MEET THE ARTISTS
The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge
Voted the fifth best choir in the world in Gramophone magazine’s “20 Greatest Choirs”, The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge comprises around thirty Choral Scholars and two Organ Scholars, all of whom are ordinarily undergraduates of the College.
The College’s choral tradition dates back to the all-male choir of the fourteenth century, when former Chapel Royal choristers studied in King’s Hall which later became part of Trinity College. Directors of Music have included Charles Villiers Stanford, Alan Gray, Raymond Leppard and Richard Marlow. Female voices were introduced in the 1980s by Richard Marlow, in a new departure for Cambridge choral music. Stephen Layton has been Director of Music since 2006.
During term the Choir’s main focus is the singing of the liturgy in the College Chapel, exploring a wide-ranging repertoire drawn from both Catholic and Protestant traditions. Outside term, the Choir’s programme of performances and recordings recently included BBC broadcasts of Bach’s B Minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London, Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the City of London Sinfonia in Aldeburgh and Cambridge, Poulenc’s Gloria with Britten Sinfonia in Norwich Cathedral, and Handel’s DettingenTe Deum with the Academy of Ancient Music in London and Cambridge.
Its ambitious programme of tours has taken the Choir to destinations in Europe, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Peru. Recent concerts in North America include sold-out performances at the National Conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and a concert in New York to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11. The Choir spent a month touring Australia in 2010 and is pleased to be part of the Musica Viva International Concert Season again this year.
All services from Trinity College Chapel are webcast live and available to listen again on the Choir website: A searchable archive of over 2,500 musical tracks recorded live in services over the last few years is now also available on the website.
Soprano Anna Cavaliero, Fiona Fraser, Annabel Green, Susannah Hill, Hannah King, Jade Lam, Helena Moore, Imogen Russell, Ellie Tobin, Madeleine Todd Alto Kate Apley, Karolina Csathy, Guy James, GivernyMcAndry, Lucy Prendergast, Saachi Sen, Miriam Shovel, Meg Tong Tenor Oliver Clarke, Sebastian Cook, Alexander Gebhard, Jonathon Goldstone, Samuel Hewitt, Jamie Roberts, Matt Smith, Matthew Smith Bass Jack Butterworth, Ian Cheung, Chris Moore, Joel Nulsen, Oscar Osicki, Krishnan Ram-Prasad, Tudor Thomas, Nick Wright Organ Scholars Owain Park, Alexander Hamilton
Stephen Layton
Stephen Layton is the Director of Music at Trinity College, Cambridge. He succeeded the late Richard Hickox as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia in September 2010. Founder and Director of Polyphony, Layton is also Music Director of Holst Singers. His former posts include Chief Guest Conductor of the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Kammerkoor and Director of Music at the Temple Church in London.
This season’s highlights include an appearance with Estonia’s Voces Musicales in a concert celebrating the music of Arvo Pärt in his 80th year, a return to Sønderjyllands Symphony Orchestra for performances of Handel’s Messiah, a tour of the Netherlands with the Netherlands Chamber choir with a programme including Anthony Pitts’ MissaUnitatis and a performance of Bach’s Magnificat and Pärt’s Berliner Mass with the Auckland Philharmonia. Highlights with CLS include a programme celebrating the romanticism of Venice including Stravinsky’s Pulcinella , a programme journeying though England’s Elizabethan age with celebrated baritone Roderick Williams and Duruflé’s Requiem , all at Southwark Cathedral. Highlights with Polyphony include an Easter tour of Bach’s St John Passion with the OAE to Frankfurt, Paris and London. He will also take The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge on a tour of Australia and Hong Kong.
