Carols Advent

ADVENT CAROLS FROM KING’S COLLEGE LONDON THE CHOIR OF KING’S COLLEGE LONDON JOSEPH FORT 1 Advent Prose: Drop down, ye heavens, from above [4:46] ADVENT CAROLS mode i 2 Canite tuba Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 –1594) [5:10] FROM KING’S COLLEGE LONDON 3 Antiphon: O Sapientia [0:47] 4 Sancte et sapienter Philip Moore (b. 1943) [4:10] THE CHOIR OF KING’S COLLEGE LONDON Madeleine Alabaster, Ruby Sweetland soprano solos JOSEPH FORT 5 Antiphon: O Adonai [0:50] Michael Butterfield organ* 6 Ad te Domine levavi Orlande de Lassus (1530/2 –1594) [4:05] 7 Antiphon: O Radix Jesse [0:49] 8 O Radix Jesse* Joel Rust (b. 1989) [4:56] 9 Antiphon: O Clavis David [1:00] 10 Tollite portas William Byrd (1539/40 –1623) [1:45] 11 Lo! he comes with clouds descending* [4:14] ‘Helmsley’ melody noted by Thomas Olivers (1725–1799), arr. Joseph Fort 12 Antiphon: O Oriens [0:44] 13 Advent Moon* Cecilia McDowall (b. 1951) [5:00] 14 Antiphon: O Rex Gentium [0:46] 15 ’Twas in the year that King Uzziah died* George Benjamin (b. 1960) [7:09] William Hester tenor solo The Choir of King’s College London gratefully acknowledges the support of The Williams Church Music Trust, and also of the staff of the Dean’s Office at King’s College London (Tim Ditchfield, Clare Dowding and Natalie Frangos). 16 Antiphon: O Emmanuel [0:45] Thanks are also due to Fr David Houlding and Martin Kemp of All Hallows’, Gospel Oak, for the use of their church 17 Laetentur caeli William Byrd [2:37] and 1915 Hill organ. 18 O come, O come, Emmanuel* [4:51] Tracks 4, 8, 13 and 20 are premiere recordings. ‘Veni Emmanuel’ melody, said to be French, adapted by Thomas Helmore (1811–90), arr. Joseph Fort Recorded on 8-10 April 2019 in All Photography © Kaupo Kikkas 19 Antiphon: O Virgo virginum [1:02] Hallows’, Gospel Oak Cover image: Hieronymus Bosch Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter (c.1450–1516), detail from The Ascent of the 20 Magnificat (Gloucester Service)* Kerensa Briggs (b. 1991) [6:27] 24-bit digital editing: Matthew Swan Blessed, oil on panel, c.1500–1504/Palazzo Madeleine Alabaster soprano solo 24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter Ducale, Venice/Bridgeman Images Design: Drew Padrutt Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK 21 O frondens virga Hildegard of Bingen (1098 –1179) [2:56] Booklet editor: Henry Howard www.delphianrecords.co.uk Total playing time [64:56] Notes on the music Two universities, the medieval foundations of the building’s fabric, completed in 2001, Fort’s choice of contemporary choral works to us, to teach us, to lighten our darkness. of Oxford and Cambridge, were dominant in was complemented by serious investment embraces a host of King’s College connections: Their titles evoke attributes associated with England for centuries until London broke the in The Choir of King’s College London, a Kerensa Briggs, for instance, gained her Christ: O Wisdom, O Adonai (Lord), O Root bugger mould in the 1820s. The capital’s industrial process eased by its then director of music, master’s degree in composition from King’s, of Jesse, O Key of David, O Day-spring, O and commercial expansion helped build a David Trendell, whose tireless leadership while Philip Moore’s Sancte et sapienter, King of the Nations, O Emmanuel (God with secular alternative to the Anglican exclusivity raised the choir’s standards and established a setting for double choir of the King’s us). Emmanuel, Dayspring, the Root of Jesse of Oxbridge in the form of the future University its reputation as one of the best on the College Prayer, was commissioned to mark and the Key of David draw on the messianic College London, while its culture wars collegiate circuit. He also secured generous the institution’s 175th anniversary. Sancte prophecies of Isaiah, while Adonai concerns contributed to the creation of King’s College choral scholarships from the King’s College et sapienter, ‘With holiness and wisdom’, the giving of the Ten Commandments to London. King’s, with the backing of George IV purse. Trendell’s sudden, all too early death embodies the motto of King’s. Moore’s Moses as recalled in St John’s Gospel. and the Duke of Wellington, emerged as the in October 2014 came just weeks before one composition, fluid in metre, grows from a ruling establishment’s response to what one of the most important occasions in the King’s solo soprano line, repeated in choral form on Advent is, or at least was, a season of critic, referring to University College, described calendar, the annual candlelit Advent Carols, ascending steps of the scale. The gradual rise penitence and fasting, of watching and as ‘that godless institution in Gower Street’. where demand for tickets, even with three in tension culminates with a mighty plea for waiting for the Lord. It remains a time for King’s College’s campus