English Church Music, Vol. 1: Anthems and Motets (Ed. Robert King, John Rutter)

Oxford Choral Classics: English Church Music assembles in two volumes around 100 of the finest examples of English sacred choral music of the past five centuries. The first volume, dedicated to anthems and motets, presents both favourite and lesser-known works, from the exceptional Renaissance polyphony of Taverner, Tallis, and Byrd, through the Restoration led by Purcell, to the glorious works of the great nineteenth- and twentieth-century composers, including Wesley, Elgar, Stanford, Vaughan Williams, and Howells. The volume contains a number of more substantial works, including Mendelssohn's Hear my prayer, Stainer's I saw the Lord, and Naylor's Vox dicentis: Clama, as well as a wonderful selection of shorter pieces, from Gibbons's O Lord, in thy wrath to Walton's Set me as a seal upon thine heart. With the second companion volume of canticles and responses, this bipartite collection presents a comprehensive survey of English sacred music at its best.

Indhold/Contents:
Anon.: Rejoice in the Lord alway
Bairstow: Jesu, the very thought of thee
Blow: Salvator mundi
Boyce: O where shall wisdom be found?
Byrd: Ave verum Corpus
Byrd: Haec dies
Byrd: Justorum animae
Byrd: Sing joyfully
Elgar: They are at rest
Farrant or Hilton: Lord, for thy tender mercy's sake
Gibbons: O clap your hands
Gibbons: O Lord, in thy wrath
Goss: These are they which follow the Lamb
Greene: Lord, let me know mine end
Hadley: My song is love unknown
Harris: Faire is the heaven
Harwood: O how glorious is the kingdom
Howells: Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks
Ireland: Greater love hath no man
Lewis: The souls of the righteous
Mendelssohn: Hear my prayer
Morley: Nolo mortem peccatoris
Naylor: Vox dicentis: Clama
Parsons: Ave Maria
Philips: Ascendit Deus
Purcell: Hear my prayer, O Lord
Purcell: I was glad when they said unto me
Purcell: Let mine eyes run down with tears
Purcell: Lord, how long wilt thou be angry?
Purcell: Remember not, Lord, our offences
Stainer: God so loved the world
Stainer: I saw the Lord
Stanford: Beati quorum via
Stanford: Coelos ascendit hodie
Stanford: How beauteous are their feet
Stanford: I heard a voice from heaven
Stanford: Justorum animae
Tallis: If ye love me
Tallis: Loquebantur variis linguis
Tallis: O Lord, give thy Holy Spirit
Tallis: O nata lux de lumine
Taverner: Dum transisset Sabbatum
Tomkins: When David heard
Vaughan Williams: O how amiable
Vaughan Williams: O taste and see
Walton: Set me as a seal upon thine heart
Wesley: Blessed be the God and Father
Wesley: Praise the Lord, O my soul
Wesley: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
Wesley: Wash me throughly
Wood: O thou the central orb

Edited by Robert King
General Editor John Rutter

For 30 years Robert King has enjoyed a busy career as a conductor, festival director, and editor. He read music at Cambridge, where in 1980 he founded the period instrument orchestra and choir The King's Consort. TKC has since toured across the globe, made almost 100 recordings, and won many international awards. King has conducted many of the leading orchestras and chamber choirs of Europe and North America, as well as operas in Japan, Britain, France, Germany, and Spain. He has written and presented for the BBC, been artistic director of music festivals in Sweden, Germany, and the UK, and contributed to the scores of Hollywood films including Shrek 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, Flushed Away, and The Da Vinci Code. Renowned as an expert in Baroque and Classical music, King has created performing editions of more than 100 works, which are used by professional and amateur performers across the world.

John Rutter was born in London in 1945 and studied music at Clare College, Cambridge. His compositions embrace choral, orchestral, and instrumental music, and he has edited or co-edited various choral anthologies including four Carols for Choirs volumes with Sir David Willcocks and the Oxford Choral Classics series. From 1975 to 1979 he was Director of Music at Clare College, and in 1981 he formed his own choir, the Cambridge Singers. He now divides his time between composition and conducting and is sought after as a guest conductor for the world's leading choirs and orchestras. John Rutter's music has been widely recorded and is available on many record labels including Universal, Naxos, and Hyperion. The Cambridge Singers have recorded many of John Rutter's works on the Collegium Records label.