Gregorian Chant Workshop
St John’s Catholic Cathedral Portsmouth
Edinburgh Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3HG
Saturday 12 June 2010, 10.00 – 16.30
http://www.scholagregoriana.org
http://www.portsmouthcatholiccathedral.org.uk

Led by the Abbot of Farnborough Abbey and a Director of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge

All are welcome, both beginners and advanced students. Led by the Abbot of Farnborough Abbey, Dom Cuthbert Brogan OSB, and a director of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge. The workshop begins at 10am and concludes with Vespers and Benediction at 4pm. To register, contact: chantnetwork@gmail.com or Tel: 023 9286 2384

Music materials provided. Tea/Coffee available. Fee – £15

HAVPCD360 – The Dedication of the Temple
(Launched Saturday 29th May 2010 at the Temple “Schola Singing Day“)

The Temple Church, built around 1160 and consecrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalam in 1185, has been in the joint care of the Inner and Middle Temples, two of the four legal Inns of Court, for 400 years. It was originally built by the English Knights Templar, to replicate their round mother church on the site of Christ’s Resurrection in Jerusalem. So important was it as a place of spiritual significance that many knights were buried there ( you can see their effigies to this day ) and Thomas a Becket, when Archbishop, granted an indulgence of twenty days to all those who entered it.

The centrality of Jerusalem as the earthly replica of the heavenly kingdom comes through in the Templar liturgy that forms the basis of this recording. It is no coincidence that Jerusalem is the circular city at the centre of the mappa mundi. So to be in London’s Temple Church was, to the mediaeval mind, to be in the actual place for one’s own spiritual enlightenment helped no doubt by the uplifting qualities of singing the daily office, which Bernard of Clairvaux probably helped to compile. The Church retains its special atmosphere to this day and the Chant sounds wonderful in its ancient, round, acoustic – pure, perfect and complete.

Today the Temple Church serves its legal community in many ways. Members of the two Inns may be baptized, married and have their memorial services there. It is justly famous for its own choir of boys and mens voices who sing a high Anglican liturgy every Sunday during the legal terms. Inner Temple calls its students to the Bar there. The organ, the gift of a generous Scottish family, is a four manual Harrison&Harrison from whose loft many recitals are given. It was a popular tourist attraction even before Dan Brown put it on the Da Vinci trail.

The Church has also become a respected venue for the discussion of controversial issues, most notably the compatibility of sharia law with our own secular society. The Templar’s worthy adversaries in the second crusade would probably have approved.

HAVPCD358 – Benjamin Saunders

Benjamin Saunders was born in Warrington and educated at George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh. He received his first organ lessons at the age of sixteen at St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh and two years later won an Organ Scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied with Peter Hurford. Upon graduating, he held organist posts at the Cathedrals of St Giles’ Edinburgh, Blackburn, and Chester. In 2002, Saunders was appointed Director of Music for the Diocese of Leeds, leading the department at Leeds Cathedral, which is now the centre of England’s largest choral outreach programme. During this time, he has been privileged to act as consultant and advisor to a number of the UK’s other musically pre-eminent cathedrals and schools.

As an organist, he aims to present a varied and accessible programme to delight audiences both young and old, be they new to organ music or lifelong devotees of the instrument. His solo repertoire includes classical, popular and jazz works, some familiar and others new or recently rediscovered. He has also transcribed many orchestral works for the organ and these arrangements often form a popular part of his concert programmes. Saunders has performed to HM the Queen, Princess Anne and US President Carter and worked with conductor Carl Davis and jazz virtuoso Dick Hyman. Solo tours have led him to give organ recitals in France, Italy, Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, the United States and Russia. Further details of forthcoming concerts can be found on his website at http://www.directorofmusic.org.

HAVPCD357 – 40 Years at Wakefield

The Wakefield Cathedral Choir consists of up to twenty boys, twenty girls and ten lay clerks, and undertakes a full programme of services, concerts, recordings, radio and TV appearances. There are six choral services each week – Parish Eucharist, Cathedral Eucharist and Evensong on Sunday and Evensong on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The Yorkshire Three Choirs Festival (boys and men) and the Yorkshire Cathedral Choirs Festival (girls and men) take place in October and March respectively.

The Cathedral has had only four Organists: Joseph Naylor (1888-1930), Newell Wallbank (1930-1946), Percy Saunders (1946-1970) and Jonathan Bielby (1970-2010). The formidable past record of Assistant Organists includes John Scott (organist of St Thomas’ Church, Fifth Avenue, New York), Peter Gould (organist of Derby Cathedral), Keith Wright ( assistant organist of Durham Cathedral), and Louise Marsh (director of the Girls’ Choir at Ely Cathedral).

Famous previous members of the Choir include the composer, Kenneth Leighton, and the former Archbishop of York, David Hope. The Cathedral Choir has done a tremendous job in promoting the city and diocese of Wakefield and the cause of English cathedral music. Besides appearing at many UK venues, the boys and men have visited Germany three times, the United States twice, France, Austria, Italy and Holland; the girls and men have sung in Sweden, the Rhineland and New York; and the men have made an enjoyable trip to Dublin.

