Multitude of Voyces volume 1: SATB Anthems for issuu (April 2024) by multitudeofvoyces

Multitude of Voyces’

Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers

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Multitude of Voyces

supporting underrepresented, vulnerable and marginalised groups through music and words

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Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers

Director and Series Editor: Louise Stewart

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Volume 1 - SATB Anthems

Cover design: Caroline Grint

Volume research and editorial team: Miriam Endersby; George Richford; Olivia Sparkhall; Andrew Stewart; Louise Stewart; Henry Websdale; Anna Williams

Typesetters: Olivia Sparkhall; Henry Websdale; Anna Williams (senior typesetter)

Honorary Advisors: Revd Canon Jeremy Davies, Sarah MacDonald

First published November 2019, reprinted January 2020, October 2021, February 2022, January 2023, April 2024.

All rights reserved. The texts and music in this book are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any way for sale or private use without the consent of the copyright holder. Please note, the music in this book is not covered by a C.C.L.I. Music

Reproduction Licence, PMLL Schools Printed Music Licence or Amateur Choirs Licence.

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Multitude of Voyces gratefully acknowledges the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permissions for the use of copyright material. We apologise for any errors or omissions and would be grateful to be notified of any corrections that should be incorporated within future reprints or editions of this Anthology.

Permission to perform the works in this Anthology in public (except in the course of divine worship) should normally be obtained from the Performing Right Society Ltd (PRS), 29/33 Berners Street, London W1T 3AB, or its affiliated societies in each country throughout the world, unless the owner or the occupier of the premises being used holds a licence from the society.

Permission to make a recording must be obtained in advance from The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society Ltd. (MCPS), Elgar House, 41 Streatham High Road, London, SW16 1ER or its affiliated societies in each country throughout the world.

ISBN 978-1-9162164-0-2

Music originated on Sibelius.

Printed in Great Britain by Halstan & Co. Ltd.

Prepared for print by Riverside Publishing Solutions Ltd. (Salisbury)

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Biographies

1. Raphaella Aleotti (c.1570–after 1646)

Raphaella Aleotti was an Italian organist, prioress and composer. She was born in Argenta, Ferrara, and lived for much of her life in the Augustinian Convent of San Vito, which was famed for its music. She began to play the organ in 1593 and went on to become Director of Vocal and Instrumental Ensembles and ultimately Prioress. Contemporary accounts of musical performances in the convent under her supervision are full of praise and adulation. Under her direction the nuns of San Vito performed for Pope Clement VIII and Margaret of Austria. Her madrigals and motets were widely celebrated, although most are now lost.

2. Rani Arbo (b.1968)

Rani Arbo is a singer, songwriter, fiddler and guitarist best known for her work with the Americana bands Salamander Crossing (1991–2000) and Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem (2000–present), which collectively released ten albums on the Signature Sounds label. Crossing the Bar appears on two of those: Bottleneck Dreams (Salamander Crossing) and Some Bright Morning (Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem), in different versions. Both quartets toured North America extensively, performing at university and community arts centres, coffee houses, and folk and world music festivals. Arbo is also founder and director of the Middletown, Connecticut, Community Chorus and a regular teacher of harmony singing and choral workshops.

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3. Judith Bingham (b.1952)

Born in Nottingham and brought up in Mansfield and Sheffield, Judith Bingham began composing as a small child, and then studied composing and singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was for many years in the BBC Singers before becoming their Composer-in-residence. Her career has been marked by many outstanding works for the Church. In later years she has become known for her organ music, but she has also written large-scale works for orchestra, a church opera, The Ivory Tree , and a substantial canon of chamber music. Composition prizes include: the Barlow Prize for a cappella music in 2004 and four British Composer Awards in the choral, instrumental and liturgical categories. The University of Aberdeen awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 2017.

4. Sulpitia Cesis (1577–c.1619)

Sulpitia Lodovica Cesis was an Italian composer born in Modena, Italy. The daughter of Count Annibale Cesis, she chose to enter the Augustinian convent of San Geminiano, renowned for its music, in Modena in 1593. Her only known work is the collection of 23 motets for two to twelve voices, Motetti Spirituali, which was published in 1619. The work is important both for the generally high quality of the works it contains and for the information it provides regarding performance practice in Italian convents in the early seventeenth century. Cesis dedicated the collection to a nun of the same name, Reverend © Multitude of Voyces’ Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers (2019)

Mother Anna Maria Cesis of the Convent of Santa Lucia in Rome, another priory that was also well known for its music. The motets are believed to have been performed at the doors of San Geminiano in 1596.

