"The Little Church Around the Corner"
One East 29th Street, New York
MUSIC NOTES:
Easter III - April 14, 2002
Today's choral music presents the work of two contemporaries, Basil Harwood (1859-1949) and Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924). These composers participated in the vigorous revival of Anglicanism that was unfolding during their lifetime, a revival which included the Oxford Movement, the reappointment and rebuilding of churches and cathedrals, a flourishing of religious decorative arts and renewed interest in theology and the spiritual life.
Harwood was born in Woodhouse, Gloucestershire. Early in his adult life he traveled to Leipzig, Germany to study with Carl Reinecke (1924-1910), a prolific composer of operas, concertos, symphonies and chamber music. Harwood's interest remained primarily with organ and church music, and on his return to England he took the position of organist at St. Barnabas Church, Pimlico, London, and later at Ely Cathedral. From Ely he moved to Oxford, where he became organist of Christ Church Cathedral and precentor of Keble College.
The Communion Service in A Flat was composed during Harwood's time at Ely, and is a fine example of his work. Harwood had a keen sense of historical and liturgical awareness while composing this service setting, as evidenced by references throughout the autograph manuscript to the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer, to practices of cathedral composers of the 16th and 17th centuries (including Tallis), and by use of melodic material from a Sarum missal of 1500 in the cathedral library. A lifelong enthusiast of the organ, Harwood's choral music is supported by lush and sonorous organ accompaniments, which when combined with the rich and primarily chordal writing for the choir creates a sumptuous musical texture that would have resonated beautifully in the ample acoustic of Ely Cathedral. Today marks the first occasion for this service setting to be heard at the Church of the Transfiguration.
Charles Villiers Stanford was born in Dublin, and spent most of his life teaching and conducting at Cambridge University. Like Harwood, Stanford also studied in Germany. Upon his return to England, he gained a solid reputation in many branches of composition, including church music, and he was widely sought after as a teacher. Beati quorum via was composed in 1905 and is dedicated "to Alan Gray (a friend and colleague) and the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge." Scored for six-part unaccompanied choir, this meditative and tightly-woven piece unfolds as a kind of miniature symphonic poem for choir. In its use of a Latin text, its carefully crafted counterpoint and its assured sense of structure, the piece shares in the spirit of the motets of Palestrina and Victoria, though the musical language is unmistakably of the late 19th/early 20th century.
Harwood was born in Woodhouse, Gloucestershire. Early in his adult life he traveled to Leipzig, Germany to study with Carl Reinecke (1924-1910), a prolific composer of operas, concertos, symphonies and chamber music. Harwood's interest remained primarily with organ and church music, and on his return to England he took the position of organist at St. Barnabas Church, Pimlico, London, and later at Ely Cathedral. From Ely he moved to Oxford, where he became organist of Christ Church Cathedral and precentor of Keble College.
The Communion Service in A Flat was composed during Harwood's time at Ely, and is a fine example of his work. Harwood had a keen sense of historical and liturgical awareness while composing this service setting, as evidenced by references throughout the autograph manuscript to the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer, to practices of cathedral composers of the 16th and 17th centuries (including Tallis), and by use of melodic material from a Sarum missal of 1500 in the cathedral library. A lifelong enthusiast of the organ, Harwood's choral music is supported by lush and sonorous organ accompaniments, which when combined with the rich and primarily chordal writing for the choir creates a sumptuous musical texture that would have resonated beautifully in the ample acoustic of Ely Cathedral. Today marks the first occasion for this service setting to be heard at the Church of the Transfiguration.
Charles Villiers Stanford was born in Dublin, and spent most of his life teaching and conducting at Cambridge University. Like Harwood, Stanford also studied in Germany. Upon his return to England, he gained a solid reputation in many branches of composition, including church music, and he was widely sought after as a teacher. Beati quorum via was composed in 1905 and is dedicated "to Alan Gray (a friend and colleague) and the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge." Scored for six-part unaccompanied choir, this meditative and tightly-woven piece unfolds as a kind of miniature symphonic poem for choir. In its use of a Latin text, its carefully crafted counterpoint and its assured sense of structure, the piece shares in the spirit of the motets of Palestrina and Victoria, though the musical language is unmistakably of the late 19th/early 20th century.
