CDA66686 - Disc 1 Track 4 - Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, Z135

Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, Z135

composer

circa 1680

author of text

Psalm 3

Recordings

O praise the Lord
Westminster Abbey Choir, James O'Donnell (conductor)

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CDA67792

Purcell: The Complete Anthems and Services, Vol. 8
The King's Consort, Robert King (conductor)

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CDA66686 Archive Service; also available on CDS44141/51 Download currently discounted

Purcell: The Complete Sacred Music
The King's Consort, Robert King (conductor)

Play all extracts from this album Buy by post £76.00
CDS44141/51 11CDs Boxed set (at a special price)

Details

Charles Daniels (tenor), Michael George (bass), King's Consort Choir, The King's Consort, Robert King (conductor)

Track 4 on CDA66686 [6'26] Archive Service; also available on CDS44141/51 Copyright holder as reported by MCPS: Faber Music Ltd
LatinEnglish

Julian Stocker (tenor), Robert Macdonald (bass), Westminster Abbey Choir, James O'Donnell (conductor)

Track 12 on CDA67792 [6'27] Copyright holder as reported by MCPS: Public Domain
LatinEnglish

Charles Daniels (tenor), Michael George (bass), King's Consort Choir, The King's Consort, Robert King (conductor)

Track 4 on CDS44141/51 CD8 [6'26] 11CDs Boxed set (at a special price) Copyright holder as reported by MCPS: Faber Music Ltd
LatinEnglish

Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, Z135

EnglishFrançaisDeutsch

Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes is one of only two sacred Latin motets by Purcell which, from its autograph manuscript, has been dated around 1680. It is not known why Purcell should have set a Latin Psalm text: it seems highly improbable that such a work could have been performed at the Anglican Chapel Royal. It is just possible, although unlikely, that it could have been written for the Catholic chapel of King Charles’s Queen Catherine. Whatever its purpose, ‘Jehova’ is one of Purcell’s most astonishing church works, combining progressive and conservative styles. Its declamatory solo and choral work shows Purcell at his most highly Italianate, but combines such forward-looking techniques with sections of polyphony which look back to the English masters of the late Renaissance. Harmonically the work shows Purcell at his most adventurous. Elgar is said to have enquired, when orchestrating ‘Jehova’, whether the score he was using contained misprints!

The first section demonstrates Purcell’s choral mastery: over the mysterious opening chords the second trebles float their high entry, building towards the angry ‘Quam multi insurgunt contra me’ and the counterpoint of ‘quam multi dicunt de anima mea’. The entries of ‘non est salus isti in Deo’ (‘There is no help for him in God’) build magnificently to a climax. The tenor solo ‘At tu, Jehova’ is highly Italianate in its declamation, moving into a section of triple-time arioso: the choir answer with the forceful ‘Voce mea ad Jehovam clamanti’ and a contrapuntal section ‘respondit mihi’ which builds to another sumptuous close, in which the choir basses divert from the continuo line to add extra richness to the harmony. ‘Ego cubui et dormivi’ is one of Purcell’s most vividly atmospheric pieces of choral writing, illustrating the psalmist sleeping and awaking, safe in the knowledge that the Lord was sustaining him. Purcell splendidly sets the warlike ‘Non timebo a myriadibus populi’ for solo bass, calling on God to save him. The continuo line at ‘Qui percussisti omnes inimicos meos maxilliam’ [‘maxillam’ would be better grammar] (‘Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone’) falls inexorably before the teeth of the ungodly are broken. The closing chorus is triumphant in its lilting triple metre.

from notes by Robert King ©

Track-specific metadata

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Details for CDA66686 track 4

Artists

Charles Daniels (tenor)

Michael George (bass)

King's Consort Choir

The King's Consort

Robert King (conductor)

ISRC

GB-AJY-94-68604

Duration

6'26

Recording date

8 January 1994

Recording venue

St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom

Recording producer

Ben Turner

Recording engineer

Philip Hobbs

Hyperion usage

Purcell: The Complete Anthems and Services, Vol. 8 (CDA66686)
Disc 1 Track 4
Release date: April 1994
Deletion date: September 2005
Archive Service; also available on CDS44141/51
Purcell: The Complete Sacred Music (CDS44141/51)
Disc 8 Track 4
Release date: November 2002
11CDs Boxed set (at a special price)

Hyperion Records