5. Fanny Hensel (1805–47)

German pianist and composer Fanny Hensel was the eldest sister and confidante of Felix Mendelssohn. Born in Hamburg, she was taught to play the piano by her mother, who in turn had been taught by a student of J.S. Bach. A prodigious talent, she is said to have memorized J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier by the age of 13. In 1820 she and her brother were enrolled in the Sing-Akademie in Berlin, directed by the composer Carl Friedrich Zelter. Zelter was so impressed by her that he wrote a letter to Goethe claiming that, ‘This child really is something special.’

Her father, however, was less enamoured with his daughter’s talent. In a letter in 1820, he warned her that, ‘Music will perhaps become his [Felix’s] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament.’ Whilst her younger brother received public acclaim, Fanny Mendelssohn remained in the shadows. Married in 1829, Hensel only made her performance debut in 1838, at the age of 33, when she performed Felix’s Piano Concerto No.1 .

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Hensel was also a prolific composer: she composed approximately 500 works, including pieces for piano, lieder, chamber music, cantatas and oratorios. However, most of her surviving works exist only in manuscript. The few works of hers that are in print were published under her brother’s name: six of her songs form part of Felix Mendelssohn’s Twelve Songs. A notable example is her song Italien, which caused some embarrassment in Buckingham Palace when Queen Victoria told Felix Mendelssohn that she would sing her favourite of his songs and began to sing Italien. It was not until 1846 that Hensel, aged 40, published her first work in her own name.

In 2010 experts discovered that Easter Sonata (1828), which had been attributed to Felix since the 1970s, was actually by Fanny Mendelssohn. It had its first performance under her name on International Women’s Day, 8th March, 2017.

6. Imogen Holst (1907–84)

Imogen Holst was born in Richmond, Surrey, and studied at St Paul’s Girls’ School and the Royal College of Music. She won several prizes during her study, including the Cobbett prize for a Phantasy string quartet and a travelling scholarship upon leaving the College in 1930. In 1931, she embarked upon a career as a freelance musician; composing, editing and writing, particularly about her father Gustav. Her biography of her father was published in 1938. She was an inspirational teacher and between 1940 and 1942 she worked in the southwest of England encouraging music-making amongst civilians in rural areas. Then in 1943, she started a music training course at Dartington Hall in Devon, which eventually became Dartington College. She returned to freelance music in 1951, soon to be asked by Benjamin Britten to work with him at the Aldeburgh Festival, where she served as his musical assistant and eventually Artistic Director from 1956 to 1977. She felt particularly responsible for her father’s music, and supervised and conducted recordings, revised editions and compiled a thematic catalogue. She died in Aldeburgh in March 1984 and is buried in the parish churchyard.

7. Sarah MacDonald (b.1968)

Sarah MacDonald is a Canadian-born organist, conductor and composer, currently living in the UK, where she is Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir. She has been at Selwyn since 1999, and is the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge chapel. MacDonald studied at Toronto’s Glenn Gould School and at Cambridge University, and her teachers were Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, John Tuttle, and David Sanger. She has performed across the UK, North America, the Middle East, and mainland Europe, and is in demand as a conductor and teacher for international residential courses. She has made over 35 commercial recordings and had numerous choral works published. She holds the Fellowship diploma of the RCO, and writes a popular monthly column for the American Guild of Organists’ magazine, The American Organist. In 2018 MacDonald received the honorary ARSCM in recognition of her contribution to choral music.

8. Cecilia McDowall (b.1951)

Cecilia McDowall has been described by the International Record Review as having ‘a communicative gift that is very rare in modern music’. Often inspired by extra-musical influences, her writing combines a rhythmic vitality with expressive lyricism ‘which is, at times, intensely moving’. She has won many awards and has been short-listed seven times for the British Composer Awards. In 2014 she won the British Composer Award for choral music. Her music has been commissioned and performed by leading choirs, including the BBC Singers, ensembles and at major festivals both in Britain and abroad and has been broadcast on BBC Radio and worldwide.

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McDowall is regarded affectionately by countless amateur ensembles that have commissioned her music. Her pieces convey her understanding of choirs’ individuality, bringing out their capabilities and responding to their traditions. She takes pains to attend and support as many performances as she can.

