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Track(s) taken from CDA67938

Scapulis suis

composer
19 February 1947; SSAATTBB
author of text
Psalm 91: 4; Offertory on the first Sunday of Lent

Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker (conductor)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: October 2011
Westminster Cathedral, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: January 2013
Total duration: 4 minutes 11 seconds

Cover artwork: The Annunciation with two saints and four prophets (1333). Simone Martini (1284-1344)
& Lippo Memmi (fl1317-1347). Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence / Giraudon / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘The choir is on excellent form and the recorded sound seems perfectly to capture a sense of place, of atmosphere’ (Gramophone)

‘This is an album for those who love the acoustic, the atmosphere and the traditions of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in London … the pacing and cohesion of the Agnus Dei of Palestrina's Missa Emendemus in melius is accomplished and moving, and their singing of plainsong with organ second-to-none’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘The true musical spirit of the Lenten season … is to be found in the ancient antiphons, psalms and motets which have been part of the liturgical fabric of the season for centuries. This is what we have here, and an intensely beautiful CD it makes too … nobody could remain untouched by the profound beauty and timelessness of this music, and given these unaffected, sensitive and fluent performances from a choir which has been singing Lenten music in a liturgical context for decades, the result is something very special indeed … this is a beautifully devised programme, sung with ineffable perceptiveness by the Westminster choristers and recorded with utterly natural atmosphere by the Hyperion team’ (International Record Review)
George Malcolm was an accomplished harpsichordist as well as a conductor and choir trainer, and consequently his knowledge of early music was extensive. In his luxuriantly textured setting of Scapulis suis for use at Mass on the First Sunday of Lent, Malcolm drew heavily on the style of late-Renaissance Continental polyphony, and seasoned it with twentieth-century nostalgic modality. This type of modality is also present in the organ hamonizations of plainchant that are a feature of the day-to-day liturgical work in Westminster Cathedral.

from notes by Jeremy Summerly © 2013

Claveciniste accompli, chef d’orchestre et maître de chœur, George Malcolm était un très grand connaisseur de la musique ancienne. Pour mettre en musique cette œuvre de texture somptueuse destinée à la messe du premier dimanche de Carême qu’est Scapulis suis, il s’appuya largement sur le style polyphonique continental de la fin de la Renaissance, assaisonné d’une nostalgique modalité vingtiémiste également perceptible dans les harmonisations organistiques du plain-chant, lesquelles sont une caractéristique du travail liturgique accompli chaque jour à la cathédrale de Westminster.

extrait des notes rédigées par Jeremy Summerly © 2013
Français: Hypérion

George Malcolm war ein versierter Cembalist, Dirigent und Chorleiter, und seine Kenntnis besonders der Alten Musik war dementsprechend umfangreich. In seiner prächtigen Vertonung des Scapulis suis für die Messe zum ersten Sonntag der Fastenzeit bediente Malcolm sich des Stils der kontinentalen Polyphonie der Spätrenaissance und würzte dies mit nostalgischer Modalität des 20. Jahrhunderts. Diese Art von Modalität findet sich auch in den Orgel-Harmonisierungen von Gregorianischen Chorälen, die in der Alltagsliturgie in der Westminster Cathedral zum Einsatz kommen.

aus dem Begleittext von Jeremy Summerly © 2013
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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