occupied a fine iterations of the service, always exceeds the the seeds of learning, virtue and religion to reflection in winter’s darkest days on the light neoclassical building on the Strand and, despite supply of Chapel seats. take root for the good of all. Moore’s ‘Sancte et to come, a time to recall Christ’s incarnation, determined conservative opposition, opened its sapienter’ melody, restored to its initial pitch, to contemplate death and the final Day doors to Anglicans and ‘non-conformists of all Since taking up his position as its Director runs as a refrain through the work’s final bars of Judgement. Above all, it is the season sorts’. Whatever their denomination, all King’s and College Organist in September 2015, until it makes way for overlapping Amens from to prepare for the Second Coming. The O students were expected to attend Chapel Joseph Fort has given fresh momentum to two solo voices. Antiphons, part of the Roman liturgy since services and did so at first in a rather plain the choir. He has introduced new works to its the late eighth century, give voice to Advent’s space above the college’s Great Hall. repertoire and broadened its Advent service Conceived as a ‘solemn and traditional’ ritual, radical message of salvation. They precede to include compositions from the distant past the full King’s Advent Carols service combines and follow the Magnificat on each of the seven King’s Chapel was transformed in the and by today’s emerging talents. The present music and readings. This recording omits the days before Christmas Eve; taken in reverse early 1860s by Sir George Gilbert Scott, recording evokes Advent’s solemnity and spoken word but preserves its essential blend order, their initial letters form the acrostic ERO the great Gothic revivalist and the hand sense of anticipation. Many of the pieces set of plainsong, polyphony and seasonal hymns, CRAS, the Latin translation of Christ’s promise behind the Albert Memorial and the Midland words from the Book of Isaiah or their echoes the whole built around the O Antiphons. to his followers: ‘I will be [with you] tomorrow’. Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station. His in the New Testament Gospels. ‘I wanted to tie These antiphons, also known as the Great ornate design followed the lines of an early the O Antiphons and Magnificat, which have Antiphons of Advent, constitute a group An eighth antiphon, O Virgo virginum, in honour Christian basilica. It included a rich mix of been an essential part of the King’s service for of seven ancient texts associated with the of the Virgin Mary, was added to the sequence mosaics, stained glass and wall paintings, decades, to compositions based on prophetic singing of the Vespers Magnificat (the song by the medieval English Church. It survived and contained room for a ‘Father’ Henry texts from the Bible,’ he notes. ‘There’s a of Christ’s mother, Mary) during Advent. Each together with its seven older companions Willis organ, reconstructed in the 1930s strong flavour of Isaiah in many of these pieces begins with the invocation ‘O’, continues to find a place in Anglican worship; the by its maker’s grandson and most recently and a feeling that something extraordinary is with a short prayer that alludes to Christ, and pre-Reformation legacy is also preserved in renovated by Mander Organs. The restoration about to happen.’ closes by petitioning the Saviour to come the calendar of the 1662 Book of Common Notes on the music Prayer, where 16 December is marked as to galvanise the music of Lo, he comes with Old Testament books of Joel and Isaiah, Although Byrd belonged to a group of activist ‘O Sapientia’, the first of the eight days that clouds descending, Charles Wesley’s great was published in Palestrina’s second book of Catholics, including the earls of Oxford and precede the Vigil of Christmas. The eight O Advent hymn. motets in 1572. Its clean-lined counterpoint Northampton and the influential Petre family, Antiphon chants from the medieval Sarum heralds the day of salvation, at times with he was largely protected from persecution Antiphonal were published in 1856 for the New York-based, London-born composer an urgency that suggests it is imminent. by royal favour. Laetentur caeli, a setting Ecclesiological Society and included in The and sound artist Joel Rust took the text of The work’s second part, Rorate caeli offers a for five voices of the processional respond English Hymnal in 1906. O Radix Jesse from the Ritson Manuscript, textbook model of the Palestrina style, simple for Advent Sunday, appears to have been one of the most important late fifteenth- in its musical invention, crystal clear in its revised from an earlier manuscript version for Veni, veni Emanuel, a metrical version of five century sources of English carols.

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