Throughout Stanford’s time at Trinity College, Cambridge, which lasted until his final service on Christmas Day 1892, he wrote numerous anthems and services, many of which were sung in the weekday and Sunday services in the college. Among the best-known products of this time were the Three Motets, Op 38. We know through a letter Stanford wrote to Alfred Littleton in November 1891 that Novello were considering them for publication: ‘Don’t forget to send my Latin introits back if you don’t want to publish them; I have no other scores, and we use them pretty frequently.’ Novello decided not to take them on and it was not until 1905 that Boosey published them, not as ‘introits’ but as ‘motets’. We also know from the college music lists that Justorum animae (‘The souls of the righteous’) was sung in Trinity College Chapel on at least two occasions (24 February 1888 and 24 February 1892 on the Feast of St Matthias, apostle and martyr). A setting of the famous lines from the Book of Wisdom, Stanford’s evocation of celestial peace frames a more chromatic central section (‘et non tanget illos tormentum malitiae’) whose turbulence subsequently throws into relief the composer’s exquisite handling of diatonic harmony in the reprise (‘Visi sunt oculis insipientium mori’). A ternary design also frames the medieval hymn Caelos ascendit hodie, which celebrates Christ’s ascension. Drawing its inspiration from the great antiphonal Venetian tradition of the seventeenth century, the motet’s sense of jubilation is ultimately captured in the final ‘Amen’. Here the forceful contrary motion of the outer voices ascends and descends from an initial unison E over the interval of a tenth, coalescing in the most vibrant of euphonious plagal cadences. For Beati quorum via (Psalm 119: 1), a more restrained, pastoral prayer, Stanford’s instrumental treatment is manifested in the skilful sonata structure whose two contrasting thematic subjects are defined by the opening words (‘Beati quorum via’) and the secondary phrase (‘qui ambulant in lege Domini’). Both ideas, in the recapitulation, are subsequently reworked with consummate legerdemain.

from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 2020