Byrd - The Great Service & English Anthems
£14.73
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Label: Inventa Records
Cat No: INV1015
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 20th September 2024
Contents
Works
Arise, O Lord, why sleepest thouClarifica me, Pater, BK47
Clarifica me, Pater, BK48
Clarifica me, Pater, BK49
Exalt thyself, O God
How long shall mine enemies
O God, the proud are risen
O God, whom our offences
O Lord, make thy servant Charles
Out of the deep
The Great Service
Artists
AlamireHis Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts
Stephen Farr (organ)
Conductor
David SkinnerWorks
Arise, O Lord, why sleepest thouClarifica me, Pater, BK47
Clarifica me, Pater, BK48
Clarifica me, Pater, BK49
Exalt thyself, O God
How long shall mine enemies
O God, the proud are risen
O God, whom our offences
O Lord, make thy servant Charles
Out of the deep
The Great Service
Artists
AlamireHis Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts
Stephen Farr (organ)
Conductor
David SkinnerAbout
Alamire, under the direction of David Skinner, complete their survey of the choral works of William Byrd to mark the composer’s 400th anniversary with this landmark recording of The Great Service and seven anthems.
Emerging from centuries of obscurity, Byrd’s Great Service, first revived in the early twentieth century, represents a pinnacle of English choral music.
This recording commemorates the centenary of its modern debut in 1924. With intricate polyphony and poignant text settings, Byrd’s masterful use of ten voices reveals his unparalleled skill in capturing the essence of the Anglican liturgy.
Complemented by seven anthems, this album offers a comprehensive exploration of Byrd’s rich, spiritual, and historical musical contributions.
Emerging from centuries of obscurity, Byrd’s Great Service, first revived in the early twentieth century, represents a pinnacle of English choral music.
This recording commemorates the centenary of its modern debut in 1924. With intricate polyphony and poignant text settings, Byrd’s masterful use of ten voices reveals his unparalleled skill in capturing the essence of the Anglican liturgy.
Complemented by seven anthems, this album offers a comprehensive exploration of Byrd’s rich, spiritual, and historical musical contributions.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1The Great Service 1. Venite
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2The Great Service 2. Te Deum
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3The Great Service 3. Benedictus
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4The Great Service 4. Kyrie
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5The Great Service 5. Creed
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6The Great Service 6. Magnificat
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7The Great Service 7. Nunc Dimitt
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8Clarifica me pater I
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9O God the proud are risen against
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10Out of the deep
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11O God whom our offences
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12Clarifica me pater II
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13Arise O Lord why sleepest thou
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14How long shall mine enemies
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15Exalt thyself, O God
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16Clarifica me pater III
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17O Lord make thy servant Charles
Europadisc Review
Although it’s regarded by many experts as ranking among its composer’s greatest musical achievements, William Byrd’s Great Service owes its name not to its considerable aesthetic status, but rather to its dimensions. A setting of the sung movements for the three main services of the Anglican liturgy – Mattins, Holy Communion and Evensong – it is lavishly scored for two five-part choirs, divided antiphonally (cantoris and decani). Solo sections are frequently contrasted with fuller tuttis, so that at least ten singers per choir are needed, a total of twenty singers in all. This ambitious scale ensured that the Great Service was only performable by the grandest of ecclesiastical settings, such as the monarch’s Chapel Royal (of which Byrd was a Gentleman from 1572), as well as the great cathedrals of Durham, York and Worcester, where it has survived in manuscript forms.
Unpublished in Byrd’s lifetime, the Great Service – likely composed in the 1590s – effectively ‘disappeared’ for some three centuries after his death, but was rediscovered and pieced together by the great scholar of Tudor music, Edmund Fellowes, and received its modern revival on 31 May 1924, a year after the Byrd tricentennial celebrations. To mark the centenary of that important occasion, the professional vocal consort Alamire, under the direction of David Skinner, have now added it to the series of Byrd recordings on their own label, Inventa (part of the Resonus stable). Previous discs have included the complete Psalms, Sonets and Songs (1588), and the 1589 Songs of Sundrie Natures, both of which – graced by Julian Hindson’s witty cover art – have been greeted with wide acclaim.
On both those earlier releases, Alamire teamed up with the instrumentalists of the Fretwork viol consort. For the Great Service, however, they are partnered by four players from His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, reviving a practice of choral music bolstered by wind instruments which was common in larger church establishments of the 16th and 17th centuries. Typically, these reinforcements consisted of just two cornetts and two sackbuts, and here they double the top and bottom lines of the five-part texture in each choir in the tuttis. Thus strengthening the outermost parts, and with further accompaniment by Stephen Farr on organ, the effect is sumptuous, and unlike any other recording of the Great Service we’ve heard.
Add to that the superb technical aplomb and radiant musicality of the singers themselves – among them, sopranos Rachel Haworth and Anna Semple and bass Owain Park – and it’s little wonder that this performance of the Great Service so consistently hits the spot. With three sopranos in each choir on the top line, and two each for the lower lines (tenors 1 & 2, baritone and bass), the words are projected with ease in the tuttis, and there's a glowing quality to the sound, as recorded in All Hallows Gospel Oak. Skinner’s pacing is especially masterly in the larger-scale movements: the Te Deum and Benedictus from Mattins, and the Magnificat from Evensong. The antiphonal interplay is well-caught, and the solo sections have an inwardness which nevertheless doesn’t disrupt the music’s glorious arcs. The brilliantly conceived closing pages of the Te Deum have a particularly striking impact in this marvellous realisation.
Alamire follow up the Great Service with a selection of some of Byrd’s finest English anthems, ranging from the early How long shall mine enemies and the cool, understated beauty of O God whom our offences, via the two-anthems-in-one Arise O Lord why sleepest thou to the splendid six-voice O God the proud are risen against me (like the Great Service, a late work). Punctuating the anthems, Farr plays the three nicely contrasted keyboard settings of Clarifica me, pater, sounding neatly contained on what appears to be the characterful ‘Bach 2000’ chamber organ by Robert Jennings. Closing the disc is the wonderfully reflective anthem O Lord make thy servant Charles, originally composed for Elizabeth I, but as retexted for Charles I, Charles II and, most recently, Charles III. Its beatific ‘Amen’ makes a moving close to an enthralling disc which demonstrates the magnificent beauties of Byrd’s English-texted sacred music.
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