CHORAL MUSIC
Key
E Easy
M Medium
D Difficult
UPPER VOICES
EVENING HYMN [E]
Bob Chilcott
SSAA and piano
Oxford BC214 £2.45
This is essentially a two-part setting of Fuller’s Evening Hymn (‘Now that the Sun hath veil’d his Light’), but with an S/A semichorus that sings the offi ce hymn ‘Before the ending of the day’ to its plainchant melody. A fl owing piano part supports the voices. This short and easy anthem would be lovely at an upper-voice evensong.
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT [E]
David Fawcett
S or SA and keyboard
Spartan Press TKM829 £1.50
This well-written setting of verses from 1 John and 2 Corinthians
13 provides an easy anthem for Pentecost or for weddings (ending ‘for love is of God’). I particularly liked the change of gear in the middle on ‘for the Spirit is truth’. The piece would work with a solo voice, unison upper voices, or with the optional lower part as well. James L. Montgomery
EASY ANTHEMS
JUBILATE: LET US PRAISE YOU [E]
W.A. Mozart
arr. Alan Bullard
SATB and piano or organ
Oxford EVR6 £2.15
Mozart’s four-part round is ‘worked out’ by Alan Bullard and with a keyboard part marked ‘joyfully, like pealing bells’. The words are given in Latin (just two words!) and with an alternative, extended English text. Very simple, and hugely effective.
REMEMBER [E]
David Barton
SAB and piano
Spartan Press TKM822 £1.60 Nostalgic in words and musical idiom, this ‘in memoriam’ anthem, a setting of Christina Rossetti, would provide a focus for a time of refl ection during a funeral service. The melody has a satisfying arch-like shape and the music is easy to learn. James L. Montgomery
ANTHOLOGIES
ANTHEMS FOR SA & MEN [E] SA Men and organ or piano Oxford 978-0-19-352417-0 £10.25
No overall editor’s name is given, but Alan Bullard looms large with arrangements of two of his SATB pieces, From the break of day (a setting of ‘Lord of all hopefulness’) and Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore him, as well as being credited with the arrangement of Alan Smith’s Alleluia, sing to Jesus. Outstanding among the nine pieces are the two by Bob Chilcott, originally for upper voices, I lift my eyes (text by Timothy Dudley-Smith) and This day. Sarah Quartel’s Fill your heart with joy and gladness is a fi xed three-part version of an anthem previously published as a fl exi-anthem for between one and
four parts and keyboard. Cecilia McDowall’s Bless to me this day, also rearranged from an upper-voice original, is an imaginative and beautifully detailed setting of
a Celtic ‘Journey Prayer’ that proceeds to an ecstatic climax on
‘Bless, O God, and give to me thy love’. Malcolm Archer’s rather keyboard-dominated Faith, hope, and love remain and Howard Helvey (O God, you speak your beauty every hour) complete the set.
James L. Montgomery
OXFORD CHORAL CLASSICS: SACRED CHORUSES
ed. John Rutter
Choir and piano or organ Oxford 978-0-19-351882-7 £17.50 (organ accompaniment book 978-0-19-351883-4 £17.50)
This is a remarkable collection, and one that it is difficult to summarize. There are complete works such as the Durante (‘Pergolesi’) Magnifi cat, Monteverdi seven-voice Gloria, Purcell Te Deum in D and Schubert Magnifi cat. Predictable movements from standard oratorios or cantatas include ‘Jesu, joy of man’s desiring’, ‘How lovely is thy dwelling place’, ‘For unto us a child is born’, ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘The heavens are telling the glory of God’. There are pieces in the larger-scale anthem repertoire: Elgar’s ‘The Spirit of the Lord’ from The Apostles, Handel’s ‘Let their celestial concerts all unite’ from Samson, Haydn’s ‘The heavens are telling the glory of God’ from The Creation, Haydn’s Insanae et vanae curae, Handel’s Zadok the priest and Parry’s I was glad. It must have been diffi cult to choose which movement or movements to include from multi-movement works where we have ‘Gratias agimus tibi’ from Bach’s B minor Mass, Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem, nothing from Elijah but Mendelssohn represented by ‘Daughters of Zion’ from Christus. There are two choral arrangements of pieces for solo voice (Beethoven’s Creation’s Hymn and Lili Boulanger’s Pie Jesu) plus the substantially solo voice ‘Laudate Dominum’ from Mozart’s K339 Solemn Vespers. Unexpected items include the Lili Boulanger already mentioned, a movement from J.S. Bach’s Ascension Oratorio, César Franck’s setting of Psalm 150 and the Kyrie eleison from Satie’s Messe des pauvres. All are freshly edited from original sources and many have new English singing translations. With 380 pages and strong sewn binding the volume is excellent value for money. Then there is the question of accompaniments. Twenty-nine of the pieces have orchestral accompaniments available on hire. Parry’s Jerusalem comes with three: Parry’s original orchestration, Elgar’s large orchestration and Rutter’s reduced version of the Elgar. Rather than compromise in the keyboard accompaniments, those in the vocal score are for piano and for rehearsal, while, and this is wonderful for organists, an accompanying, large, wiro-bound organ volume provides three-stave organ accompaniments for all except four of the pieces. Overall, the selection and presentation is at least as much for church and cathedral use as for secular choirs. Stephen Patterson
MIXED VOICE ANTHEMS UBI CARITAS ET AMOR [M/D] Kim André Arnesen
SATB with divisions
Boosey & Hawkes BH 13412 £2.75 Arnesen has made a name for himself in his native Norway and is now becoming widely performed in the USA. This piece was commissioned by the American Athens Master Chorale. Arnesen sets the well-known text, in Latin, with a composer’s note explaining that ‘caritas’ means not just charity, but ‘honesty, heartfeltness, dearness and tolerance’. Heartfelt is an adjective that can be applied to music that builds to a huge double climax on ‘et ex corde’ before the initial beautiful and memorable
‘Ubi caritas’ motif returns.
