• Composers,  Interviews

    Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

    In 2003, renowned Mendelssohn scholar R. Larry Todd wrote an important biography of the composer, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (Oxford University Press). When the book was published, conductor Christopher Hogwood praised it highly: “Here not only the music but the pressures of life that created it, the constant travel, the correspondence with friends and family, the witty asides, and even a synoptic and sympathetic view of critical opinion on his main works from his own time until the present day are digested within this much-needed survey, and presented with accuracy, intelligence and insight.” Todd is also the editor of the anthology Mendelssohn and His World (Princeton University Press, 1991).…

  • Composers

    Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

    In 1995, the BBC presented a 2-hour program commemorating the 300th anniversary of Purcell’s death. The Radio Times described the broadcast as follows: “Live coverage of a concert marking the 300th anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell. The concert comes from Westminster Abbey, where Purcell was organist and where he is buried, and features music spanning five centuries by Byrd, Elgar, Gibbons, Handel, Britten, and Purcell. Martin Neary conducts the New London Consort and the Choir of Westminster Abbey; and Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and the Nash Ensemble. The soloists are Emma Kirkby, James Bowman, David Wilson-Johnson and Robin Leggate.” Works by Henry Purcell in…

  • Composers

    Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

      RECOMMENDED READING Monteverdi’s pivotal place in music history is discussed in the article “Passionate Praise” Anthony Pryor’s brief biography of Monteverdi in at the BBC Music Magazine website   Works by Claudio Monteverdi in the All Saints Choir repertoire Adoramus te Christe Agnus Dei (from Messa da Capella a quattro voci, 1650) O bone Jesu Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei (from Messa da Capella a quattro voci, 1641)

  • Composers

    Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612)

    Works by Hans Leo Hassler in theAll Saints Choir repertoire   Agnus Dei (from Missa super Dixit Maria) Cantate Domino Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott Laudate Dominum Quia vidisti me, Thoma Sanctus & Benedictus  (from Missa super Dixit Maria) Vater unser im Himmelreich

  • Composers

    Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

    Irish-born composer Charles Villiers Stanford wrote seven symphonies and other concert-hall works, but is better know for his choral repertoire for use in the Anglican liturgy. He was a founder (at the age of 29) of the Royal College of Music, where he taught composition until his death. Among his students were the more celebrated composers Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Upon his death, Stanford’s ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey, next to those of the great seventeenth-century English composer Henry Purcell. Stanford’s best-known liturgical works are his settings of the canticles for Morning and Evening Prayer, particularly his Magnificat in G major, sung here by the choir of…

  • Composers,  Interviews

    William Byrd (1543-1623)

    In 2008, the Church Music Association of America published A Byrd Celebration, compiling lectures given over the years at the annual William Byrd Celebration in Portland, Oregon. One of the lecturers was Duke University musicologist Kerry McCarthy, author of Liturgy and Contemplation in Byrd’s Gradualia (Routledge, 2007). In a brief biographical sketch in A Byrd Celebration, McCarthy wrote: William Byrd was the most famous and best-loved of early English composers. His entire life was marked by contradictions; as a true Renaissance man, he did not fit easily into other people’s categories. He was renowned for his light-hearted madrigals and dances, but he also published a vast, rather archaic cycle of…

  • Composers

    Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

      RECOMMENDED READING Vaughan Williams’s experience editing the 1906 English Hymnal is discussed in the article “Taught by melodious sonnets.”   Hymns by Ralph Vaughan Williams in our Hymnal At the name of Jesus Come down O love divine For all the saints Hail thee, festival day Lift up your hearts Master of eager youth O Jesus crowned with all renown O God of earth and altar O little town of Bethlehem (FOREST GREEN) There is a land of pure delight When Jesus left his Father’s throne   Works by Ralph Vaughan Williams in the All Saints Choir repertoire The blessed Son of God The great Forerunner of the morn O taste and see

  • Composers

    Charles Hylton Stewart (1884-1932)

    Charles Hylton Stewart was an English cathedral organist, who served in Rochester Cathedral and St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. In addition to composing a number of Anglican chants to be used in chanting the Psalms, he wrote several works for organ. His father, Charles Henry Hylton Stewart (1849 – 1922), was a organist who later in life took holy orders and served as an Anglican priest in New Brighton, Bath, and Chester Cathedral.   Works by Charles Hylton Stewart in the All Saints Choir repertoire   Psalm 23 (Anglican chant) Psalm 142 (Anglican chant)