Rejoice in the Lamb, Op. 30

Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)

Britten composed the festival cantata Rejoice in the Lamb for four soloists, choir and organ, in 1943. It was commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the consecration of St Matthew's Church, Northampton. For the text of this delightful and sometimes moving piece, Britten selected passages from Jubilate Agno, a long, rambling poem written by the 18th-century poet Christopher Smart while he was in a lunatic asylum. The poem has been aptly described as a kind of Benedicite, full of naive joy and innocence, to which Britten's response is inspired. The cantata falls into several sections, detailing how animals praise their creator by just being what they are, the blessings of flowers, Smart's personal tribulations, and the mystical nature of four letters of the alphabet. The cantata starts with a ritualistic injunction to rejoice in God and His son Jesus, "the Lamb", and a summoning of beasts and men to do homage. It closes with a lively chorus dwelling on the association between the sounds of instruments and of words, at the end of which comes a passage of calm and tranquility, in which Smart's tortured mind finds repose. The repeat of a soft but ecstatic Hallelujah heard earlier in the work forms a gentle, unifying coda.

Author: William Gould

Songs Of Farewell

C.H.H.Parry (1848-1918)

Parry was one of the great figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who brought about the tremendous renaissance of British music at that time. His own compositions, which far transcended the standards achieved by British composers over the previous 200 years, and his work as a teacher of many of the leading native composers of the 20th century, assured him of an honoured place in the history of music.

Sadly, little of his very large output of music is performed today, having been overshadowed by his successors, Holst, Vaughan Williams and others, most of whom were greatly influenced by him. Everyone knows his setting of Blake's 'Jerusalem'. His setting of Milton's 'Blest Pair of Sirens' is still frequently and enthusiastically performed. Organists play his Chorale Preludes, and happily there has recently been a renewal of interest in some of his splendid chamber music, but much of his other music is now forgotten.

In addition to being a musician and a leading composer, Parry was an influential author and an outstanding teacher. He also revelled in pursuit of many types of sporting activities and owned and sailed his own yacht, the 'Wanderer'. In the last three years of his very active life, Parry wrote six unaccompanied motets, which were collected together under the title Songs of Farewell. These pieces are all of a deeply philosophical nature, dwelling on the transitory nature of human existence and the hope of a continuing life in another world. The first four were completed in 1916, the fifth a year later, and the last in 1918.

'My soul, there is a country', the first of the six motets, is the most well-known, often sung by cathedral and large parish church choirs. It is set to a text by Henry Vaughan that paints a picture of the blissful and tranquil world to come. This and the next, 'I know my soul hath power to know all things' (a text by Sir John Davies) are for four-part choir, the third, Campian's 'Never weather-beaten sail', is set for five-part choir, the fourth, Lockhart's 'There is an old belief', for six parts, the fifth, John Donne's 'At the round earth's imagined corners', for seven parts, and the last, set to the biblical text 'Lord, let me know mine end' is for 8 parts. The last motet, which is by far the most elaborate of the set, was written when Parry knew that his own end was near – he completed it just three months before his death – yet it ranks as one of his greatest achievements and one of the greatest works of its kind in British music.

Author: P.W.L. for Plymouth Philharmonic Choir
Date: November 1989

MASS IN 4 PARTS

Claudio Monteverdi (1567 – 1643)

In his thirty years as maestro da capella of St. Marks in Venice (1613 – 1643) Monteverdi must have written many masses, but only three have survived which are known to be by him. The present mass was published posthumously in 1651, but may have been composed at any time during the last thirty years of his life. It is composed in the "old style" of Flemish polyphony, as interpreted by Palestrina some 60 years earlier, but manages nonetheless to create an amazing range of choral effects from spare and simple melodic material: fauxbourdon, polyphony on a cantus firmus, canonic imitation, and moments of chromaticism which remind us of Monteverdi’s genius as a madrigalist and master of musical colour. The movements are the usual Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.