COLLECT FOR THE BIRTH
OF JOHN THE BAPTIST [M] Thea Musgrave
SATB and optional organ
Novello NOV296901 £2.25
This year the birth of John the Baptist (24 June) falls on a Monday and, although a piece for a specific occasion, this setting of Cranmer’s collect is therefore perfect for the previous Sunday BCP evensong.
It is a delightful setting, often alluding to 16th or 17th-century counterpoint (although not, as
far as I can see, actually quoting Gibbons’s John the Baptist anthem). Musgrave wrote it in her 90th birthday year, with a freshness and enjoyment of every word,
not least ‘boldly rebuke vice, patiently suffer for truth’s sake’.
PHOS HILARON [M]
Owain Park
SATB with divisions,
solo voice and semi-chorus Novello NOV297374 £3.50
The Phos Hilaron is often sung in John Keble’s translation,
‘Hail, gladdening light, of his pure glory poured’. Owain Park sets those English words, using the traditional chant above sustained, hummed chords – and that two-minute section of the work may be performed alone and is highly effective in itself. But then, in the complete version, there is a dramatic outburst of St Symeon’s Mystic Prayer to the Holy Spirit for full choir alternating with semi-chorus singing verses from Psalm 141, ‘Let my prayer rise before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.’ The juxtaposition of the different words and musical forces is powerful.
BREAD OF THE WORLD IN MERCY BROKEN [E/M]
Peter Tranchell
arr. Geoffrey Webber
Unison or SATB and organ Church Music Society CMS O47 Peter Tranchell (1922–93) was a prolific composer throughout his life, but after the early 50s offered almost nothing for publication,
so his music is now little known. Geoffrey Webber, his successor
as Precentor at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, has taken Tranchell’s unison voice setting
(written in 1970 for performance in college chapel) and arranged it for SATB – both versions are given in this publication. The striking chromaticism of the organ part in the unison version (especially on ‘our sins are dead’) is skilfully incorporated in the SATB in a way that makes vocal sense. The choir is supported throughout by the original organ part so that it is nothing like as tricky as it would be otherwise. It is a useful and original communion motet.
James L. Montgomery
SERVICE MUSIC
THE FIFTH SERVICE
(MAGNIFICAT AND NUNC DIMITTIS) [M/D]
Matthew Martin
SATB and organ
Novello 297033 £2.75 MAGNIFICAT AND NUNC DIMITTIS [M]
Rachel Portman
SATB and organ
Chester SRO100172 £2.99 Matthew Martin’s Fifth Service sets the evening canticles with contrasts of dynamics, tempo
and general mood – the reflective opening of the Magnificat is dispelled by a wild ‘He hath shewed strength with his arm’. The Nunc dimittis is an unhurried ‘quasi recit.’ before sharing the Magnificat’s Gloria. Best known as a distinguished composer of scores for TV and film, including The Duchess, Emma (which won her an Academy award) and Chocolat, Rachel Portman wrote her Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis back in 1986. It has now been published for the first time. Apart perhaps from a rather conventional Gloria, the music has an attractive freshness and ‘unchurchiness’, with phrases that have an easy flow and that stick in the mind.
REQUIEM IN D MINOR
WAB 39 [M/D]
Anton Bruckner
SATB choir with divisions,
SATB soli, organ or orchestra Carus Verlag 27.320/03 (vocal score) €17.50
Choirs that sing the Fauré and Mozart Requiems liturgically or in concert could well consider Bruckner’s early Requiem setting.Bruckner (1824–96) was 24 when he wrote it, with the shadow of Mozart apparent in several places, not least the D minor opening. Old-fashioned and with figured bass throughout, it shows Bruckner at his most sincere and restrained, with straightforward choral writing and a small orchestra of strings and trombones (the keyboard reduction can transfer to organ as easily as Mozart or Fauré). There is a variety of texture with different movements for four and five-part choir, soloists and choir, four-part male choir, and SATB a cappella. Carus have also published full score and orchestral parts.
