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
If you're looking of canticles in the key of E for Evensong, here are some suggestions:
1. Herbert Murrill: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in E
A solid, straightforward setting in which the organ ducks and weaves in and out of the choral texture. This one probably doesn't get enough respect.
Here's the Magnificat:
2. S. S. Wesley: Evening Canticles in E
A grandiose (long!) service, but with every ounce of Wesleyan refinement.
3. Pelham Humfrey: Evening Service in E minor
Humphrey (1647-1674) died at age 27, but not before leaving us this gorgeous verse service.
(A popular performing edition has this piece in F minor, but Humfrey wrote it in E so we include it here.)
4. Sydney Watson: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in E
Watson was the conductor of the first performance of William Walton's The Twelve. Here's his contribution to the genre in this key: a quick, well-crafted, no nonsense setting. The Gloria is particularly arresting.
Watson in E - St. John's, Cambridge
5. Leo Sowerby: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in E minor
And of course this list wouldn't be complete without the most famous American setting of the evening canticles in this key.
The Magnificat is wonderful, of course, but the Nunc dimittis is particularly expansive, as only Sowerby write. And, wait a minute, wasn't the Magnificat in minor? What key is this in?
Labels: canticles, Evensong, Humfrey, Murrill, Sowerby, Watson, Wesley
Eastertide: a season for singing
Easter is a time for singing. On this day we shout “Alleluia!” and sing “Jesus Christ is risen today.” The season that follows (the “tide” in Eastertide) flows out of our most holy feast day and gives deep meaning to our worship together.
It is highly appropriate that we sing together in worship as Christians, even though we do surprisingly little singing in our daily lives in 21st century America. Even the baseball game, the basketball game, and the NASCAR race, which have long been bastions of “secular congregational song,” have fairly recently been taken over by that amplified American idolatry of the microphone.
[A notable, recent exception:]
The services in our church may in fact be the only place that you regularly sing in your life. And I want to tell you that even if it’s the only place you sing, it’s okay to sing in church – it always has been, and it always will be.
Consider the words of John Wesley, writing in a hymnal from 1761: “Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.”
Consider the anecdote of young American composer Charles Ives, who as a boy complained to his father about the off-key hymn singing of the town blacksmith. His father said, “Don’t listen to the notes, or you might miss the music.”
St. Augustine proclaimed that he or she who sings, “prays twice,” and there is no place where we should be more free to pray and sing than in our church.
Even if you really think you can’t sing, please follow along in the hymnal, and allow yourself the opportunity to try. At the very least, you may find richness in the words of the hymns and songs of our faith that you did not expect.
The joy of singing in community is that we all sing together: those of us who have sung for years, and those of us who are learning the songs for the first time; those of us who enjoy the sound of our own voices, and those of us who would prefer that others not hear us. In community, all voices are heard as one, and all rely on one another. We are all free to join the rising tide – the Eastertide – of song.
Not only that, but we join our voices with those whose voices we cannot hear: the saints who have gone before us, and the angels who perpetually sing around God’s heavenly throne.
It may seem odd to speak of taking up your cross in Eastertide, but the empty cross proclaims Jesus’ resurrection. I would emphasize Wesley’s words: if singing is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing. Don’t let yourself miss the music for the notes.
You will find singing a blessing, and the church will find your singing a blessing, as we bless God together.
Excepting the embedded YouTube video, this article is reprinted from the Epistle, the newsletter of St. Paul's, Richmond.
Labels: Charles Ives, Easter, hymns, liturgy, singing, Wesley
The BBC broadcast of Evensong this week is from the Eddington Festival of Music within the Liturgy.
Grant proposal: If anyone reading this has some money to give me, I'd love to blog from the festival next year.
Don't miss the this service which includes Stanford's double-choir Latin setting of the Magnificat (it's an interesting combination of Bach-motet-style and "I've been workin on' the railroad") and the festival commission: "Most glorious Lord of Lyfe" by Francis Jackson. Jackson celebrates his 92nd birthday in October.
Last year's commission was a setting of the Lord's Prayer by Nico Muhly.
There are a couple of great chants by Wesley.
The priory church is also home to the first performance of the "Eddington Service" of Grayston Ives. It was originally accompanied on the smallish organ heard on this broadcast.
Labels: church music, Francis Jackson, liturgy, Nico Muhly, Stanford, Wesley
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