Hyperion Records

Turn thou us, O good Lord is a curious work which is found in the first of three volumes collected together by William Flackton and now housed in the British Museum (Add.30931). The inscription (in Flackton’s hand) reads ‘The 3.d Collect for the 30 of January. on the Martyrdom of King Cha- by Henry Purcell’ and at the end the copyist has written ‘Mr. Hen Pursell. of Westminster’. Those comments notwithstanding, there is must be some doubt as to whether the anthem is by Purcell: in 1910 the scholar Godfrey Arkright questioned whether Purcell was the author.

Much of the work is scored, unusually, for a solo tenor: the writing is at times rather ungainly, especially the word setting. ‘Spare thy people, good Lord’ is set for a trio of soloists and leads into a choral reworking of a passage, setting the same words, from the magnificent ten-part anthem Blow up the trumpet in Sion: cut down to only four parts, the sumptuous textures of that anthem are sadly absent here. For ‘Hear us, O Lord, for thy mercy is great’ the composer returns to the solo voice, closing the anthem with a repeat of the trio and chorus ‘Spare thy people’.

from notes by Robert King ©