High-profile commissions just since 2016 have included work for King’s College, Cambridge, and Roderick Williams. The whole list is much longer. Oxford University Press has signed McDowall as an ‘Oxford’ composer and she is currently Composer-in-residence at Dulwich College, London. In 2013 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of Portsmouth and in 2017 McDowall was selected for an Honorary Fellow award by the Royal School of Church Music.

9. Undine Smith Moore (1904–89)

Undine Smith Moore was born in Virginia, USA. Her father was a railroad brakeman and her grandparents were slaves. Her early musical education combined a rigorous grounding in music theory (Moore began to compose at the age of nine) with the pervasive influence of African American work songs and spirituals.

Moore won from the Juilliard Graduate School a scholarship to study at Fisk University, a predominantly African American institution in Tennessee whose chorus was fêted for its performances of spirituals. At the end of her first year, Moore’s father gave her a Steinway grand piano, and for a while she considered becoming a concert pianist. She graduated in 1926 at the top of her class with joint honours in piano and composition. In 1927 she became a faculty member at Virginia State College, lecturing there for 45 years and © Multitude of Voyces’ Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers (2019)

establishing a Black Music Centre, of which she was co-director. Moore attended Colombia University Teachers’ College from 1931, where she completed an M.A. in music education. She furthered her studies at the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.

Retirement only increased Moore’s productivity, and she composed prolifically until just before her death. Her choral cantata, Scenes from the Life of a Martyr, depicting scenes from the life of Dr Martin Luther King Jr., was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize after its première in 1982. In 1971, Moore visited Africa and was deeply moved by her experiences there. One of her last compositions was a trio for violin, cello and piano called Soweto, which is based upon Moore’s responses to apartheid.

She was awarded honorary doctorates from Virginia State College and Indiana University in 1972, and in 1975 the mayor of Petersburg proclaimed 13th April as Undine Moore Day.

10. Maria Xaveria Peruchona (c.1652–after 1709)

Maria Xaveria Peruchona (or Parruchona) was born in the northern Italian town of Gozzano. At the age of sixteen she entered the Ursuline convent in Galliate, where she apparently studied music with Francesco Beria and Antonio Grosso. She suffered from poor health throughout her life, and died in the convent sometime after 1709. Her only known musical output was Sacri concerti de motetti a una, due, tre, e quattro voci, parte con violini, e parte senza, published in 1675 by Francesco Vigone of Milan. Of the eighteen pieces in this collection, the works for smaller ensembles are particularly fine. Her texts, while lacking the polished eloquence of her fellow Ursuline, Isabella Leonarda, are intensely personal and deeply felt.

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11. Elizabeth Poston (1905–87)

Elizabeth Poston, well known for her unique carol, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, was a prolific composer, particularly of songs, producing a dozen or so meticulously researched songbooks, as well as orchestral and chamber music, choral works and two operettas (altogether at least 920 works).

Born in rural Hertfordshire, she was inspired by the sounds of the countryside, saying that songs were ‘always her first and permanent love’. Her adored home, Rooks Nest House, standing on the northern outskirts of Stevenage, in view of the Chilterns, was equally appreciated by E.M. Forster who had spent much of his youth there. He subsequently based his novel, Howards End on the house and its Poston inhabitants. Elizabeth had the moving experience of writing the incidental music for its 1970 BBC film production, as she also did for that of his Room with a View and some 65 other BBC commissions.

She had a long association with the BBC: even as a student her compositions were broadcast; in her early 30s during World War II, she was appointed Director of Music for the European Service, transmitting coded messages in the form of precisely-timed recorded music; after the war she helped to set up the BBC Third Programme, served on the BBC Advisory Panel and broadcast as a pianist and gave talks, including two notable series on her close friend, the composer, Peter Warlock who loved fifteenth and sixteenth century texts, as she did – ‘the music of the words’. Dr John S. Alabaster author: Elizabeth Poston: Catalogue of Works with Biographical Context (Alabaster, J. S., 2018)

12. Gail Randall (b.1955)

Born in Coventry, Gail Randall studied flute, piano and singing at Trinity College of Music, London, and is a self-taught composer. After a career in education as well as performing as a flautist, retirement provided more time to further interests of composing, performing, church work and campanology. Randall is an Authorised Lay Minister in the Diocese of Manchester, based at St Thomas Church, Moorside, Oldham, where she also directs the choir as well as a handbell group which has a busy schedule performing in the local community. A competent campanologist, Randall has rung more than two thousand peals in the UK, USA and Europe. Her works have been performed by choirs and instrumental groups in the North West of England.

