Advent 2012
The child who lay under the steadfast star
Glasgow University Chapel
Performed by Glasgow Madrigirls and friends. All mp3s (c) Madrigirls, 2012.
Please contact us if you are interested in scores for any of these pieces, or for further information.
The notes for each piece include details of commercial recordings and sheet music, where these are available.
With thanks to Harry Campbell for overseeing the recording and Neil McDermott for sound advice.
Please contact us if you are interested in scores for any of these pieces, or for further information.
The notes for each piece include details of commercial recordings and sheet music, where these are available.
With thanks to Harry Campbell for overseeing the recording and Neil McDermott for sound advice.
1. Morning Star
Southern Harmony, 115 Music and text: Robert Lowry (1826 – 1899) This hymn comes from the American tradition of ‘shape note’ or ‘Sacred Harp’ singing, so called because the notation employed uses distinct note-heads to aid sight-reading. Robert Lowry was a preacher and prolific hymn-writer whose most famous hymns include Shall we gather at the river, How Can I Keep from Singing and Low in the grave he lay. The text is a version of Philipp Nicolai’s Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, first published in 1599. 2. Ane thanksgiving to God for his benefeitis
Melody: Or voy-je bien by Nicholas de la Grotte (1530-c.1600) Text: Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross (1582? - 1640) ‘Elizabeth Melville is Scotland’s foremost early female writer. Her masterly Scots-language poetry is beautiful, passionate and striking; to the extent that readers have commented on how it reminds them of the English religious poetry of John Donne and George Herbert.’ (Poems of Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross, Jamie Reid Baxter, 2010). The text is a sacred parody of Alexander Montgomerie’s secular lyric “Lyk as the dumb Solsequium”, which was sung to this internationally known tune by Nicholas de la Grotte. The harmony parts are taken from various Scottish manuscript sources, edited by Kenneth Elliott (Musica Britannica XV, 54). 3. Garden hymn
Southern Harmony, 90 Text: Additional text taken from Northern Harmony, 74 In Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth’s The Story of the Hymns and Tunes (1906), this folk-like song is described as an ‘old revival hymn’ which ‘was a common old-time piece sure to be heard at every religious rally, and every one present, saint and sinner, had it by heart, or at least the chorus (verse 3) of it’. 4.Gabriel fram heven-king
Anon, 14th century Dublin Troper, Cambridge University Library, MS Add. 710 Solo: Catriona Downie Citera: Katy Lavinia Cooper Symphonie: Allan Wright The Latin religious song Angelus ad Virginem was extremely popular in England during the later Middle Ages. This English translation probably dates from the late 13th century and occurs in several manuscripts. We are using two settings of the tune from the same manuscript. The tune itself is thought to date from the late 13th century and the versions we are using from the 14th century. 5. Verbum caro factum est de Virgine Maria
Aosta, Northern Italy, 14th century Seminario Maggiore, Biblioteca (I-AO MS D16 olim MS 4/MS 9-E-19) Violin: David Titterington Cello: Imogen Webb, Symphonie: Allan Wright Percussion: Alison Eales & Chloe Marshall This 14th century carol comes from a manuscript in the Seminary Library at Aosta in northern Italy. The text of verses 1 – 4 come from this manuscript, with additional verses 5 – 8 from an unidentified 12th century source published in J. H. Hopkins' Great Hymns of the Church (New York, 1887). 6. Magnificat
Music: Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585) Text: Scottish Psalter, 1635 This metrical version of the Magnificat first appears in The Whole Book of Psalmes Collected into English Meter by T. Sternhold, J. Hopkins, and others, first published in 1549. This particular version of the text comes from The Psalmes of David in Prose and Meeter which was printed in Edinburgh by the heirs of Andrew Hart in 1635. The tune will be familiar to many as Tallis’ Third Mode Melody, the theme used by Vaughan Williams in his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. 7. O frondens Virgo
Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179) Solo: Jo Tucker Hildegard of Bingen was a German abbess, visionary, writer and composer. Later known as the ‘Sybil of the Rhine’ (1383) she ‘was consulted by and held lengthy correspondences with popes, emperors and other secular and ecclesiastical leaders as well as lower members of the clergy and lay persons, and involved herself in politics and diplomacy at a time of immense political and ecclesiastical turmoil’ (Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians). Hildegard’s musical output is collected in the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations). 8. I sing of a maiden
Music: Frances Cockburn Text: 15th century (Sloan 2593) In this strophic and lilting setting of one of the most beautiful medieval English hymns to Mary, the four closely spaced vocal lines create fluctuations of dissonance and consonance. Frances leads the successful Edinburgh-based a cappella group The Wild Myrtles (score available from Canasg.com). 9. Carol of the birds
Music: French traditional, after Tim Eriksen, arr. Katy Lavinia Cooper Text: translated from French by Rev. Charles Lewis Hutchins, ed. Catriona Downie Violin: David Titterington Another carol associated with the Bas-Quercy region in south-west France. Tim Eriksen is an Amercian musician and musicologist, and leader of the band Cordelia’s Dad. He was consultant for the soundtrack of the film Cold Mountain. Tim Eriksen’s version of this carol is included on his album ‘Star in the East’ which was released on Thursday 1 December 2011. 10. The truth from above
Music: English traditional, arr. Katy Lavinia Cooper Text: A Good Christmas Box (1847) The text of this carol is selected from the sixteen verses given in A Good Christmas Box, an influential chapbook that contained 58 carols published by Walters of Dudley. This tune was collected by Cecil Sharp at Donnington Wood, Shropshire and published in his English Folk-Carols (1911). 11. Lullay my liking
Gustav Holst, arr. after Kerfuffle (Lighten the Dark, 2009) Solos: Daisy Abbott, Katy Lavinia Cooper & Catriona Downie Accordion: Daisy Abbott Gustav Holst discovered the village of Thaxted while on a walking tour of Essex in 1913. In the subsequent years, he and the local vicar Conrad Noel organised a Whitsun festival in the vilage, bringing together local people and musicians from St Paul’s Girls’ School and Morley College in London. He composed and arranged several carols for Thaxted including an SATB setting of a medieval English text which the acclaimed English folk band Kerfuffle used as the basis for a track on their Christmas album Lighten the Dark (2009). 12. In the bleak midwinter
Music: Christopher Hutchings (b. 1979) Text: Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894) We are delighted to be giving the first performance of this piece. Rosetti’s familiar poem was written at some point before 1872 in response to a request from the magazine Scribner's Monthly for a Christmas poem. This new setting uses a different metre from the better-known Holst and Darke versions, to better reflect of the pulse of Rossetti's original text. Scottish composer Chris Hutchings writes mainly for voices and has almost completed a PhD at the University of Glasgow. His Requiem will be recorded in March 2013 by the University of Glasgow Chapel Choir, for release on the Amemptos label. For more information, go to www.hutchingsmusic.co.uk 8. Cantem nadal
Music: ?Bas-Quercy carol, after Eric Montbel, arr. Katy Lavinia Cooper Text: translated from Occitan by Edward Bliss Reed, ed. Catriona Downie Drum: Allan Wright This lively Occitan song is sometimes referred to as a ‘Bas-Quercy’ carol. It is sung here in translation. 9. Jesus Christ the apple tree
Elizabeth Poston (1905 – 1987) Text: Divine Hymns or Spiritual Songs compiled by Joshua Smith, New Hampshire, 1784 Solo: Roseanna Metcalfe ‘Suitable for all times and seasons, this song is not specifically a Christmas song. It is included here because of its association with Christmas in the carol services and broadcasts of the choir of King's College, Cambridge, who have also recorded it. The beautiful visionary words in the imagery of the Tree of Life are printed without tune in Johua Smith's Divine Hymns or Spiritual Songs, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1784.’ (Elizabeth Poston, Second Penguin Book of Christmas Carols, 1970, p. 28) 16. Gaudete
Music: Piae Cantiones (1582) Additional arr. Katy Lavinia Cooper (verse) Drums: Allan Wright Piae Cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum (Devout ecclesiastical and school songs of the old bishops) is a collection of late medieval Latin songs possibly edited by Jaakko Finne, and published in 1582 by Theodoricus Petri Rutha (c.1560- c.1630). Jaakko Finne was a member of the clergy at the cathedral school at Åbo (now Turku) and it seems likely that the collection contains the medieval repertory of the Åbo school. |