A TRIBUTE TO OUR QUEEN
An homage to our recently deceased Sovereign
Notes on Tonight’s Program – by Peter Mahon
On September 7, the first Wednesday after Labour Day, as is our custom, Tallis Choir held its first rehearsal of the new season. The music we rehearsed that night has nothing to do with the music you will hear this evening. The next day we got the not unexpected but nevertheless, profoundly sad news that our Queen had died. As a result, we changed our concert programme.
The concert you will hear tonight in A Tribute to Our Queen, is presented in two parts.
Part I, in the first half, takes the form of a memorial, including music you may have heard in services broadcast from the UK and Canada, held in the days following Her Majesty’s death.
We open with psalm 121, set to Anglican chant by Barry Rose. In 1977 he was the Director of Music at St. Paul’s Cathedral. This chant was composed for Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee Thanksgiving Service held that year at St. Paul’s. Faire is the Heaven, with poetry by Edmund Spencer, and Bring Us O Lord, text by John Donne, were both composed by William H. Harris, long-time Director of Music at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. They are his best known works, each a setting for double choir. The text for Purcell’s Funeral Sentences comes from the Burial Service of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Purcell composed this work for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695. Willan’s O King To Whom All Things Do Live and Stanford’s Justorum Animae were both composed for use at Anglican or Catholic funeral services. Willan’s text comes from various sources. Stanford set the words of the Offertory Sentence of the Catholic Requiem Mass. Healey Willan was the only composer from outside the United Kingdom to have one of his pieces performed at the coronation. As it employs the organ, we cannot perform it this evening, so we have substituted O King To Whom All Things Do Live.
Part II, in the second half, will be a celebration of her life and reign, with music sung at her coronation. Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor was completed in 1921 and dedicated to Vaughan Williams’ friend, Gustav Holst. Its liturgical premiere took place at Westminster Cathedral in 1923. From the beginning it was received with great favour both for concert and liturgical use. Its mystical, spiritual quality made it very fitting for liturgical use and the combination of modern harmonies with the use of an almost Tudor polyphonic style ensured its popularity with audiences and singers alike. In 1953 the Gloria, Sanctus and Credo were adapted to English for use at the Queen’s coronation. O Taste and See (Ps. 34, vs 8-10) was sung at the Communion. The choice of these works is doubly significant tonight, as this week marks the 150th anniversary of Vaughan Williams’ birth.
The other motets sung in this half are three of the five anthems which were sung during the part of the service known as the Homage. At this time the Lords Spiritual (the bishops of the Church of England), the Princes of the Blood Royal (members of the Royal Family) and the Peers Temporal (Members of the House of Lords) kneel before the new monarch. The two other “Homage Anthems” were accompanied and cannot be performed on this programme. One of them was the Willan anthem referred to earlier in the notes. The first of the Homage Anthems is the Renaissance motet, Rejoice in The Lord, by an anonymous composer. Despite its unknown authorship it has been consistently popular with church choirs for over 400 years. Byrd’s I Will Not Leave You Comfortless is an Ascensiontide motet originally composed in Latin, but adapted to English. The third Homage is Orlando Gibbon’s grand motet in eight parts for the Feast of The Ascension, O Clap Your Hands.
To conclude the concert, please stand and join us in singing God Save The King.
Psalm 121 – Chant by Barry Rose
- I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills: from whence cometh my help.
- My help cometh even from the Lord: who hath made heav’n and earth.
- He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: and he that keepeth thee will not sleep.
- Behold he that keepeth Israel: shall neither slumber nor sleep.
- The Lord himself is thy keeper: the Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand.
- So that the sun shall not burn thee by day: neither the moon by night.
- The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: yea it is even he that shall keep thy soul.
- The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in: from this time forth for ever more.
Glory be to the Father: and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Faire is The Heaven – William Harris
Faire is the heaven where happy soules have place in full enjoyment of felicitie;
Whence they do still behold the glorious face of the Divine, Eternall Majestie;
Yet farre more faire be those bright Cherubins which all with golden wings are overdight
And those eternall burning Seraphins which from their faces dart out fiery light;
Yet fairer than they both and much more bright be the Angels and Archangels
Which attend on God’s owne person without rest or end.
These then in faire each other farre excelling as to the Highest they approach more neare
Yet is that Highest farre beyond all telling, fairer than all the rest which there appeare
Though all their beauties joynd together were;
How then can mortal tongue hope to expresse the image of such endlesse perfectnesse?
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
Funeral Sentences – Henry Purcell
Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery.
He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower;
he fleeth as it were a shadow,and ne’er continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins art justly displeased? Yet, O Lord, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour,
deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears unto our prayers;
but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty.
O holy and most merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour,
for any pains of death, to fall from thee. Amen
Book of Common Prayer (1662)
O King To Whom All Things Do Live – Healey Willan
O King, to whom all things do live,
Grant to the souls of thy servants, a place of refreshment,
The quiet of beatitude, and the glory of light.
May light eternal shine upon them, O Lord,
For endless ages with thy blessed ones,
For thou art gracious.
