English anthems straddling 1600 offer rich and satisfying concert from voices and viols

‘This is the Record of John’
English Verse Anthems for voices and viols
Music by William Byrd, Peter Philips, Thomas Campion, Thomas Tomkins, John Amner, Orlando Gibbons, John Ward

Baroque Voices (leader: Pepe Becker; and Anna Sedcole, Katherine Hodge, Jeffrey Chang, Phillip Collins, David Houston)
Palliser Viols (leader: Robert Oliver; and Lisa Beech, Sophia Acheson, Jane Brown, Sue Alexander, Kevin Wilkinson)
Douglas Mews (harpsichord)

St Andrew’s on The Terrace

Sunday 29 May, 7:30 pm

Verse anthems are the English equivalents of the Latin or French motet or Lutheran cantata.

They were not just an early music genre, but continued to be composed till modern times. The Bach Choir recently sang an English verse anthem, in Parry’s Hear my Words, Ye People. In Tudor times they were particularly prolific. All of the anthems and harpsichord pieces in this concert came from the Elizabethan and Stuart periods, though Tomkins survived into the time of Cromwell’s Protestant Commonwealth.

The concert began with compositions of a couple of less familiar composers whose music has barely escaped disappearance: John Ward and John Amner. Each opened with the gorgeous sound of the viol ensemble of two trebles, three tenors and Robert Oliver himself on the bass viol, followed by the entry of voices, their numbers varying between five and six. Both pieces could have been written by the same composer; perhaps designed for singing by amateurs, to create a cheerful, harmonious atmosphere in a salon where cultivated people could enjoy themselves. Some of the pieces could have been as part of the church liturgy.

One can imagine different settings for the various pieces presented, according to the subject, whether distinctly religious or not. If not for liturgical purpose, did listeners have to be silent during the performance? Did they clap after each piece ended?

Ward’s piece was slow and meditative and apparently not drawn from a Biblical source while Amner used words from a Psalm, I am for peace. Robert Oliver’s programme note provided interesting background to the likely settings and purposes of anthems over the years.

The concert was punctuated by three non-vocal pieces. The first of them, Passamezzo Pavan à 6, was by Peter Philips, for viols; it was more spirited than the preceding vocal pieces. Another anthem, probably by Ward, followed: Mount up my Soul, where the tenor had a prominent part. A further piece by Ward came after the interval: How long wilt thou forgive me, set at a steady tempo to charmingly fluent music, for the usual two sopranos and one each of the other three voices.

There was a set of three pieces by Thomas Campion, songs to his own words (he was an admired poet as well as composer), rather than anthems, though the first two had religious subjects, of a kind: Never the weather-beaten sail and Author of Light. One had to admit that the words were strikingly more poetic, imaginative and picturesque than one finds in 99% of routine Protestant hymns. The third song, Jack and Joan, was clearly for two single voices, Pepe Becker and Philip Collins (I assume), and displaying much more of a popular, folk song spirit.

The first of two anthems by Orlando Gibbons supplied the title given to the concert: ‘This is the record of John’. The notes did not reveal the source of the words; they presumably refer to John the Baptist. Though I am no Biblical scholar, the reference to the voice crying in the wilderness is from either Isaiah or John’s gospel; in the latter: “John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet: ‘I am a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.'”. Thus it was probably intended for church use. Here, I had thought more could have been made of its narrative character, enlivening the direct speech quotations by a pause and change of tone between question and answer.

Gibbons’s second item was See, See the World Incarnate. Its musical character indeed supported Oliver’s rating it as a masterpiece; the alto’s voice was very distinct and the several vocal lines interwove engagingly. Although the musical invention continually held my attention, I was struck by what I felt was an odd, even inappropriate, relationship sometimes between the words and the music to which they were set, as if Gibbons was pursuing a musical idea regardless of the words’ meaning.

Thomas Tomkins was a near contemporary of Campion. His verse anthem, ‘Above the stars my savior dwells’, is a charmingly simple text, though richly set with soprano and tenor prominent through most of it, and employing a second tenor voice in the last couplet.

It was preceded by a Pavan and galliard à 6 by Tomkins, which, I might note here included all six viols plus the harpsichord of Douglas Mews, whose unobtrusive, carefully idiomatic playing was probably more important than that of any one of the viols. The pavan is a stately dance, the galliard somewhat quicker, and here was an opportunity to hear the generally impressive skills of each player.

The third instrumental piece was an organ Fantasy by Byrd which Mews played on the chamber organ. Though it began with only a pure flute stop, it became more complex in terms of registrations, harmony and canonical devices, ornaments and flamboyant scalic flourishes through its considerable length.

Finally, voices and viols joined for Byrd’s Christ is rising again – Christ is risen. But unfortunately, I had great difficulty in facing the need to leave before it, to catch a train, or have an hour’s wait for the next. It was especially painful in the light of the notes’ description of it as a “magnificent pair of verse anthems …a superb example of Byrd’s transcendent and unexcelled art”.

This was a most satisfying concert, confined, to be sure, to just one genre and one national school during hardly more than a half century, but bearing such evidence of the richness of English music, not to be seen again (apart from the momentary brilliance of Purcell) till the 20th century.

 

Youth Choir farewell concert before tour to Europe and a competition in Czech Republic

Farewell Concert
New Zealand Youth Choir, conducted by David Squire

Sacred Heart Cathedral, Hill Street

Sunday, 29 May 2016, 3pm

The choir is shortly to depart on an overseas tour, mainly in Europe and the United Kingdom, and including a choral competition in the Czech Republic. This was one of two farewell concerts; the other is to be in Auckland on 26 June.

