572832bk Philips EU_572382bk Philips EU 07/10/2011 09:58 Page 1 short phrases of the text into a coherent whole. The double choir motet Ecce vicit Leo is justly The Sarum Consort Peter Philipsʼs celebration of Beata Agnes, Virgin and famous for its dramatic, trumpet-like initial phrases, the Martyr, takes its text from the Magnificat Antiphon at smoothly contrasting ʻDignus est Agnusʼ, the lively The Sarum Consort was founded in 1992, making its concert début at the 1993 Salisbury Festival when painter Jane Vespers. Its passionate text gives him every opportunity interplay between the two choirs (ʻaccipere virtutem....ʼ), PHILIPS Mackay, Andrew Mackay’s sister, exhibited work inspired by Britten’s music, and a concert was given to illustrate the for the word-painting at which he excels, from the and the resonant final alleluia. artist’s inspiration. The Consort’s recordings have enjoyed critical acclaim, the first Peter Philips disc being described dramatic opening (ʻBlessed Agnes, in the midst of the In the short motet Ne timeas, Maria Mary is as ʻmagicalʼ on BBC Radio 3’s Record Review and in BBC Music Magazine being given the maximum five stars for flames, prayed with extended handsʼ) through the encouraged not to be afraid by the soft entry of the Cantiones Sacrae Quinis performance. The choir celebrated its tenth anniversary by making its London début in St Johnʼs, Smith Square in threats of the sacrilegious tyrant and the vileness of the voices, one by one. The other notable point here is that flesh to the extraordinary yearning of her final rhetorical Philips avoids the obvious when word-painting ʻAltissimi October 2002 with Rachmaninovʼs Vespers and Philip Mooreʼs Canticle of Light, commissioned for the occasion. The et Octonibus Vocibus flourish (ʻI come to you whom I have loved, whom I have Filiusʼ; rather than progressively rising, the phrases Church Times reviewer Roderic Dunnett, for whom the Consort ʻproved itself an easy match for almost any London sought, whom I have always longed forʼ). descend from the highest point, perhaps suggesting the choirʼ, noted that the conductor ʻmarshalled and balanced his well-prepared Sarum forces with sensitivity, shrewdness, Elegerunt apostoli is another example of the format relationship of father and son. and a glorious feel for the danceʼ. (Antwerp 1612 and 1613) particularly favoured by Philips, where the piece falls The short celebratory Gaude Maria virgo is naturally into sections because of a quotation in the text; delightfully dedicated In Festo S. Mariae ad Nives – for here, after an introduction vividly setting the scene the Feast of Our Lady of the Snow. The text is an The Sarum Consort • Andrew Mackay (ʻWhile the Jews stoned him...ʼ), Stephenʼs words are antiphon to Psalm 95, to which Philips adds a quoted, beginning with simple homophony (ʻDomine characteristically fine alleluia. Jesu, accipe spiritum meumʼ) and expanding into a Virgo prudentissima is to be regarded as the meditative alleluia reminiscent of that in Philipsʼs secunda pars of the preceding motet; however, this celebrated motet O Crux splendidior. more extended work uses a different text, a Magnificat Media vita is a familiar and powerful Lenten text antiphon based on the Song of Songs 6:10. Philips which is in fact part of an antiphon from the service of responds to the rapture in the words with an extended Compline. The piece gains a meditative colour from the melismatic passage which is as near to openly relatively low SATTB voices, and begins gently, but soon emotional as this composer allows. builds to a climax at the words ʻSancte Deus, sancte In Cum jucunditate the Birthday of Our Lady is fortisʼ. celebrated with the tripla rhythms characteristic of The eight-part Ave Regina caelorum shows off Philips expressing great joy, and is full of lively running Philipsʼs extraordinarily felicitous writing for two choirs. figures on the word ʻcelebremusʼ. The absence of an As in Ave Jesu Christe, he weaves one choirʼs leads into alleluia or a noë is the major clue that it is not one of the the texture of the other with a subtlety which is far Christmas motets that it so closely resembles. removed from the simple dialogue of the Italian Salve Regina and Eia ergo are the prima and polychoral style. h secunda pars of a Marian antiphon. This well-known text The text Ave gratia plena is composed specifically to gives the composer a wealth of opportunities to show off celebrate St Anne, mother of Mary. The words are an a wide palette of expression; ʻTe suspiramusʼ is set with Photo: Debbie Rigg early equivalent of those quaint nineteenth-century a Monteverdian hiatus, whilst the final ʻO clemens: O pia: hymns dashed