PROGRAM TWO – a capella
Arvo PÄRT (b. 1935)
BogoróditseDjévo(1990)1 min
William BYRD (c. 1539/40)
O Lord, Make Thy Servant 3 min
Thomas TALLIS (1505-1585)
Salvator mundi3 min
Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
Remember Not, Lord, Our Offences3.5 min
Steven STUCKY (1949-2016))
O Sacrum Convivium (2005)3.5 min
Ēriks EŠENVALDS (b. 1977)
The Heavens’ Flock (2013)4.5 min
Eric WHITACRE (b. 1970)
i thank You God for most this amazing day (2009)6 min
EinojuhaniRAUTAVAARA (b. 1928)
Evening Hymn(1972)2.5 min
Ekteniya of the Litany2.5 min
Paweł ŁUKASZEWSKI (b. 1968)
NuncDimittis (2007)4.5 min
INTERVAL
Joe TWIST (b. 1982)8-10 min
Hymn of Ancient Lands (World Premiere)
Commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by Mary and Paul Pollard
Frank MARTIN (1890-1974)
Mass for Unaccompanied Double Choir (1922-1924/1926)
IKyrie5.5min
IIGloria5.5 min
IIICredo6.5 min
IVSanctus4 min
VAgnus Dei4 min
Owain PARK (b. 1993)
The Wings of the Wind (2015)5 min
ABOUT THE MUSIC
PROGRAM ONE
Arvo PÄRT (b. 1935)
BogoróditseDjévo(1990)
The music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärtdeveloped somewhat unexpectedly towards diatonic tonality, emerging out of the heartfelt but grim avant-garde of the 1960s via the gentle route of minimalism, to become a major figure in contemporary music. The blending of old and new which is so paramount to his style permeates this program, so it’s appropriate that it opens with his beautiful BogoróditseDjévo, an ‘Ave Maria’ sung in Old Church Slavonic. This is an eastern European variant on the earliest Greek prayer, and has also been set by Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky. Pärt’s is a more intimate setting than theirs – the swift, chant-like outer sections recall the murmuring sound of someone reciting the Rosary to themselves. It broadens out in the middle in a joyous expansion of both mood and harmony. (Program note © Katherine Kemp)
BogoróditseDjévoRádujssja,
BlagodátnajaMaríje, GosspódssTobóju;
blagosslovjéna Ty v zhenách
iblagosslovjén plod chrjévaTvojégó,
jákoSspássarodilájeessídushnáschikh.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee:
blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
for thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.
Words: Luke 1 vv. 28, 42
William BYRD (c. 1539/40)
O Lord, Make Thy Servant
Composing during the tumultuous socio-political environment of the Tudor period in the 16th century must have been a confounding task, with the state-sanctioned Church swinging from Protestantism to Catholicism and back within the space of only a few years. Composers were required to adapt as necessary. William Byrd lived the majority of his active years during the reign of Elizabeth I, who had reversed the Catholic reformation of her predecessor Mary I to a more moderate Protestantism (more moderate, that is, than the hard-nosed Protestantism of Mary’s own predecessor, Edward VI). Byrd’s six-part anthem O Lord, Make thy ServantElizabeth is representative of the intricately wrought Anglican music of his early years; thick, warm counterpoint set in English and suffused with a reverent spirit, in this case reverence for the monarch whose protection and interest Byrd enjoyed.
O Lord, make thy servant, Elizabeth our Queen,
to rejoice in thy strength;
give her her heart’s desire,
and deny not the request of her lips;
but prevent her with thine everlasting blessing,
and give her a long life,
even for ever and ever. Amen.
Words: from Psalm 21
Thomas TALLIS (1505-1585)
Salvator mundi
Thomas Tallis, Byrd’s teacher and doyen of English composers of the Renaissance, too had lived through these vacillating religious eras and though he displayed a remarkable ability to mould his style according to each monarch’s whim, he remained a life-long unreformed Roman Catholic (as Byrd would become later in life, engendering persecution but inspiring some of his most sublime music). Tallis’ Salvator mundi is taken from a set of 34 motets known as the CantionesSacrae, published jointly with William Byrd in 1575. The two colleagues composed 17 motets each and dedicated them to Elizabeth I, a gesture which speaks volumes about the Queen’s enlightened attitude when it came to music (the Latin motet was at the time irrevocably associated with Roman Catholicism). The stately Salvator mundi is characteristic of Tallis’ progression from a decorative Renaissance style towards denser polyphony, its musical architecture gloriously sensitive both to the text’s meaning and its syntactic flow.
Salvator mundi, salva nos,
qui per crucem et sanguinemredemisti nos,
auxiliarenobis, tedeprecamur, Deus noster.
Saviour of the world, save us, who through thy cross and blood didst redeem us: help us, we beseech thee, our God.