Jonathan Bielby’s wonderful work at Wakefield has encompassed many facets. On his upcoming retirement he will leave a legacy in hearts and minds for generations to come. As a composer, he is pre-eminently practical, clear, concise and – perhaps most importantly – comprehensible. His works have often been in the form of personal gifts – and those who receive his Christmas Cards each year will be aware of that – or mindful of a particular Cathedral service or event.

He knows a good melody when he sees one, and many of his compositions contain a reassuring and yet refreshing ambience in which the themes seem inevitable, fluent and memorable. To have recordings of music composed by him will give great and continuing pleasure to us all for many years. As one of his oldest friends, I commend the enterprise to you whole-heartedly and with enthusiastic acclaim!
Dr Simon Lindley
Organist & Master of the Choristers, Leeds Parish Church, and Leeds City Organist

The Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge is presenting a Gregorian Chant singing day in the glorious surroundings of the Temple Church in London. It is open to beginners and more experienced singers alike. The music will include chants for the Templars’ own breviary recalling their Foundation of this Church in 1185 and the day will finish with all participants singing Vespers. There will also be an organ recital, a talk on the Templars and an optional Schola dinner in the historic Inner Temple Hall.

The day will be conducted by Jeremy White and Philip Duffy, both expert teachers of the Chant. £35 for the day with an optional dinner for £50. £25 for students. Free parking.

For booking and more information:
The Temple Church – 020 7797 8206
The Temple Church “Schola Gregoriana Concert” Poster (Acrobat PDF)
http://www.scholagregoriana.org
http://www.templechurch.com

HAVPCD355 – De Profundis. Martin Bruce
(Available in late March 2010)

Martin Bruce’s De Profundis was written for the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, at the invitation of organist Stephen Darlington. It received its first performance in the Lent of 2008. Scored for two four-part choirs, it opens with a motif built on a rising tone, which grows steadily more insistent. Initially passed between the two alto parts – naturally an effective technique for a cathedral choir, where the two choruses are physically separated on either side of the nave – this ascending idea develops and opens out into a full, eight-part rendering: ‘Lord, hear my voice’.

There is a wide variety of textures employed here, and each section of text has its own distinct character; we move from the antiphonal effects of ‘therefore shalt thou be feared’ to the fugal style of ‘I look for the Lord’, coming to a close only when the opening ascending tone motif returns, this time passed between the two soprano parts. This setting of a text which is at once penitential yet full of hope seems to move through a gamut of moods before reaching its conclusion, and in the ambitious choral writing we have an apposite gateway into the works which succeed it here. The Magnificat is Mary’s song of joy at the revelation that she will bear the Son of God, and as a canticle it is one of the church’s fundamental liturgical texts.

You can now type a fragment or partial word into the “Search for:” section on the top-right of the website page. The search will now display results for all of the Album Titles and Track information, including Disk Number, Composer, Location, Conductor and Choir.

Examples -
305 – to display details for the Herald album HAVPCD305.
Chichester – to display all the Herald CDs and recordings in Chichester.
Silent Night – to display Herald CDs and Recordings of “Silent Night“.
Quilt – to display all the tracks composed by “Roger Quilter”

We’ve been busy and hope the new site is easier to navigate and provides all the information for the Herald AV catalogue. We’d love to hear from you, consider any site suggestions and help with Herald AV questions.

To Order – To order CDs from the Herald Catalog you can contact our main UK distributor, Record Corner directly. Record Corner hold considerable stock and have close ties with Herald – having the latest availability and information on new releases. You can email your orders, big and small, to Record Corner at heraldsales@therecordcorner.co.uk

HAVPCD354 – The Bliss of Solitude

This beautiful album, recorded in the delightful surroundings of Brentwood Cathedral, features the magnificent tenor voice of Richard Dowling in partnership with the pianist Joanna Smith, who also contributes several enchanting pieces for solo piano. The recordings include Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge in the version for piano and voice, as well as the first recording of Andrew Wright’s exquisite The Bliss of Solitude – settings of verses by William Wordsworth – and music by Roger Quilter.

‘The Bliss of Solitude’, Andrew Wright. For someone who devotes the majority of their compositional endeavours to the liturgy of the Church, the shift to writing for the voice (in the form of the Song Cycle) is easy to comprehend. In the liturgy, the spoken word is, shall we say, lifted when sung; a simple chant can make the everyday of one’s vernacular language become the sacredness of the numinous – we are transported to somewhere outside of ourselves. And isn’t this what music is about? When Andrew Wright completed his Requiem in 2005 it was the culmination of some twenty years or more of composing; being his largest-scaled work thus far, as well as his most ambitious compositional project.

Richard Dowling (tenor) and Joanna Smith (piano)

After many years experience as an active musician, his tastes and interests are broadening: with his knowledge of the voice (he was a member of The Tallis Scholars) and his inherent love of nature (particularly the Lake District) he was increasingly becoming inspired towards a new area for compositional exploration. Then came the gift of a copy of the poetical works of William Wordsworth. This spurred Wright on to set the texts to music. The initial suggestion for these songs came from singer and oboist friend, Julia Bentham. Bentham and Wright had worked on the staff at the choristers’ school at Westminster Cathedral and so their musical acquaintance had been a long one when Bentham suggested Wright might set one or two of Wordsworth’s texts to music. After favourable reception of the earlier songs, the project was worked into a song cycle proper by Wright, with performances given in London and Grassmere.