’s Ode “In- And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, timations of Immortality from Recollec- and Groves, tions of Early Childhood” Forebode not any severing of our loves! Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might; I only have relinquished one delight 15 Orlando Gibbons • Glorious and becoming established, creating a demand Powerful God for music in new forms and styles.

From 1603 until his death, Orlando Gib- Among the forms that came into being bons (1583-1625) was a member of the in order to meet these new demands was select group of musicians in King James the “verse-anthem,” essentially a text set I’s Chapel Royal. He was particularly for one or more solo voices with instru- renowned as a virtuoso keyboard play- mental or organ accompaniment alter- er, and was famously described by the nating with “full” sections for choir and visiting French ambassador as “the best instruments combined. This is the struc- finger” in England in 1624. His output ture of Gibbons’s Glorious and Powerful spanned most of the genres current in the God, an anthem based on three stanzas early seventeenth century, and included by an anonymous author. The poem be- sacred music, madrigals, keyboard mu- gins by describing a distant and unknow- sic, and music for instrumental ensem- able God before transitioning to a prayer bles. Gibbons is now known chiefly for for His presence: “Be present with Thy his sacred music, much of which can be grace/Show us Thy loving face.” Through- seen featured in English church hymnals out the anthem solo verses for bass and and compilations from the 17th through alto voices alternate with choral sections the 20th centuries. that are founded musically and verbally on the preceding solo verse. Gibbons was among the first generation of English composers to write solely for the -Karen Jones reformed church. This entailed a new set of demands, as a whole host of Latin works, many of them by Gibbons’s recent prede- Glorious and Powerful God, cessors, were rendered unusable - eclipsed We understand thy dwelling is on high accoutrements of a banned religion. Above the starry sky. During Gibbons’s time the musical require- ments of the English church were gradually Thou dwell’st not in stone temples made with hands, 16 But in the flesh hearts of the sons of men ous and Powerful God, but differs from the To dwell is thy delight, near hand, though anthem in several significant ways. First, out of sight. instead of using the same soloists in each We give of thine own hand, verse section, Gibbons used ever-chang- Thy acceptation is very life and blood, ing groups of two, three, or even four To all actions good: voices in each verse. Second, rather than Whenever here or hence our supplication, having each chorus repeat and affirm the From pure and with unfeigned hearts text of the verse, in this Service the text is To thee ascends, be present with thy grace, continuous through the verse-full pattern. Show us thy loving face. The Second Evening Service also aptly O down on us full show’rs of mercy send; demonstrates several of the other musical Let thy love’s burning beams values and concerns shared by Gibbons Dry up all our sins’ streams; and other composers of his generation. Arise, O Lord, and come into thy rest. Foremost among these was the emphasis Both now and evermore thy name be placed on music’s responsibility in con- blest, veying and lending expression to a text. Founder and foundation of endless The unity of textual declamation and habitation. musical expression that Gibbons valued Amen. so highly represented an ideal that was perhaps best articulated by his older con- Dann Coakwell, tenor; temporary, William Byrd (1540-1623): Paul Max Tipton, bass that music should be “framed to the life of the words.” This focus on text can be seen in a num- Orlando Gibbons • Second Evening ber of aspects of Gibbons’s Second Evening Service Service. Throughout both the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis, the text is set most- Gibbons’s Second Evening Service shares its ly syllabically, avoiding long melismas that alternating verse-full structure with Glori- could obfuscate the meaning of the words.

