Behold, thou hast made my days (Gibbons) - from CDH55228 - Hyperion Records

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Track(s) taken from CDH55228

Digital booklet (PDF)

Behold, thou hast made my days

composer

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)

author of text

Bible

Psalm 39: 5-7, 12-13

Winchester Cathedral Choir, David Hill (conductor), Robin Blaze (countertenor), Sarah Baldock (organ)

Recording details: April 1999
Winchester Cathedral, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard
Release date: April 2000
Total duration: 4 minutes 33 seconds

Other recordings available for download

Jaliya Senanayake (tenor), Jesus College Choir Cambridge, Mark Williams (conductor), Benjamin Morris (organ)» More

Charles Daniels (tenor), Magdalena Consort, Fretwork» More

Reviews

‘Hill breathes new life into Gibbons' musical and spoken rhetoric, using tempo and dynamics to set up conflicts between vocal lines. Perfectly complemented by Robin Blaze … the choral sound is exemplary―clean, but edged with an appealing English softness … a glorious sound’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘This recording is a well-balanced introduction to Gibbons' obvious musical talent’ (Scotland on Sunday)

Introduction
English

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) was the outstanding English composer of church music in the generation following William Byrd, but in his lifetime he was probably best known as a brilliant keyboard player. His anthems belong to either of the two types—the verse anthem (in which short choruses break up the solo passages into a succession of verses) and the full anthem (written for full choir). Setting words from Psalm 39, Gibbons composed Behold thou hast made my days in 1618 for the funeral of Anthony Maxey, Dean of Windsor. This is one of only three of his verse anthems employing a single solo voice, here alternating with the 5-part chorus.

Other albums featuring this work

Muhly: My days; Gibbons: Fantasias & Fugues

Fretwork

Studio Master: SIGCD897Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available

‘My days’ is a bold new work from Nico Muhly whose text amalgamates passages from The Burial of the Dead (‘thou hast made my days as it were a span long’—Psalm 39) with an anonymous autopsy-style report of Orlando Gibbons’ final hours, dying sudde ...» More

Gibbons: In chains of gold – The English pre-Restoration verse anthem, Vol. 1

Magdalena Consort, Fretwork, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts

Studio Master: SIGCD511Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available

This glorious album is both a compendium of some of the finest English music ever written and a testimony to the power of superlative performance.» More

The Evening Hour

Jesus College Choir Cambridge, Mark Williams (conductor)

Studio Master: SIGCD446Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available

The choir of Jesus College Cambridge contemplates the hours that take us from day into night in a programme of works by English composers from the sixteenth and twentieth centuries.» More