Stephen Patterson
MISSA BREVIS [M/D]
Thea Musgrave
SATB choir, SATB soli and organ Novello NOV296901 £4.99
This compressed (12 minute) setting is a major addition to
the repertoire. It is music of affirmation, with Kyrie and Agnus Dei as well as Gloria ending on triumphant major chords, as does the Sanctus apart from a final bar of link into the Benedictus. The aural and dramatic possibilities of performance spaces have often featured in Musgrave’s music and both Sanctus and Benedictus feature solos ‘in place’, ‘in the near distance’ and ‘further in the distance’. It feels as though written for a resonant acoustic, with sustained chords (‘stagger breathing’) and fast-moving organ cluster effects. Commissioned by Wells Cathedral, it and the John the Baptist Collect reviewed above were first performed on the same day in Wells Cathedral shortly after the composer’s 90th birthday. James L. Montgomery
ORGAN MUSIC
Key
E Easy
M Medium
D Difficult
MANUALS ONLY (OR WITH EASY PEDALS)
TWO CONCERTOS (M)
William Herschel
arr. David Baker and Christopher Bagot
Fitzjohn Music Publications £12.00 After editing all the pieces that William Herschel (1738–1822) left in manuscript, David Baker and Christopher Bagot have arranged these two concerti – in G and D respectively – from the autograph orchestral parts and solo organ scores. Each is in three movements, Allegro–Andante–Allegro, all through-composed.
The editorial additions in small print require facility in runs in thirds and sixths, with other passages needing nimble fingers and occasionally pedals if the editorial suggestions are followed. Two manuals are necessary, with some rapid stop changes. Appendixes suggest a cadenza for bar 88 of the second movement of Concerto 2, and a further Andante movement that could be a substitute for either of the original slow movements, particularly for the curious, rather long movement of the G major concerto with its massive chords that pose particular performance problems. The printing is clear and the introduction provides excellent advice on performance; it should be read carefully. Lacking the immediate playability of the solo organ pieces and of other organ concerti of the period, these two concertos are likely to be of greater interest and use to completists.
John Collins
SAMMLUNG VON VOR- UND NACHSPIELEN OP. 129 [M] Johann Rinck
Edition Dohr (Universal Edition) 11388 £49.50
‘Collection of preludes and postludes for the organ, for use
in public worship’ is a translation of the full title of this large volume. Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck
(1770–1846) was a pupil of Kittel who was a pupil of J.S. Bach, so this is music with a distinguished pedigree. All the pieces are on two staves with easy pedal parts. The first two parts of the collection contain 123 preludes categorized in each part as ‘smaller’ and ‘larger’, with a third part containing 24 postludes. The music shows an interesting mixture of baroque, classical and early romantic traits – and is not just practical teaching material but also, especially in the more substantial postludes,
a useful source of repertoire. The music is presented clearly, in a large landscape format, strongly bound and with informative editorial notes.
Duncan Watkins
VOLUNTARIES
TWO IMPROMPTUS [M] Sydney H. Nicholson
ed. David Patrick
Fitzjohn Music Publications £7.00 Sydney Nicholson (1875–1947), founder of the School of English Church Music, now the RSCM, is known for his Communion Service in G and his hymn tunes (notably Crucifer for ‘Lift high the cross’ but also Bow Brickhill and Chislehurst). He also wrote a small number of organ pieces of which these two Impromptus, dating from 1907, were originally published by Stainer and Bell. They deserve their reissue by David Patrick, especially the second that has charm and poise and could have a useful place as a voluntary or in a recital. Julian Elloway
SEVEN ORGAN PIECES
N THE FORM OF CHORALE PRELUDES [M]
Johann Kreuzpointner
Doblinger 02 512 €16.95
Johann Simon Kreutzpointner is organist of the Lazaristenkirche in Vienna, where he has access to a fine and large late-romantic instrument by Mauracher and Kauffmann. Although the movements of this excellent collection (designed as a liturgical resource to complement the publication in 2013 of the new Catholic hymnal Gotteslob) have relatively modest technical demands, an ear for orchestral colour and good command of registration are needed to allow the music to sing clearly. Harmonies are satisfyingly crunchy, and each movement has a pleasing drive and direction – this music would appeal to any organist looking for exciting but liturgically useful post-modern repertoire.