off by headmaster priests celebrating O dulcis Virgo Mariaʼ draws forth some of the tenderest obscure festivals. As usual, Philips crafts a wonderful phrases that Philips ever wrote. motet from the relatively quotidian material, and includes some particularly felicitous writing for the two sopranos. Andrew Mackay 8.572832 5 6 8.572832 572832bk Philips EU_572382bk Philips EU 07/10/2011 09:58 Page 2 Peter Philips (1560/61–1628) Peter Philips (1560/61–1628) Psalms, as earlier Renaissance composers so often did. to be meditative he generally abandons his usual Philips was an Englishman, but his music is steeped polyphony in favour of slow-moving chordal writing, and Cantiones Sacrae Quinis et Octonibus Vocibus (Antwerp 1612 and 1613) Cantiones Sacrae Quinis et Octonibus Vocibus (Antwerp 1612 and 1613) in the continental style of the late Renaissance. He uses this is the case at the start of this motet. This section is Although Peter Philips enjoyed great fame in his lifetime, England for a quite different reason – to escape a a wide range of textures, colours and styles, from old- unexpectedly followed by a triple-time ʻParce Domineʼ – 1 Christus resurgens 1-3, 5, 7 3:45 and had more compositions published than any prosecution for ʻadultery and fornicationʼ. fashioned polyphony to simple chordal writing, from pure the rhythm here being used for extra expressivity rather 2 Disciplinam et sapientiam 1-3, 5, 7, 9 2:27 Englishman except William Byrd, we know frustratingly One cannot help wondering whether they hit it off, academic canons to light-hearted, almost madrigalian than to express joy – which includes a remarkable echo 3 Loquebantur variis linguis 1-3, 5, 7 2:51 little about his life. The bare facts can be quickly sketched: these two most renowned English keyboard players of word-painting. These techniques are not used merely to effect between the two top parts. The fine last section 4 Ne reminiscaris, Domine 1-3, 5, 7, 9 2:52 probably born in London in 1560 or 1561, he sang as a their day. Peter Philips appears tall and thin with a pointed show off the composerʼs skill, but rather to illustrate and includes a typically plangent cadence with the treble comment on the text, which he invariably chooses with parts rising and falling in thirds on ʻsanguine tuoʼ. 5 Gabriel Angelus apparuit 1-3, 5, 7, 9 3:07 boy at St Paulʼs Cathedral and later may have been a beard in the only portrait we have, and our best guess care and responds to with fervour. Whilst space does not Gabriel Angelus apparuit contains one of Philipsʼ 6 Viæ Sion lugent 1-3, 5, 7, 9 3:13 pupil of Byrd. His earliest known composition is a from the few facts we know about his life must be that like keyboard pavan dated 1580. Two years later his Roman Byrd he was a serious, even austere figure; John Bull, the permit a detailed discussion of each of the motets, it is favourite devices; it is of the format ABCBD where D is 7 Ave Jesu Christe 1-8 3:53 Catholic faith caused him to flee England and he found colourful virtuoso, must have been a very different person. hoped that the comments that follow will provide some the final alleluia section; in other words, he repeats 8 Pater noster 1, 3, 5, 7-9 3:40 refuge in the English College in Rome. Under the Friends or not, they died in the same year, 1628, having indication of the range and subtlety of his art. section B ʻet multi in nativitate eius gaudebuntʼ in such a 9 Beata Agnes 1-3, 5, 7, 9 4:09 patronage of Cardinal Farnese, Philips seems to have greatly enhanced the reputation of English music abroad. The joyful Easter anthem Christus resurgens is way that the second time it goes straight into the 0 1-3, 5, 7, 9 Elegerunt Apostoli 3:21 flourished; he acted as college organist, and was In modern times Philipsʼs reputation, like that of other subtitled In festo Resurrectionis Domini and takes its alleluias, producing an effect of energy and momentum. 1, 3, 5, 7-9 ! Media vita 3:40 influenced by Anerio and Palestrlna. In 1585 he entered Tudor composers including William Byrd, has benefited text from an Easter Saturday Responsory. Philips Viæ Sion lugent, another text which is well known in 1-8 @ Ave Regina caelorum 3:38 the service of a prominent English nobleman, Lord from the pioneering work of R. R. Terry at Westminster characteristically word-paints resurgens and et both Latin and English (The ways of Zion do mourn), 1-3, 5, 7, 9 # Ave gratia plena 3:00 Thomas Paget, who was another Catholic refugee, and Cathedral. He rescued this lovely music from oblivion by resurrexit with rising notes; and mortuus est semel is employs a canon between the upper two voices ad $ Ecce vicit Leo 1-8 3:50 for five years they travelled in Europe.