17 To lend further clarity to the words being He hath scattered the proud sung, Gibbons was also assiduously atten- in the imagination of their hearts. tive to their natural accents in his choice of rhythmic values for various words. At He hath put down the mighty from their certain points, especially in the Magnifi- seat cat, Gibbons’s experience as a madrigal and hath exalted the humble and meek. composer is apparent in subtle examples He hath filled the hungry with good things; of text-painting. The “scattered” imitative And the rich he hath sent empty away. running figures at “He hath scattered the He remembering his mercy hath holpen proud” and the ponderous bass duet at “He his servant Israel, hath put down the mighty” are two of the as he promised to our forefathers, more striking examples of this strategy. Abraham and his seed forever. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son -Karen Jones and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, Magnificat and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced Sherezade Panthaki, Kathryn Aaron, in God my Saviour. soprano; Debi Wong, Fabiana González, alto; For he hath regarded the lowliness Joseph Mikolaj, Dann Coakwell, tenor; of his hand-maiden. Dashon Burton, Paul Max Tipton, bass For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath magnified me Nunc Dimittis and holy is his Name. And his mercy is on them that fear him Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart throughout all generations. in peace: He hath shewed strength with his arm; according to thy word. 18 For mine eyes have seen: thy salvation, Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585) had been Which thou hast prepared: a musician in the Chapel Royal from before the face of all people; the 1540s onwards, and his Te lucis ante To be a light to lighten the Gentiles: terminum is probably one such example and to be the glory of thy people Israel. of Latin liturgical music composed at court during Elizabeth’s reign. A chant- Sherezade Panthaki, Kathryn Aaron, based evening hymn based on a fifth- or soprano sixth-century text, it would traditionally have been sung at the end of the day at Compline. Despite its Latin text and its Thomas Tallis • Te lucis ante terminum inclusion of traditional chant, however, it also showcases several features consistent Tallis’s Te lucis ante terminum was most with new stylistic developments in the likely composed during the reign of Eliz- English church. The choral sections are abeth I. Elizabeth’s reign (1558-1603) was composed in a chordal, syllabic, metri- a period of increasing stability in the En- cally consistent style that is interspersed glish church, as the political and religious with occasional melismas at phrase ends. turbulence that had so marked English Its gradually lengthening phrases culmi- music in the sixteenth century began to nating in gentle cadences lend it a quality subside. Despite the sacred music in En- of meditation and repose appropriate to glish that was becoming increasingly char- the time of day of its liturgical function. acteristic of the English church, however, composers at court were able to continue -Karen Jones to set traditional Latin texts. This was especially true of music composed for the queen’s private services, which tended to Te lucis ante terminum, be more elaborate than those held in more Rerum Creator, poscimus, Puritan establishments. Ut pro tua clementia, sis praesul ad custodiam.

19 Procul recedant somnia, Simon Carrington, Yale University Et noctium phantasmata: professor emeritus, has enjoyed a long Hostemque nostrum comprime, and distinguished career in music, Ne polluantur corpora. performing as singer, double bass player and conductor, first in the UK where Praesta, Pater omnipotens, he was born, and latterly in the USA. per Iesum Christum Dominum, From 2003 to 2009 he was professor of qui tecum in perpetuum choral conducting at Yale University and regnat cum Sancto Spiritu. director of the Yale Schola Cantorum, a Amen. 24-voice chamber choir which he brought to national and now international To thee before the close of day, prominence, attracting the interest of Creator of the world, we pray his successors, Masaaki Suzuki, director That, with thy wonted favor, thou of the Bach Collegium Japan and David Wouldst be our guard and keeper now. Hill, conductor of the BBC Singers and the Bach Choir in London. During his From all ill dreams defend our sight, Yale tenure he led the introduction of a From fears and terrors of the night; new graduate voice degree for singers Withhold from us our ghostly foe, specializing in oratorio, early music and That spot of sin we may not know. chamber ensemble, and, with his faculty colleagues, he guided two Yale graduate O Father, that we ask be done, students to their first prize wins in Through Jesus Christ, thine only Son, consecutive conducting competitions at Who, with the Holy Ghost and thee, American Choral Directors Association Doth live and reign eternally National Conventions. From 2001 until Amen. his Yale appointment, he was director of choral activities at the New England Dann Coakwell, tenor Conservatory, Boston, where he was selected by the students for the Krasner Teaching Excellence Award and from

20 where he will receive an Honorary Doctorate in 2014, and from 1994 to 2001 he held a similar position at the University of Kansas.

