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Track(s) taken from CDA66618

Faire is the heaven

composer
1925; SATB SATB unaccompanied; composed for the choir of New College, Oxford
author of text
verses from A Hymne of Heavenly Beauty

St Paul's Cathedral Choir, John Scott (conductor)
Recording details: July 1991
St Paul's Cathedral, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Arthur Johnson
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: February 1993
Total duration: 5 minutes 56 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Westminster Abbey Choir, James O'Donnell (conductor)
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell (conductor)
Clare College Choir Cambridge, Timothy Brown (conductor)
The Cambridge Singers, John Rutter (conductor)
Tenebrae, Nigel Short (conductor)
Queen's College Choir Oxford, Owen Rees (conductor)
St John's College Choir Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha (conductor)

Reviews

‘A rich feast indeed’ (Gramophone)

‘This is a lovely programme’ (Organists' Review)
Sir William Harris’s masterpiece Faire is the Heaven (1925) is one of the best-loved works in the Anglican repertoire. At various points in his career, Harris held appointments in London, Lichfield and Oxford. However, he is usually remembered today for the nearly thirty years he spent as Director of Music of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, when he served as piano teacher to the young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret. Faire is the heaven predates Harris’s arrival in Windsor by some eight years, but like a later anthem, Bring us, O Lord God, it is set in D flat major for double choir without accompaniment. The words are taken from Edmund Spenser’s An Hymn of Heavenly Beauty, first published in 1596. Harris selected lines from three stanzas of a poem over forty stanzas in length. The editing is subtle—so much so that a casual reader might not realize lines have been omitted—and a structure is created that lends itself to ternary treatment: Spenser’s ‘Cherubins’ and ‘Seraphins’ are assigned a faster section in the middle, and Harris engineers a memorable return to the home key for the final section of the anthem.

from notes by Martin Ennis © 2018

Sir William Harris fut formé au Royal College of Music où il étudia l’orgue avec Sir Walter Parratt et la composition avec Charles Wood et Walford Davies. Après avoir été quelque temps organiste adjoint à la cathédrale de Lichfield, il s’installa à Oxford où il occupa le poste d’organiste titulaire de New College puis de Christ Church. En 1923, il fut nommé professeur au Royal College of Music et dirigea l’Oxford Bach Choir pendant quelques années avant de devenir organiste et maître des choristes de la chapelle St George, à Windsor, fonction qu’il occupera pendant presque trente ans. Ses compositions comptent une œuvre chorale d’envergure, The Hound of Heaven, pour baryton soliste, chœur et orchestre, mais il est surtout connu pour ses pièces pour orgue et sa musique d’église, dont le remarquable motet Faire is the heaven, une pièce pour chœur double sur un poème d’Edmund Spenser.

extrait des notes rédigées par Wadham Sutton © 1993
Français: Jean-Paul Metzger

Sir William Harris studierte am Royal College of Music das Orgelspiel bei Sir Walter Parratt und Komposition bei Charles Wood und Walford Davies. Nach einer Zeit als zweiter Organist in der Kathedrale von Lichfield ließ er sich in Oxford nieder, wo er erst Organist des New College und dann von Christ Church wurde. Ab 1923 war er ein Professor am Royal College of Music und dirigierte den Bachchor von Oxford einige Jahre lang, bis er seine fast drei Jahrzehnte dauernde Tätigkeit als Organist und Chorleiter der St.-Georgs-Kapelle in Windsor antrat. Seine Kompositionen schließen eine große Choralarbeit ein, The Hound of Heaven für Baritonsolo, Chor und Orchester, aber er ist in erster Linie für seine Kirchen- und Orgelmusik unvergessen, für die die Hymne Faire is the heaven, die Umsetzung für Baßchor eines Gedichtes von Edmund Spenser ein überragendes Beispiel ist.

aus dem Begleittext von Wadham Sutton © 1993
Deutsch: Heidi Kerschl

Other albums featuring this work

A New Heaven
Studio Master: SIGCD475Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Allegri: Miserere
Studio Master: SIGCD085Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Bairstow, Harris & Stanford: Choral works
Studio Master: CDA68259Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Blessed spirit
COLCD127Download only
Faire is the Heaven
COLCD107Download only
Locus iste
Studio Master: SIGCD567Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Panis angelicus
CDA66669
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