There Is Sweet Music: English Choral Songs, 1890 - 1950

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
‘I have rarely been so stunned by the opening track of a disc before. The performance of Stanford’s The Blue Bird here attains the sublime.’ Hi-Fi News & Record Review

There Is Sweet Music: English Choral Songs, 1890 - 1950, Music, Nicholas Sears, Sir Edward Cuthbert Bairstow, Benjamin Britten, Edward T. Chapman, Frederick Delius, Edward Elgar, Percy Grainger, Gustav Holst, E. J. Moeran, Charles Villiers Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Mark Padmore, Philip Sheffield, Choral, Choral Music, Classical, Classical Music, Classical Vocals, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Vocal Music, Part Song/Glee/Music for Unaccompanied Voices, Secular Choral Music, Secular Choral Music a capella, Secular Music for Soloist & Chorus, Unknown Genre/Unspecified Instrumentation, Vocal

There Is Sweet Music: English Choral Songs, 1890 - 1950
Average customer rating:

A Cambridge Singers high point

How sweet it is

Something about British Choral Music...

Unbelievably gorgeous

There Is Sweet Music: English Choral Songs, 1890 - 1950
Cambridge Singers , and Rutter
Manufacturer: Collegium
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00006O0OB
Release Date: 2003-02-25

Tracks:

Stanford: Partsongs Op. 119 No 3, Bluebird
Delius: To be sung of a summer night on the water, 2 songs for chorus
Elgar: Partsongs for chorus, Op.53 No 1, There Is Sweet Music
Elgar: My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land for Chorus, Op.18, No. 3
Vaughan-Williams: Shakespeare Songs for chorus
Moeran: The Sailor and Young Nancy, for chorus
Traditional: Brigg Fair
Irish Traditional: Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)
Anon.: The Three Ravens
Anon.: My Sweetheart's Like Venus
Anon.: The Oak and the Ash
Stanford: Quick! We Have But A Second for chorus
Britten: Flower Songs for SATB chorus, Op. 47

Album Description

`I have rarely been so stunned by the opening track of a disc before. The performance of Stanford's The Blue Bird here attains the sublime.' Hi-Fi News & Record Review

Customer Reviews:

A Cambridge Singers high point.......2005-10-17

One of the very best recordings this choir has produced, and a definitely top choice for anyone who loves this choir or English choral music in general. Absolutely first-rate singing...and the literature is just too gorgeous to be on a one disc and pass up. The Delius pieces will make you melt, and the Vaughan Williams 3 Shakespeare Songs are nothing short of phenomenal.

How sweet it is.......2005-09-26

This disc is a bit different from many of the Cambridge Singers' discs in that it is exclusively secular songs. This was recorded at the Great Hall of University College School, London, in 1986, and originally released on vinyl. I cannot find an analog/digital code (many vinyl originals were first recorded in analog and then transferred to digital, sometimes clumsily) - despite this, the recording quality is crisp, clear, and vibrant.

--Music--
The music here is simply gorgeous. English musical tradition is long in the area of folk songs, but there was a waning of folk songs during Georgian and Victorian times. Also, despite the tradition of choral music which has been strong in England continuously, there was a definite resurgence of interest with the advent of the Oxford Movement in the nineteenth century.

The music here represents the work of many prominent English composers - Vaughan Williams, Holst, Britten, Delius, Stanford, and Elgar; others whose names are less well known generally are also represented, such as Moeran, Grainger, Chapman, and Bairstow. Vaughan Williams is represented in his setting of three Shakespeare texts to music ('Full Fathom Five', 'The cloud-capp'd towers', and 'Over Hill, Over Dale'). Britten is represented with Five Flower Songs. The title piece comes from a text chosen by Elgar - 'There is sweet music', according to Rutter, demonstrates a wonderful ability to match words to music in a way he describes as uncanny.

There is poetry in the texts and in the music here.

--Liner Notes--
The notes for this recording include the titles and words of each song together with source citations. There is also a brief essay on this musical period in English history. One thing conspicuously missing is much biographical information about John Rutter, or any descriptive information about the Cambridge Singers. This disc does not even have a list of the singers.

--John Rutter--
Rutter was born in London and educated at Clare College, Cambridge. This was where his career as a composer, arranger and conductor began. His early work was with groups at King's College Chapel at Cambridge as well as the Bath Choir and Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked for the BBC providing music for educational series such as 'The Archaeology of the Bible Lands', until in 1979 he began forming the Cambridge Singers, and has continued a remarkable career of performance and recording as their director ever since.

--The Cambridge Singers--
The Cambridge Singers are a mixed choir of voices, many of whom were members of choir of Rutter's college, Clare College, Cambridge. While they specialise in English and Latin liturgical pieces, they have a wide range of recordings that span from modern compositions (including a remarkable requiem by Rutter) to English folk songs of the Middle Ages. Many are former members of the choir of Clare College and other Cambridge collegiate choirs (hence the name, Cambridge Singers). In the quarter-century since the founding, the Cambridge Singers have produced an impressive body of recordings.

This is a gorgeous recording.

Something about British Choral Music..........2005-07-19

It is such pleasure to see this re-release of 1986 recording by John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers from the Great Hall of University College School, London. The original recording has long been a favorite of legions of devotees of the British Choral tradition and this collection remains one of the finest samplings of significant a capella songs available.