Prior to coming to the United States, he was a creative force for twenty-five years with the internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble The King’s Singers, which he co-founded at Cambridge University. He gave 3,000 performances at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls, made more than seventy recordings, and appeared on countless television and radio programs, including nine appearances on the Tonight Show with the late Johnny Carson!

In the early days of The King’s Singers he also maintained a lively career as a double bass player, first as sub- principal of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and then as a freelance player in London. He specialised in continuo playing, particularly for his Cambridge Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Benjamin contemporary John Eliot Gardiner, with Britten, Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, whom he made a number of recordings, Carlo Maria Guilini, Otto Klemperer, but he also played with all the major Ricardo Muti, Georg Solti and George symphony and chamber orchestras Szell. As a teacher of conductors himself under such diverse maestri as Claudio for fifteen years, he only wishes he’d paid more attention! 21 He keeps up an active schedule as a freelance the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers conductor and choral clinician, leading (www.simoncarringtonchambersingers. workshops and master classes round the com), for concerts and recordings. world. He has taught young conductors at the Royal Academy of Music, London, the He divides his time between London and Liszt Conservatorium, Budapest, Hungary, southwest France where he lives with the University of the Andes, Bogota, Hilary, his wife of 45 years. Their daughter Colombia, the World Symposium on Rebecca, cellist, singer, impressionist Choral Music in Argentina and the Schools and comedian (www.rebeccacarrington. of Music at Eastman, Temple, and Indiana com), lives in Berlin, and their singer- among many others in the US. He has songwriter son James lives in Los Angeles recorded master classes on two commercial (www.jamescarrington.com). DVDs - at Westminster Choir College in the US (GIA) and at the Three Choirs Festival in the UK (Masterclass Media Thomas Murray has been a member Foundation). This season his conducting of the Yale faculty since 1981 and was engagements include the Berlin Rundfunk appointed University organist in 1990. Chor, Ars Nova Copenhagen, Collegium Successor to Charles Krigbaum and Musicale, Tallinn (Estonia), Coro Casa da Robert Baker as the senior professor of Musica, Oporto (Portugal),Tokyo Cantat, organ, he teaches the organ literature Gondwana Choral School, Australia, seminar and gives instruction to gradu- Houston Chamber Choir, Canto Armonico, ate organ majors. His performing career Boston, and Yale Schola Cantorum. He has taken him to all parts of Europe and leads annual conducting courses at the to Japan, Australia, and Argentina. He Chamber Choir Festival in Sarteano (Italy), has appeared as a soloist with the Pitts- and the Yale Summer Festival in Norfolk, burgh, Houston, Milwaukee, and New Connecticut, and contributed a chapter Haven symphony orchestras, the Nation- on rehearsal technique to the Cambridge al Chamber Orchestra in Washington, Companion to Choral Music. Once a year D.C., and the Moscow Chamber Orches- he also gathers together his own ensemble, tra during its tour of Finland in 1996. The

22 he was organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Episcopal) in Boston. Professor Murray is principal organist and artist-in-residence at Christ Church Episcopal in New Haven, where he mentors a current ISM organ major.