There were plenty of people to wish the choir well on its travels – virtually a capacity audience. The concert began with the choir slowly processing into the cathedral singing plainchant that was a combination of Latin and Maori: ‘Te lucis ante terminum’ plus a karanga. It was very unusual but effective. The voices were resonant and the choir’s enunciation was superb, though it was difficult to hear words because of the mixture of languages.

The choir continued in Maori with the action song ‘Te iwi e’ by the Wehi whanau. It was exciting, words and actions utterly precise, most enthusiastically performed and received. The programme items were introduced by Morag Atchison, vocal consultant to the choir which sang the entire repertoire without music scores.

We then reverted to the Latin, in a 1613 antiphon by Peter Phillips (or Philips) ‘Ecce vicit leo’. Part of the choir sang from the gallery, the remainder from the front of the church. Despite this physical distance, the choir’s timing was perfect, and the effect splendid. Felix Mendelssohn wrote much music with Christian texts; here we had ‘Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe’, a Youth Choir favourite. It made a rich sound, and there was great attention to correct pronunciation of the German language, which could be heard to good effect in this building (compared with some others). However, I did not find the soloists (from the choir) pleasing in tone or voice production; it seemed that they were forcing their voices at times.

New Zealand’s premier choral composer, David Hamilton (a former choir member) was represented by his recent composition ‘Angele Dei’. The choir was distributed on three sides of the cathedral. The musical setting was gorgeous. The basses were near my seat, and sang vibrant low pianissimo notes – spine-tingling. Although the blend of the choir was impressive, this is not a white sound; the voices have tone, movement and variety of quality. Attacks and cut-offs were immaculate throughout the concert, as was intonation; all items except one were unaccompanied. All the features of a fine choir were here, yet these singers rehearse together for only a few weeks each year.

Of the 49 singers, many are still students, while others work in a variety of occupations. The traditional regional roll-call found that the largest number from a single location were Wellingtonians (either residents or at university here).

We moved back in time again, to Peter Cornelius’s ‘Chorgesänge’. The nineteenth-century composer’s piece featured solo tenor Manase Latu. What a fine voice he has! The choir, for its part, was in utter unanimity in its dynamic variations and all produced a good forward tone. A feature of their singing in a number of items was the singing of resonant, sustained letters n, m, and l at the ends of words.

A work by Tuirina Wehi, arranged by Robert Wiremu followed. This was a major composition, commemorating the battle in what was known as Te Kooti’s war: ‘Waerenga-a-Hika’ It was sung in English and Maori, representing opposing forces of the 1865 battle. Natasha Wilson was soloist; she has a strong but musical voice, and can produce all the subtleties of Maori vocal style. It was not possible to pick up all the English words because they were overlaid with Maori ones, but the effect was dramatic. The textures became very thick, in a satisfying way. It was an amazing performance; all the more so because the choir was at the front of the church, while conductor David Squire stood towards the back.

After the interval, Vaughan Williams: ‘Full fathom five’, ‘The cloud-capp’d towers’, and ‘Over hill, over dale’, which the choir sang previously in Wellington during the 2014 New Zealand Festival, were performed. Vaughan Williams’s mellifluous writing was enhanced by the subtlety of the choir’s performance and the ‘ding dong’ bells in the first song were very resonant. The second song is one I simply love – the pianissimo harmonies are so luscious; it was sung to excellent effect. Contrasting with that, ‘Over hill, over dale’ sparkled.

Something I noticed about this concert compared with orchestral concerts – and it may be partly because there are words to listen to – was that the audience was more attentive. Coughing was very rare. Another important factor in this concert was the pleasant, involved facial expressions of the choir members– not overdone, but unlike those of some choirs I have heard, whose members look absent, as if they would rather be somewhere else.

Matthew Harris is a contemporary American composer. His setting of ‘O mistress mine’ was charming, while Canadian R. Murray Schafer’s ‘Epitaph for Moonlight’, with words by a group of 12-year-olds, had a number of aural effects of various kinds. The choir was spread around the church again, this time on all four sides. The opening humming by the women was in descending tones and semi-tones. The sustaining of quiet tones was remarkable. Some of the louder singing became rather shrill, if they were right behind one!

New Zealand composer Sarah McCallum (a former member of the choir) was the composer of the next song, ‘The moon’s glow once lit”. It began with women humming, then moving to words in harmony. The men join in, this time unusually on the right with the women on the left. It is a thoughtful song, with interesting harmonies and piquant, affecting melodies. It portrayed well an atmosphere of night-time under the moon’s glow.

Eric Whitacre is a prolific and successful American choral composer. His ‘Little man in a hurry’ was an amusing perpetuum mobile choral song with an equally busy and lively piano accompaniment, played by Dean Sky-Lucas.

The final item was a traditional spiritual ‘This little light of mine’, arranged by Moses Hogan, and sung with good Afro-American style and pronunciation. Soprano Natasha Wilson was again the soloist, strong, but beautiful. The arrangement was quite fantastical, and made a rousing end to the concert. An enthusiastic standing ovation from the audience led inevitably to an encore: a bluesy American song, ‘The nearness of you’, beginning ‘It’s not the pale moon that excites me’, by Norah Jones.

Good programming of great music, superb control, discipline and skill of conductor and choir added up to a memorable night’s experience. Go well in Europe, New Zealand Youth Choir!