Commentators often assume that Let all mortal flesh keep silence was written with the vast spaces of York Minster in mind. In fact it was composed in 1906, the same year as the composition of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in D. It is the only work of the period that is unaccompanied and shows a restraint not apparent in other works from the same time. It was not published until 1925. Bairstow made two significant alterations when the work eventually appeared in print. In the second chord of the second Alleluia, the tenors originally sang an E sharp. Bairstow later changed this to an E, in order to remove any hint of sentimental chromaticism, which he loathed. The original manuscript of this piece is in F, not F sharp minor. The music captures the words perfectly with the sombre opening in octaves, followed by high voices lifting the mind ‘above all earthly thought’. The use of octaves increases a sense of mystery and awe. There is a massive build up through the ‘choirs of angels’ to the Alleluias, and the music eventually subsides with a magical harmonized version of the opening, complete with a cadence of unusual power.

from notes by Philip Moore © 2007

Edward Cuthbert Bairstow (1874-1946) did his apprentice years as organist of Wigan Parish Church between 1899 and 1906. He then moved to the more prestigious post of Leeds Parish Church where he composed his introit Let all mortal flesh keep silence for unaccompanied choir in the first year of his appointment there (though the anthem was not published until 1925). Using the translation by J M Neale from the ‘Divine Liturgy of St James’ (later popularized by Gerard Moultrie’s translation in The English Hymnal), Bairstow’s masterly through-composed structure superbly captures a sense of mystery in its opening and closing statements in vivid contrast to the exultation of the cherubim and seraphim in its climactic bars.

from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 2019