TRIPTYCHON-ORGANUM OP. 15 [M/D]
Thierry Mechler
Dr J. Butz 2906 €10.00
The Alsatian composer Thierry Mechler is noted as a fine improviser, a skill that shows in this powerful triptych, dedicated to Marie-Claire Alain. The movements – Offertorium, Communio, Postludium – are meditations on texts by the German theologian Drutmar Cremer (b. 1930). Each is built of a mosaic of highly rhetorical gestures; sinuous melodic fragments (many originating in plainsong) alternate with dramatic tutti chords. Harmonies are richly coloured and a wide registration palette
is encouraged. An excellent set. Huw Morgan
WAR AND PEACE
GRANT US PEACE [M]
Robert Jones
Butz Verlag BU2892 €12.00
The impetus for this collection was four pieces written to mark the centenary of the end of World War I, by a British composer at the invitation of a German organist. The project expanded to comprise eight pieces published in this dual-language edition. There are preludes on St Anne (‘O God, our help in ages past’), Ellers (‘Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise’ including the verse starting ‘Grant us thy peace throughout our earthly life’), the plainchant tune for Ubi caritas, the Welsh hymn tune Rhys and an opening ‘Solemn Processional’: useful pieces for Remembrance and for funerals. But all is not quiet introspection: the ‘Solemn Processional’ is big and powerful and St Anne starts forte and builds to a massive ending, while a scherzo-like piece is written as if for a musical clock. Duncan Watkins
IMAGES [M]
Owain Park
Novello NOV167431 £6.99
Owain Park may have a career still in its infancy, but has shown prodigious promise as performer and composer. This short work from 2015 is part of a growing clutch of idiomatic works for organ. Subtitled ‘Images of war and beauty in conversation over time’, it draws inspiration from Walt Whitman’s Reconciliation, a passage beautifully set by Ralph Vaughan Williams in Dona Nobis Pacem. The music is a dialogue between a triadic fanfare gesture and a darker, more sustained music – there is much scope for colour. This would make a fine recital work. Huw Morgan
NEUE BACH AUSGABE ORGAN WORKS VOLUME 1 Johann Sebastian Bach Bärenreiter BA 5261 £23.50 ORGAN WORKS VOLUME 9 Johann Sebastian Bach Bärenreiter BA 5269 £22.50 Bärenreiter continue to issue revised editions of the original NBA volumes, newly engraved and incorporating the findings of the latest Bach scholarship. The first volume contains the Orgelbüchlein, the six Schübler chorale preludes and four chorale partitas, and thus has 56 of the most frequently performed of Bach’s organ pieces. For players with previous editions, although it is nice to have the small number of changes to ornaments and articulation, for example as
a result of the identification of amendments to a printed copy
of the Schübler chorales as being in Bach’s handwriting, these are infrequent. The introductory material has been rewritten by Christine Blanken and the account of the writing of the pieces and the survival of their sources is readable and relevant to an understanding of the music. The ninth volume contains the so-called Neumeister chorales, only identified in 1985 and therefore not in many of our original Bach collections. The 38 pieces cover a wide range of styles and show the versatility and indeed precociousness of the young composer. They are often recommended in the RSCM’s Sunday by Sunday choices, and any player without them should buy this volume. As with Volume 1, the forward has been rewritten, this time by Christoph Wolff with
more information about the Neumeister collection.
Duncan Watkins
LOTHAR GRAAP VARIATIONS FOR ORGAN ON SORBIAN FOLK TUNES [M] Edition Dohr 12607 (Universal Edition) £14.50
NIGHT AND DAY [E/M]
Edition Dohr 18912 (Universal Edition) £6.95
SONATA CHORALIS [M] Edition Dohr 18913 (Universal Edition) £9.95
CONCERTINO IN A MINOR FOR SMALL ORGAN [M/D]
Edition Dohr 17653 (Universal Edition) £9.95
KALEIDOSCOPE: SOUNDSCAPES FOR ORGAN [E/M]
Edition Dohr 12607 (Universal Edition) £7.50
Lothar Graap has had a distinguished career as church musician, teacher and composer, with over 75 compositions listed in the publisher’s catalogue. Variations for Organ are based on folk tunes from Sorbia (a region that spans parts of modern-day Germany and Poland), written to celebrate three new organs built in that area. Night and day is subtitled ‘Two Meditations’: the first is without barlines, mostly calm and gentle, and has
a compline feel with the heading ‘… protect us now during this night’. The second, ‘We greet you, dear day’, is assertive and fanfare-like. Sonata Choralis, commissioned by Carson Cooman, has four chorale-based movements that could be played separately or together as a sonata. The third
is loosely based on Vulpius and
the fourth on Nun danket. The three-movement Concertino was written for single-manual, eight-stop instrument and is, for this reviewer, the most attractive of the pieces under review – the composer correctly describes it
as ‘spielfreudig’, i.e. fun to play. Kaleidoscope exploits the sustaining ability of the organ as single, held notes generate complex chords and patterns, the ‘soundscapes’
of the subtitle.
Duncan Watkins