PHI CD 504: THE TURNING YEAR - Music of Christopher Rathbone Volume 2
Scenes and Antiphons op.80 for Organ (2000)
[1] O Sapientia; [2] A Voice Crying in the Wilderness; [3] O Adonai;
[4] The Annunciation [5] O Radix Jesse [6] Shepherds go to the Stable
[7] O Clavis David [8] Angels [9] O Oriens [10] The Word made Flesh
[11] O Rex Gentium [12] Magi follow the Star [13] O Emmanuel
[14] King Herod and the Holy Innocents [15] The Peace of the Christ Child
(Pax Christi, Pax Mundi) [16] O Virgo Virginum (Deo Gratias)
The Turning Year op 45 Cantata for voices and piano (1983)
[17] Prologue : New Year (Spender)*** [18] Winter (Thomson)***
[19] Winter, a memory of Childhood (de la Mare)**
[20] Last week of February 1890 (Bridges)*
[21] But these things also are spring's (E. Thomas)* [22] April 1885 (Bridges)**
[23] May with its light behaving (W.H. Auden)* [24] A Country Song (Breton)*
[25] The Green Roads (E. Thomas)** [26] Poppies in July (Plath)*
[27] Shall I compare thee to a Summer's Day? (Shakespeare)**
[28] August (from 'Autumn Journal' MacNeice)*** [29] In September (Todd)***
[30] North Wind in October (Bridges)** [31] Autumn (Thomson)*
[32] Epilogue : Sonnet (Bridges)***
[33]-[43] City of God : Jazz Variants on the
Hymn tune 'Richmond' op. 91 for Organ (2002)
[33] Moderato [34] Vivace [35] Allegro moderato [36] Blues [37] Ragtime
[38] Charleston [39] Tango [40] Dixieland (Commodo) [41] Gently Swinging
[42] Adagio [43] Fast
*Victoria Sharp, soprano **Sally Daley, mezzo ***David Owen-Lewis, baritone, Christopher Rathbone, piano and organ
1-16, 33-43 Rec. Holy Trinity Church, Meanwood, Leeds 16.xii.02 17-32 Rec. Oakwood House, Leeds 04.ii.03
TOTAL PLAYING TIME : 77.52
Notes on the Music
The song cycle 'The Turning Year' was composed in 1983 in a deliberately straightforward style, with the aim of providing challenging material for classroom singing. It rather outgrew this purpose, but none of the songs has a very wide range: the average treble, soprano, mezzo, tenor or baritone should be able to manage any of the songs. The composer has performed many himself, accompanying his own singing ('May with its light' has defeated him so far!) Three songs exist with accompaniment for string trio and were performed alongside works for piano quartet at Marlborough Summer School. The entire work had to wait till 2001, when the present line-up of singers (all friends and colleagues of the composer who are current or past members of Opera North chorus) was persuaded to perform the work. A second performance by Sally Daley and the composer took place a couple of months later. The poems trace the seasons from New Year ('the centre of the turning year' as Stephen Spender's Prologue has it). They come from various periods (from Nicolas Breton 1545-1626 to Sylvia Plath 1932-63) with major contributions from Robert Bridges (1844-1930) Edward Thomas(1878-1917) and James Thomson (1700-48) whose 'Seasons' provided the framework for Haydn's wonderful late oratorio. There are four songs for each season, though some depict the transition from one season to another. Bridge's 'Last Week of February' looks forward to the coming Spring, while Edward Thomas's 'But these things also are Spring's is positively wintry. Several songs adopt a jazzy idiom ('May', 'A Country Song' 'Poppies'), some alternate between straight and swung passages (de la Mare's 'Winter', Thomson's 'Autumn'), while the Shakespeare sonnet is set as a popular ballad and 'August' as a Tango.
'Scenes and Antiphons' is a work for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany conceived perhaps as a poor man's equivalent of Messiaen's 'La Nativité du Seigneur'. The Scenes or Pictures include some which directly correspond to the equivalent Messiaen pieces (Shepherds, Angels, Magi) though these Shepherds are shown making their way to the stable, then adoring the Christ Child, while Messiaen has the adoration then the stumbling, excited return. The Rathbone Angels have a comparable but very different aerial dance, while the Magi deliberately use one of Messiaen's 'modes of limited transposition' as a tribute. There is St John's voice 'crying in the wilderness' and the Annunciation for Advent, and an 'anger' piece for Herod (Holy Innocents, Jan 1st). The two quiet pieces (The Word..., The Peace...) attempt to illustrate our sense of wonder at the miracle of the incarnation. Interspersed are settings of the plainsong melodies for the Advent Antiphons (the 'Great Os') which are in effect a set of variations, as the melody is very similar in each case. The eighth provides a grand if brief finale, a kind of 'Deo Gratias'. The work was written between February and August 2000 and first performed by Simon Lindley, the dedicatee, at Leeds Town Hall in November 2000.
The Jazz Variants on Richmond (City of God) were composed in August and September 2002 and had not received a public performance before this recording. Their first performance is due to be given at Leeds Parish Church on the Friday after Easter 2003 (25th April). Inspired by the success of two jazzy variations in the work for trumpet and organ (variations on 'Picardy' op 73, 1999) I wrote twelve contrasted variations on the well-known hymn tune by Thomas Haweis (1734-1820), but with no attempt to illustrate the words usually associated with the melody ('City of God, how broad and far outspread thy walls sublime'.) Some are just vaguely 'swung', others imitate Ragtime, the Charleston, Tango, a Blues and even a Dixieland Jazz Band. The last but one is an extended Adagio - a quasi - Karg-Elert chorale prelude, if you like, not really jazzy at all, while the final variation is a trumpet solo, fast and furious. One variation (intermezzo, var.6) was omitted, due to limitations of space.
© Christopher Rathbone, 2003