Text from various liturgical sources
Justorum Animae – C.V. Stanford
| Justorum animae in manu Dei sunt, et non tanget illos tormentum mortis. Visi sunt oculis insipientium mori, illi autem sunt in pace. |
The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die; but they are in peace. |
Book of Wisdom, Offertory for All Saints
Bring Us O Lord – William Harris
Bring us, o Lord God, at our last awakening into the house and gate of Heaven, to enter into that gate and
dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor
silence, but one equal music; no fears or hopes, but one equal possession; no ends or beginnings, but one
equal eternity, in the habitations of thy glory and dominion, world without end. Amen
John Donne (1571-1631)
Interval – 15 mins
Mass in G Minor – Ralph Vaughan Williams
Kyrie
| Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison | Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us, Lord have mercy upon us. |
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
| Glória in excélsis Deo et in terra pax homínibus bonae voluntátis.Laudámus te, benedícimus te, adorámus te, glorificámus te, grátias ágimus tibi propter magnam glóriam tuam, Dómine Deus, Rex caeléstis, Deus Pater omnípotens. Dómine Fili unigénite, Jesu Christe, Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei, Fílius Patris, qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis; qui tollis peccáta mundi, súscipe deprecatiónem nostram. Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis. Quóniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dóminus, tu solus Altíssimus, Jesu Christe, cum Sancto Spíritu: in glória Dei Patris. Amen. |
Glory be to God on high And in earth peace, goodwill towards men, We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee, for thy great glory O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesu Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father,have mercy upon us. For thou only art holy; thou only art the Lord; thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen. |
Rejoice In the Lord – Anon
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice,
Let your softness be known unto all men: the Lord is e’en at hand,
Be careful for nothing: but in all prayer and supplication,
let your petitions be manifest unto God with giving of thanks.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
Keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesu, AMEN.
From the Letter of St. Paul to the Phillipians, Chapter 4
Credo
| Credo in unum Deum, patrem omnipoténtem, factórem cæli et terræ, visibílium ómnium et invisibílium. Et in unum Dóminum Iesum Christum, fílium Dei Unigénitum, et ex Patre natum ante ómnia sæcula.
Deum de Deo, lumen de lúmine, Deum verum de Deo vero, génitum, non factum, consubstantiálem Patri: Per quem ómnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos hómines et propter nostram salútem descéndit de cælis. Et incarnátus est de Spíritu Sancto ex María Vírgine, et homo factus est. Crucifíxus étiam pro nobis sub Póntio Piláto; passus, et sepúltus est, et resurréxit tértia die, secúndum Scriptúras, et ascéndit in cælum, sedet ad déxteram Patris. Et íterum ventúrus est cum glória, iudicáre vivos et mórtuos, cuius regni non erit finis. Et in Spíritum Sanctum, Dóminum et vivificántem: qui ex Patre Filióque procédit. Qui cum Patre et Fílio simul adorátur et conglorificátur: qui locútus est per prophétas. Et unam, sanctam, cathólicam et apostólicam Ecclésiam. Confíteor unum baptísma in remissiónem peccatorum. Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam ventúri sæculi. Amen. |
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds.
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man;and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spake by the Prophets. And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. |
I Will Not Leave Your Comfortless – William Byrd
I will not leave you comfortless, Alleluia.
I go, and come again to you, Alleluia.
And your heart shall rejoice, Alleluia.
John 14:18
Sanctus, Benedictus
| Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaot. Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis. |
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be to Thee, O Lord most High.
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the Highest. |
Agnus Dei
| Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem. |
O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, grant us Thy peace. |
O Taste and See – Ralph Vaughan Williams
O taste and see how gracious the Lord is: blest is the man that trusteth in him.
From Psalm 34
O Clap Your Hands – Orlando Gibbons
O clap your hands together, all ye people: O sing unto God with the voice of melody.
For the Lord is high, and to be feared: he is the great King upon all the earth.
He shall subdue the people under us: and the nations under our feet.
He shall choose out an heritage for us: even the worship of Jacob, whom he loved.
God is gone up with a merry noise: and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.
O sing praises, sing praises unto our God: O sing praises, sing praises unto our King.
For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.
God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon his holy seat.
For God, which is highly exalted, doth defend the earth, as it were with a shield.
From Psalm 47
God Save the King (please join in)
God Save our gracious King, Long live our noble King, God save the King
Send him victorious, happy and glorious, Long to reign over us.
God Save the King
Thy choicest gifts in store on him be pleased to pour; long may he reign.
May he defend our laws, and ever give us cause to sing with heart and voice,
God Save the King
Our loved dominion bless with peace and happiness from shore to shore;
And may our people be loyal, united, free, true to himself and Thee
For evermore.
The Tallis Choir is:
Sopranos
Margaret Allen, Christie Bates, Anne Biringer, Emily Clark, Elizabeth Cowling, Roseline Lambert*, Carrie Loring*, Jane McKinney, Katharine Pimenoff, Ana Luisa Santo, Suzanne Shwaluk, Rebecca Vogan, Audrey Winch
Altos
Claudia Brown, Christine Davidson, Rohan D’Souza, Cynthia Hawkins, Bev Jahnke, Matthew Muggeridge*, Tara Nadal, Elaine Robertson*, Miriam Verhaar
Tenors
Dan Donnelly, Curtis Eisenberg, Nathan Jeffery, Michael Johnston*, Christopher Mahon, Liam McAlpine
Baritones and Basses
Parker Clements, Jean-Paul Feo, Raphael Redmond Fernandes, Felipe Gasper*, Herbert Lemcke, Rocco Marciano, Sean Nix*
*concert soloist
Rehearsal Accompanist
Nathan Jeffery
Artistic Director
Peter Mahon
Thank you for joining us tonight.
Our Next Concert:
A Spanish Renaissance Christmas
Saturday December 3rd, 2022.
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