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| Handel Purcell Britten |
The King shall rejoice Come ye sons of art A ceremony of carols |
Brighton
Orpheus Choir Katherine Manley (soprano) conducted by Stella Hull |
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| with Helen Arnold (harp) and more music for Christmas |
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 George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759) |
Coronation Anthem – The King Shall
Rejoice Handel had already spent some time as a performer in Italy before he became Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, and then, just ahead of his master, he came to London. The Elector became George I, and one of his last royal acts before his death in 1727 was to sign "An Act for the naturalising of George Frideric Handel and others." The crowning of King George II and Queen Caroline followed in October the same year, and Handel was commissioned to write music for their coronation. He provided four anthems, and these are the Coronation Anthems. The King Shall Rejoice uses a text from Psalm 21 and Handel sets each of the four sentences and the final Allelujah as separate musical sections. It opens with festive pomp and glittering fanfares with the full strength of the choir and orchestra. The second movement features playful exchanges between the higher and lower string sections. The choir joins with the phrase "exceeding glad". and then enjoys long chains of suspensions on of thy salvation. In the third and fourth movements Handel builds the excitement by adding instruments –strings, then oboes and finally trumpets and drums. The final movement is an exuberant double fugue leading to a magnificent and elaborate conclusion. This was performed at the actual crowning, matching the occasion perfectly. |
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| Come ye sons of art Possibly more than any other baroque composer, Henry Purcell had to react to and reflect the politics and political history of his time. In 1649 the struggle between Parliament and the Monarchy for supremacy had come to a head, resulting in the public execution of King Charles I. Cromwell's military republic and near-dictatorship followed for ten years. Purcell was born in 1659, the year before the restoration of both parliament and the monarchy of Charles II. With the Restoration and renewal of musical activities both in and out of Court, music flourished again, and Purcell too flourished in this period. He was the son of a Court musician, a chorister in the Chapel Royal, and the holder of ongoing royal appointments until his death. Over twenty-five years Purcell worked in Westminster for three different Kings. Starting in 1689 and reflecting England's love of their Queen Mary, Purcell had written a birthday ode for her each year. Come Ye Sons of Art, is one of the most beautiful examples of Purcell at his most mature. It was first performed on 30 April 1694, and it was the greatest and the last of the series. The following year it was funeral music that Purcell composed for the Queen, and soon after Purcell himself died at the age of only 36. |
 Henry Purcell (1659-1695) |
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 Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) |
A Ceremony of Carols After three very successful years in America, in March 1942 Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears boarded a Swedish cargo vessel the Axel Johnson for their return to Britain. It was a long and boring journey that took nearly a month, always with the threat that U-boat activity was then at its height. Before leaving, Britten had started the Hymn to St. Cecilia and a piece for Benny Goodman. He intended to finish these on board ship, but customs officials confiscated the manuscripts on the doubtful proposition that they could be a secret code! During the voyage they stopped at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Britten came across a book of mediaeval poems, and during the voyage it was some of these that he set as A Ceremony of Carols. The setting was originally for boys choir and harp. Britten had in fact always been intending to write a harp concerto, so had been studying the instrument. A Ceremony of Carols opens and ends with a procession to the plainsong Hodie Christus natus est. The first song Wolcum Yule welcomes the birth of the heavenly king. Short and contrasting settings of the mediaeval poems follow, varying from Balulalow - Mary's lullaby for the infant Jesus - to the vigorous scamper of This little babe, promising that Christ has come "to rifle Satan's fold - all hell doth at his presence quake". An interlude for solo harp leads into a second half with the babe first in a freezing winter night, then a Spring Carol of awakening leading to the final excited song Deo gracias which reconciles the fall of Adam - "if he had not taken the apple there would have been no need for Our Lady to be the heavenly Queen". |
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Some CD recordings of these works
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