Words: From the Book of Common Prayer
Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
Remember Not, Lord, Our Offences
Completing this triptych of great English composers is Remember Not, Lord, Our Offences, the best-known anthem of Henry Purcell, England’s most famous composer of the Baroque. In the early 1680s Purcell held two concurrent organist positions, one at Westminster Abbey and one at the Chapel Royal, where William Byrd had held the position of Gentleman of the Chapel almost exactly one hundred years previously. Remember Not, while influenced by the Tudor style of Byrd and Tallis, is steeped in dauntless chromaticism and dissonance, the serene cadence points all the more relieving amidst the harmonic tension.
Remember not, Lord, our offences,
nor the offences of our forefathers;
neither take thou vengeance of our sins;
but spare us, good Lord, spare thy people
whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood;
and be not angry with us for ever.
Spare us, good Lord.
Words: From the Book of Common Prayer
Steven STUCKY (1949-2016)
O sacrum convivium (2005)
Recently departed Steven Stucky, American composer, author and musical commentator, was composer in residence with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for more than twenty years, the longest such relationship between a composer and an American orchestra on record. Drawn from a set of three motets “in memoriam Thomas Tallis”, composed as part of Tallis’ 500th birthday celebrations, Stucky’s treatment of O sacrum convivium(‘O sacred feast’) is one of insistent rhythm and adventurous harmony.
O sacrum convivium in quo Christussumitur:
recoliturmemoriapassioniseius;
mensimpletur gratia
etfuturægloriænobispignusdatur.
O sacred feast in which Christ is taken:
the memory of his Passion is recalled:
the soul is filled with thanks:
and a promise is given to us of future glory.
Words: Luke 1 vv. 28, 42
Ēriks EŠENVALDS (b. 1977)
The Heavens’ Flock (2013)
The sonorous music of young Latvian composer ĒriksEšenvalds comes from a place of genuine appreciation and understanding. Deeply religious and a choral tenor himself, Ešenvalds’ recent residency at Trinity College Cambridge saw his compositional muse drift towards the harmonic simplicity and practicality of diatonic music, in which clarity of text is never encumbered by jarring modulations of rhythm or key. Composer Gabriel Jackson describes The Heavens’ Flock as a “celestial meditation”, an apt caption for the dreamlike atmosphere Ešenvalds establishes here.
Stars, you are the heavens’ flock,
tangling your pale wool across the night sky.
Stars, you’re bits of oily fleece catching
on barbs of darkness to swirl in black wind.
You appear, disappear by thousands,
scattered wide to graze but never straying.
While I, a mere shepherd of these words, am lost.
What can I do but build a small blaze
and feed it with branches the trees let fall:
that twiggy clatter strewn along the ground.
And lichen crusting such dead limbs glows silver, glows white.
The earthfood for a fire so unlike and like your own.
Oh, what can I do but build a small blaze.
Words: Paulann Petersen (b. 1942)
Eric WHITACRE (b. 1970)
i thank You God for most this amazing day (2009)
Reno native Eric Whitacre has been among America’s choral composers de jour since emerging on the scene as a young Masters’ graduate in the mid-to-late nineties. Trained at Juilliard, Whitacre’s choral music is eminently approachable; his expansive creations favour lush, densely packed textures, imbued with earnestness, ethereal beauty and a soaring melodic spirit. I thank You God is the third of Whitacre’s Three Songs of Faith, commissioned by Northern Arizona University in 1999. All three songs set texts by eminent American poet E.E. Cummings. Of I thank You God text Whitacre writes “[it]is such a beautiful and joyous poem that the music was at times almost effortless”. Spine-chilling washes of chords at the work’s outset set the mood for this sensuous and spacious setting, in which the soft contours of Cummings’ text are allowed ample room to breathe.
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any – lifted from the no
of all nothing – human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Words: e.e. cummings (1894–1962)
Einojuhani RAUTAVAARA (b. 1928)
Evening Hymn and Ekteniya of the Litany (1972)
One time protégé of Jean Sibelius and long recognised as one of Finland’s leading composers, Einojuhani Rautavaara has only relatively recently achieved international fame, largely on the back of his genre-bending vocal and choral music, which melts neo-Romanticism into a colourful blend of 20th century musical idioms. Evening Hymn and Ekteniya of the Litany are taken from Rautavaara’s setting of the All-Night Vigil. Evening Hymn, a Finnish translation of a third-century Greek hymn, recalls Rachmaninoff’s own All-Night Vigil in its mood of pensive awe and its cavernous bottom end; Ekteniyaemploys just a single line of text, creating a repetitive rhythmic framework to underpin the assembly of rich chordal building-blocks.
