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Track(s) taken from SIGCD267

Funeral Ikos

First line:
Why these bitter words of the dying?
composer
1981; AATTBB; first performed by The Tallis Scholars in Keble College Chapel, Oxford
author of text
translated from the Orthodox service for the burial of priests

Tenebrae, Nigel Short (conductor)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: January 2011
St Alban's Church, Holborn, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Nicholas Parker
Engineered by Andrew Mellor & Mike Hatch
Release date: June 2011
Total duration: 7 minutes 41 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips (conductor)
The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park (director)
Clare College Choir Cambridge, Timothy Brown (conductor)
Armonico Consort, Christopher Monks (conductor)

Reviews

'Parry's choral masterpieces, the six Songs of Farewell, composed between 1913 and 1915, represent a magnificent summation of his work as an English choral composer whose influence on several generations of native composers thereafter was immense. And this ravishing performance by Tenebrae, in the context of works by Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Harris and Howells, only serves to accentuate how deeply that influence was assimilated' (Gramophone)

'The Music Nigel Short's vocal ensemble Tenebrae continues its candlelit journey, after discs of Victoria's Requiem and Allegri's Miserere, with a programme of 15 brief English choral works … the Performance Tenebrae's intense, closely-mic'd sound is superbly balanced and textured; a soothing, uplifting antidote to our hectic lives' (Classic FM Magazine)» More

'Parry’s six unaccompanied motets are luminous setting sof texts by mainly seventeenth-century poets, reflecting his love of English renaissance madrigals and partsongs. The disc includes choral music by Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Holst, John Tavener and Richard Rodney Bennett—all performed with Tenebrae’s customary poise' (Financial Times)
Funeral Ikos was written in 1981, and the first performance by The Tallis Scholars took place in Keble College, Oxford, as part of a programme that also included Russian medieval chant and which would shortly lead to a remarkable recording (‘Russian Orthodox Music’, Gimell CDGIM 002). It is a setting, both beautiful and austere, of words from the Orthodox service for the burial of priests, in the magnificent translation by Isabel Hapgood. The words are consolatory in tone, though they do not minimize the reality of death, the gateway to Paradise. Tavener’s music has its origins in Russian chant, though the harmonic progression for the ‘Alleluia’ refrain is distinctively his, particularly the penultimate chord.

from notes by Ivan Moody © 2014

Écrit en 1981, Funeral Ikos fut créé par The Tallis Scholars à Keble College (Oxford), dans le cadre d’un programme où figuraient également des chants médiévaux russes et qui déboucha bientôt sur un remarquable enregistrement («Russian Orthodox Music», Gimell CDGIM 002). Funeral Ikos est une splendide et austère mise en musique de textes empruntés au service orthodoxe pour l’inhumation des prêtres, dans la magnifique traduction d’Isabel Hapgood. Consolatoires, ces paroles ne minimisent pourtant en rien la réalité de la mort, porte du paradis. Tavener puise ici dans le chant russe, encore que la progression harmonique du refrain «Alléluia» soit bien de lui – l’avant-dernier accord, surtout.

extrait des notes rédigées par Ivan Moody © 2014
Français: Gimell

Funeral Ikos (1981) wurde von den Tallis Scholars im Keble College in Oxford zusammen mit mittelalterlichen russischen Gesängen uraufgeführt, worauf bald eine bemerkenswerte Aufnahme („Russian Orthodox Music“, Gimell CDGIM 002) folgte. Funeral Ikos ist eine wunderschöne und gleichzeitig nüchterne Vertonung von Texten aus dem orthodoxen Begräbnisgottesdienst für Priester in der hervorragenden Übersetzung von Isabel Hapgood. Die Texte sind tröstlich gehalten, doch wird die Realität des Todes, des Tors zum Paradies, nicht gemindert. Taveners Musik hat ihre Ursprünge im russischen Cantus planus, obwohl die harmonische Fortschreitung im „Halleluja“-Refrain, und besonders der vorletzte Akkord, eindeutig seiner eigenen Tonsprache entstammt.

aus dem Begleittext von Ivan Moody © 2014
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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