This series loomed larger in my formation than perhaps I realized, and I recently delved back into this catalog for the first time in many years. In retrospect, this series served both as inspiration for a career in Anglican choral music and a kind of “bucket list.” I have made note of those pieces that I have yet to perform.
The English Anthem, Volume 1
Short Anthems
HADLEY My beloved spake WOOD Hail, gladdening Light
Standard-length Anthems
BAIRSTOW Let all mortal flesh keep silence FINZI God is gone up GARDINER Evening Hymn IRELAND Greater love hath no man STAINER I saw the Lord STANFORD Beati quorum via
Long Anthems
BAIRSTOW Blessed city, heavenly Salem NAYLOR Vox dicentis: Clama WESLEY Blessed be the God and Father
The English Anthem, as this first album is called, was released without a “Volume 1” designation, continuation of this series perhaps not yet being conceived.
The long, sinuous lines of Balfour Gardiner’s Evening Hymn are also right at home here, with the additive sounds bubbling at a slower simmer.
Much of the music here happens at its own unhurried pace. It’s never unmusical, but one is always aware of the effects of the ample reverberation of St. Paul’s. In places, this reverb time is used to tremendous effect. At the opening of Naylor’s “Vox dicentis,” Scott dovetails the second entrance perfectly with the slow diminishing of the previous fortissimo chord at the back of the nave.
Aspirations
Of the works I’ve never performed (Bairstow, Hadley, Stainer, Naylor):
- Bairstow tops the list. I feel like I know this piece so well that I must have done it at some point in the past, but I can’t recall an occasion when I have.
- Stainer's “I saw the Lord” still lurks around in my planning notes for Trinity Sunday. It might surface one of these days.
- Naylor: I thought about this one recently, but it didn’t make the cut. Without a favorable acoustic, this is probably not as effective.
- Hadley: this one doesn’t do it for me. Your mileage may vary.
Labels: Bairstow, Balfour Gardiner, Charles Wood, Finzi, Hadley, John Ireland, John Scott, Naylor, St Paul's (London), Stainer, Stanford, The English Anthem series (Hyperion), Wesley
It's time again for an annual podcast on the music at the Lenten Preaching Services at St. Paul's Church. The first episode is ready:
The feed for this podcast is http://feeds.feedburner.com/MusicAtStPaulsChurchRichmondVirginia
And we should be up and running on iTunes shortly.
Labels: church music, Lent, organ music, Stainer
We at St. Paul's, Richmond (and miraculously, by the grace of God, the good folks at St. James's just up the street and St. Stephen's on the West End) are preparing for a large-scale collaborative performance of The Crucifixion: A Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer. Our concert is Friday, February 24 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul's.
And until then, it's time to study up on this much-maligned work, underestimated composer, and the musical milieu that surrounded it all.
In particular, I found myself wondering: what were victorian hymn registrations like?
And so, down the rabbit hole we go.
One resource that emerged fairly quickly was Ian Bradley's Abide With Me: The World of Victorian Hymns, and while I haven't yet digested the entire book, I don't think it's going to give specific registration instructions.
But Bradley has clearly done a lot of thinking about the era, and he helps set the scene. Hymn singing in the Church of England, he reminds us, was a new phenomenon, being first sanctioned only in the 1820s, and taking many years to make a dent in the stranglehold that the Old Version (Sternhold & Hopkins) or the New Version (Tate & Brady) of the Psalter had on congregational music in Anglican worship. Hymns Ancient and Modern, the quintessential Victorian hymnbook was first published in 1861.
And while congregations were familiar with singing metrical psalms, these were "lined out" by the parish clerk (congregation listening first to the clerk, then repeating a phrase at a time), not accompanied by an organ. And then there was that amusing "West Gallery music" phenomenon in parish churches. It also took many years for the organ and choir arrangement that we now take for granted to trickle down from cathedrals to parish churches.
So Stainer's five hymns contained in The Crucifixion, written in 1887, are fascinating in light of this dynamic period of hymn proliferation in the church, and the brand new organ and choir arrangement encouraged by the Oxford Movement.
So how to register them? Well, one resource doesn't give precise answers to that question, but we certainly get reminders that things were a little different back then.
Stainer, who was organist at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, had a great colleague in J. Frederick Bridge, Organist of Westminster Abbey. His Organ Accompaniment of the Choral Service was written in 1885, just two years before the premiere of Stainer's Crucifixion.
And Bridge's work is edited by none other than "Dr. Stainer" himself.
Bridge gives his thoughts on nearly every aspect of service playing, including some stern rebukes on what must have been prevailing customs of some other church musicians (rolling chords before beginning hymns, word-painting).
Also notable, he recommends a specific number of beats between stanzas of a hymn "to preserve the rhythm" -- believing that the meter and major metrical accents should be preserved over the breath.
Another interesting comment:
Except in special cases––as, for instance, at the words, "Now above the sky He's King," in the well-known Easter hymn, "Jesus Christ is risen to-day," where a moderate rallentando is very effective––no rallentando should be made in playing the verses of a hymn, other than that naturally called for at the last verse just before the "Amen."p. 20
I direct you to the beginning of the discussion of hymns on page 18,
The quasquicentennial (125th) of John Stainer's marvelous oratorio The Crucifixion: A Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer will be Friday, February 24, 2012.
This anniversary is full of liturgical connotations. Firstly, Friday is the ideal day to sing about the crucifixion of Jesus, quasquicentennial or not. The work was originally premiered on the Thursday after Ash Wednesday in 1887. Fittingly, Feb. 24, 2012 is the Friday after Ash Wednesday.
You are fully encouraged to join me in this Victorian musical/liturgical commemoration.
Or, in the (altered) words of the Prayer Book:
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the John Stainer, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and recitative; by prayer, fasting, and organ accompaniment; and by reading and meditating on W. J. Sparrow Simpson's words. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer, and sing The Crucifixion.
Labels: Stainer
Google Books has the Westminster Abbey Chant Book published in 1894.
A number of triple chants are included.
Here's one by Stainer that is printed first in minor then major:
Labels: Anglican chant, Stainer, Westminster Abbey
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