Lucas Wong, assistant professor of piano at Soochow University School of Music in China, is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, pedagogue, vocal ac- companist and repetiteur. His keyboard repertoire stretches over six centuries, including works for piano, harpsichord, organ and extended keyboard techniques. He is also active as a music editor, academic writer, guest lecturer, adjudicator, and researcher. He regularly performs and gives masterclasses throughout Asia, Can- ada, and the United States. He has played American Guild of Organists named him at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, the Banff International Performer of the Year in Centre, and the Chan Centre in Vancou- 1986. The Royal College of Organists in ver, to name a few. He has received many England awarded him an FRCO diploma awards and fellowships, and has worked honoris causa in 2003, and in 2007 the closely with well-known composers such Yale School of Music awarded him the as William Bolcom and Jake Heggie. A Gustave Stoeckel Award for excellence graduate of the University of British Co- in teaching. During his years at Yale he lumbia, he holds advanced degrees from has at times been active as a choral con- the Yale School of Music (M.M., M.M.A, ductor, and prior to joining the faculty D.M.A). His many prestigious mentors in- 23 clude Boris Berman, Claude Frank, Peter Hill is the principal conductor; Masaaki Frankl, and Martin Katz. Suzuki, who led the ensemble from 2009 to 2013, remains affiliated as principal guest conductor. In addition to perform- The Yale Institute of Sacred Music is an ing regularly in New Haven and New interdisciplinary graduate center dedicat- York, the choir records and tours nation- ed to the study and practice of sacred mu- ally and internationally. Schola Canto- sic, worship, and the arts. In partnership rum’s live recording with Robert Mealy with the Schools of Divinity and Music, and Yale Collegium Musicum of Hein- Institute students receive rigorous training rich Biber’s 1693 Vesperae longiores ac for careers in performance, church music, breviores received international acclaim pastoral ministry, the academy, and much from the early music press, as have sub- more. The Institute sponsors several cho- sequent CDs of J.S. Bach’s rarely heard ruses, including the Yale Camerata and 1725 version of the St. John Passion and the Yale Schola Cantorum, and as a ma- Antonio Bertali’s Missa resurrectionis. jor arts presenter in New Haven, it offers A commercial recording on the Naxos a full schedule of concerts, art exhibitions, label of Mendelssohn and Bach Mag- literary readings, lectures, conferences, nificats was released in fall 2009. Schola and multimedia events during the year. Cantorum has toured internationally in For up- dated listings, visit the website at England, Hungary, France, China, South www.yale.edu/ism. Korea, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Japan, and Singapore. In recent years, the choir has Yale Schola Cantorum, founded in sung under the direction of the interna- 2003 by Simon Carrington, is a chamber tionally renowned conductors Helmuth choir that sings in concerts and choral Rilling, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Neville services. Supported by the Yale Institute Marriner, Stephen Layton, Paul Hillier, of Sacred Music with the School of Mu- Nicholas McGegan, Dale Warland, James sic, and open by audition to all Yale stu- O’Donnell, Simon Halsey, David Hill, dents, it specializes in music from before and Stefan Parkman. 1750 and the last hundred years. David

24 Schola Members

Soprano Tenor Kathryn Aaron Brian Bartoldus Katharine Arnold Colin Britt Lucy Fitz Gibbon Dann Coakwell Sherezade Panthaki Joseph Mikolaj Tessie Prakas Michael Sansoni Beverly Shangkuan Max Blum

Alto Bass Casey Breves Dashon Burton Lora Chow Tian Hui Ng Fabiana Gonzalez Cobos, Christoph Schlechter Esther Morgan-Ellis Paul Max Tipton Valerie Rogotzke Stefan Weijola Debi Wong Shuo Zhai

26 In view of their many years of warm friendship and close collaboration with him, De- los Director Carol Rosenberger and Conductor Simon Carrington fondly dedicate this recording to the memory of distinguished all-around musician, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012).

Simon Carrington wishes to express his warmest thanks to his friends and colleagues at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) for their indispensable contributions to this recording – particularly Melissa Maier, Jenna-Claire Kemper, and Mateusz Zechows- ki (see also production credits below). He further hopes that this CD will stand as fitting tribute to ISM in this, the Institute’s 40th anniversary year. He would also like to highlight the pivotal role of organist Tom Murray in realizing this performance, and wishes to emphasize that this recording was recorded LIVE IN CONCERT – also that the final master was intentionally edited as minimally as possible, for the primary purpose of reducing ambient audience noise.

Concert recorded on January 23, 2010, at Christ Church Episcopal, New Haven, CT.

Executive Producer: Carol Rosenberger Producer/Engineer: Mateusz Zechowski Editing/Mastering: Mateusz Zechowski Photos of Thomas Murray and Yale Schola Cantorum: Robert Lisak Art design/Layout: Lonnie Kunkel Booklet editor: Lindsay Koob

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