Opening with the hauntingly simple and beautiful 'The blue bird' by CV Stanford (to whom this album was dedicated), the tone of the CD is set as a stroll through the mists and bogs of the English countryside. Songs by Frederick Delius (one featuring the then unappreciated tenor soloist Mark Padmore!), Edward Elgar, various folk songs beautifully arranged for four-part chorus, the 'Five Flower Songs' by Benjamin Britten, and finally the extraordinary 'Three Shakespeare Songs' set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams are all included in this generous recital.

Vaughan Williams songs are brief but immaculately written choral works. 'Full fathom five' and 'The cloud-capped towers' find all the mystery in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' while 'Over hill, over dale' is the quintessential musical rendering of the fairies frolics from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Rutter and the Cambridge Singers are splendid and the acoustic of the recording hall adds just the right amount of resonance to complete the magic of these songs. Highly recommended! Grady Harp, July 05

Unbelievably gorgeous.......2005-04-09

This is one of my all-time favorite choral CDs -- from start to finish, the harmonies are gorgeous, the mood contemplative, and the singing (as usual with the Cambridge Singers) is inspired. The title track is stunning, and the Londonderry Air is one of the most beautiful wordless arrangements you'll ever hear. I also love "The Oak and the Ash," although it's hard to pick favorites on such a uniformly wonderful CD. I myself am a serious singer, and this is the kind of music that keeps me coming back to rehearsals. Buy it, you will definitely never regret it!

There Is Sweet Music: English Choral Songs 1890-1950

Average customer rating:

The Inimitable British Choral Music
Yes, Indeed there is! Right Here!
Outstanding music, very well sung
Excellent

There Is Sweet Music: English Choral Songs 1890-1950

Manufacturer: Collegium
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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There Is Sweet Music: English Choral Songs, 1890 - 1950

ASIN: B0000031H1
Release Date: 1992-12-17

Tracks:

The Blue Bird (Op.119,No.3)
Two Unaccompanied Part Songs: To Be Sung Of A Summer Night On The Water - I
Two Unaccompanied Part Songs: To Be Sung Of A Summer Night On The Water - II
There Is Sweet Music (Op.53, No.1)
My Love Dwelt In A Northern Land
Three Shakespeare Songs: 1. Full Fathom Five
Three Shakespeare Songs: 2. The Cloud-Capp'd Towers
Three Shakespeare Songs: 3. Over Hill, Over Dale
The Sailor And Young Nancy
Brigg Fair
Londonderry Air
The Three Ravens
My Sweetheart's Like Venus
The Oak And The Ash
Quick! We Have But A Second
Five Flower Songs, Op.47: 1. To Daffodils
Five Flower Songs, Op.47: 2. The Succession Of The Four Sweet Months
Five Flower Songs, Op.47: 3. Marsh Flowers
Five Flower Songs, Op.47: 4. The Evening Primrose
Five Flower Songs, Op.47: 5. Ballad Of Green Broom

Amazon.com

If you love choral music you must have this disc. It's one of the all-time best Cambridge Singers recordings--a gold mine of excellent repertoire, perfectly sung. And if you haven't heard Stanford's impressionistic masterpiece The Blue Bird, you'll certainly never forget the impact of its dreamy harmonies and soaring melody once you've heard this inimitable performance. --David Vernier

Customer Reviews:

The Inimitable British Choral Music.......2007-01-08

Yes, Indeed there is! Right Here!.......2004-07-13

Gorgeous, acapella choral music. The Cambridge Singers really can sing something besides John Rutter! English Choral sounds at their very best, with magical harmonic resolutions that transcend all emotion. I've listened to it at least 150 times and could never possibly tire of it!

Outstanding music, very well sung.......2003-07-17

This is a wonderful album, featuring some of the best choral music ever to come out of England, and undoubtedly one of the best recordings I have heard from the Cambridge Singers. The folk song arrangements are clever and apt (though I agree with another reviewer's comment that the soloist in 'Brigg Fair' does not really do it justice), and the Shakespeare songs by Vaughan Williams are a vital part of the choral repertoire.

However, it was Elgar's rarely-sung title track that impressed me the most. It is set for 8-part choir, with the men in one key and the women a semitone higher! Now that may sound like it couldn't possibly work, but believe me, the result is inspired. Using Tennyson's classic text, Elgar weaves an eerie harmonic fabric that manages to maintain a soothing yet somehow unsettled quality. Even at the end, as the word "sleep" echoes back and forth in the two keys, one is never quite sure which gender will 'resolve' the conversation and let the listener lie. It's a masterpiece, and only a really good choir could hope to pull it off.

Another highlight is a very well known work, Stanford's 'The Blue Bird', which is extremely well-sung. In fact, I have yet to hear a recorded version of this that is as brilliantly lethargic or controlled.

At times we might desire a more Eastern-European 'bite' to the singing tone (I do not mean to imply that this is just a glorified cathedral choir with pure, non-vibrato projection - far from it!), but this is THEIR music after all, and it has all the more beauty for the treatment it has been given here.

Excellent.......1999-03-25

If you haven't discovered yet how beautiful English choral music is, buy this disc right away. This recording is a collection of some of the most famous compositions by several composers (including folklore arrangements), so this is a perfect initiation for someone new to the genre. The melodies are ethereally beautiful, and the elegant singing by the Cambridge Singers does not dissapoint. The only missed opportunity is Phillip Sheffield instead of Mark Padmore in Brigg Fair. If you want to hear that song the way it REALLY should sound, get Grainger Edition Volume 3 where Padmore sings it.

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