Evening Hymn
JeesusKristus, rauhaisaValkeusAutuaan, KunnianrauhaisaValkeus. KuolemattomanIsäan, Taivaallisen, Pyhän, AutuannrauhaisaValkeus.Auringonlaskiessaehtoocalonnähtyäme me veisatenylistämmeJumalaa, Isää, PoikaajaPyhääHenkeä. JumalanPoika, Elämänantaja, Otollosta on autuainääninylistääSinuakaikkinaaikoina.
SentähdenmaalimaSilnullekiitostakanta, JumalanPoika.
Jesus Christ, thou peaceful Light of the Father. O thou immortal, peaceful Light of the heavenly and Holy, blessed. Now at the setting of the sun, having seen the light of evening, we sing a hymn of praise to our God, the Father and the Holy Spirit. O Son of God, who gavest us life, well-pleasing to God, it is with a blessed voice we praise thee now and for eternity. Therefore all the world sings praises to thee, O Son of God.
Ekteniya of the Litany
Herraarmahda.
Lord have mercy.
Paweł ŁUKASZEWSKI (b. 1968)
NuncDimittis (2007)
Stephen Layton is among the most avid supporters of PawelŁukaszlewski, doyen of modern Polish church music. Łukaszlewski approaches choral writing with what he calls ‘renewed tonality’; his crystalline music delves into the very essence of the text, seeking purity of expression through a multifaceted, subtle harmonic language which owes as much to ‘traditional’ tonality as it does to the broader palettes of Pärt and Gorecki. Łukaszlewski’s double-choir setting of the Nuncdimittis (otherwise known as The Song of Simeon, a gospel canticle frequently performed at compline and evensong services) is extraordinarily expressive. The composer is economical in his use of melodic material, and the setting is all the more effective for it; the beauty of the text, rather than being disguised, is highlighted, noticeably so as ‘Lumen ad revelationemgentium’ (‘To be a light to lighten the Gentiles’) finds the music settling into a character of utmost serenity and peace.
Nuncdimittisservumtuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace:
Quiaviderunt oculi meisalutaretuum
Quod parasti ante faciemomniumpopulorum:
Lumen ad revelationemgentium, et gloriamplebistuae Israel.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Words: Second chapter of Luke
Joe TWIST (b. 1982)
Hymn of Ancient Lands (2015)
Joe Twist writes:
Hymn of Ancient Lands is a setting of a short text known as “Caedmon’s Hymn.” Caedmon is believed to have been the earliest English poet and his poem (or hymn) is believed to be one of the oldest recorded poems written in the “Old English” dialect of the Anglo-Saxons. The Hymn exists in several vernacular translations, including Old English, Latin and modern English, and the use of these three vernacular versions provided the inspiration for this new musical setting for Trinity College Cambridge. The juxtaposition of these three languages expresses my fascination with viewing history and spirituality through a modern lens, fusing the old with the new by paying homage to the ancient poem and reflecting its significance with my own musical ideas.
Caedmon’s Hymn is a universal song which praises God's creation of Heaven and Earth, which he calls “Middangeard” (Middle-Earth), a name for inhabited lands in ancient mythology of the time. Extending upon this, Hymn of Ancient Lands expresses adoration of land and nature through a ritualistic musical journey which progresses from sparse and plaintive to energetic and joyful. From a modern point of view,
Hymn of Ancient Lands expresses Australia’s passion for traveling overseas and exploring many different lands, combined with a deep sense of belonging and respect for our own unique and magnificent landscape.
nuscylunherganhefaenricaesuard
metudæsmaecti end his modgidanc
uercuuldurfadurswe he uundragihwaes
ecidryctin or astelidæ
heaerist scop aeldabarnum
heben til hrofehaligscepen
Nunc laudare debemus auctorem regni cælestis, potentiam creatoris, et consilium illius facta Patris gloriæ: quomodo ille, cum sit æternus Deus, omnium miraculorum auctor exstitit;
qui primo filiis hominum cælum pro culmine tecti dehinc terram custos humani generis creavit, omnipotens.
Now we shall praise the Guardian of heaven’s kingdom, the might of the architect, and his purpose, the work of the father of glory as He, the eternal lord, established the beginning of wonders. For the children of men He created heaven.