13. Louise Reichardt (1779–1826)

Caroline Louise Reichardt was a composer, music teacher and choir director. Born in Berlin, Reichardt was the daughter of two composers. Her mother, Juliane Benda, continued to compose and perform after the birth of her children; whilst the work of her father, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, was very well regarded at the time. Despite her origins, Reichardt received little musical education from her parents: her mother died when she was four years old and her father was too preoccupied with his own music to make adequate time to educate his daughter.

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Although Reichardt lacked any formal education, she had the privilege of living in a home that was constantly filled with the leading writers of the day: Goethe, Eichendorff, Clemens and Bettina Brentano, the Brothers Grimm, and von Arnim all frequented the Reichardt household. Goethe called her home ‘die Herberge der Romantik’ (the sheltering place of Romanticism) and Eichendorff was inspired by his time there to write the poem, Da steht eine Burg überm Tale. Reichardt was clearly inspired by this intellectually stimulating environment as her songs often set texts by these talented contemporary writers.

In 1809 Reichardt moved to Hamburg where she earned a living as a singing teacher and studied composition with Johann Frederich Clasing. She ran a Gesangverein women’s chorus, for which she composed and arranged music and provided German translations of any Latin texts. During her time in Hamburg, Reichardt became particularly fascinated by the works of G.F. Handel and founded the Hamburg Choral Society to promote his music and that of J.S. Bach. However, despite the importance of her influence on musical life in the city, Reichardt was only allowed to conduct her choirs in rehearsals as it was deemed inappropriate for a woman to conduct in public.

Most of Reichardt’s music was composed during her time in Hamburg. She wrote more than 75 songs and choral works, both sacred and secular, many of which appear in popular lieder anthologies. Her hymn tunes were also well known during her lifetime, appearing in no less than 21 different late nineteenth-century hymnals.

14. Anna Semple (b.1997)

Anna Semple read music at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating in 2018. Since then her works have been premièred by the Chapel Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge, the Malcolm Street Orchestra, the Choirs of Churchill and Murray Edwards colleges, Cambridge, and Horizon Voices. Commissions include works for the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, and Mad Song at the Aberystwyth Festival 2019. Her first opera, The Next Station is Green

Park, was premièred at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire in June 2019. She is studying from 2019 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for her MMus in Composition, and also maintains a career as a freelance singer.

15. Ethel Smyth (1858–1944)

Ethel Mary Smyth was born in Marylebone, London and brought up at the family house, Frimhurst, at Frimley in Surrey. Despite her father’s vehement opposition to her pursuing a career as a composer, in 1877 Smyth was allowed to further her musical education at the Leipzig Conservatoire. During her time in Leipzig, Smyth met Antonin Dvořák, Edvard Grieg and most notably Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who encouraged her to study orchestration. She left the conservatoire after a year to study privately with Heinrich von Herzogenberg who introduced her to Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

When Smyth returned to England, her orchestral and choral music were very favourably received. In 1890, her Serenade in D was premièred in Crystal Palace and in 1893 her Mass in D was performed at the Royal Albert Hall by the Royal Choral Society. Smyth is best known for her operas, of which there are six. The Wreckers and The Boatswain’s Mate met with particular acclaim at their debuts, whilst in 1903 Der Wald was the first opera written by a woman to be performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

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An ardent supporter of women’s rights, Smyth was devoted to the cause of female suffrage. Laggard Dawn and The March of the Women were premièred by a chorus of Suffragettes at a fundraising rally at the Royal Albert Hall in 1911. In 1921, she was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment in Holloway prison alongside Emmeline Pankhurst for smashing the windows of suffrage opponents’ homes across London. It was during her time in Holloway that the most famous performance of The March of the Women took place: while the prisoners were taking their outdoor exercise in the prison yard, Smyth conducted their singing with her toothbrush from a nearby window. She conducted The March of Women once more in 1930, this time at an unveiling of a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in the Victoria Tower Gardens. Ethel Smyth was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1922 for her services to music.

16. Olivia Sparkhall (b.1976)

Olivia Sparkhall is Head of Academic Music at Godolphin School in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where she directs the multi-award-winning Godolphin Vocal Ensemble. She is a composer and arranger primarily of choral music, notably for her choir to sing in BBC One’s Songs of Praise Choir of the Year Competitions. Her association with Multitude of Voyces has resulted in several commissions: for International Women’s Day services in 2018 (Lux) and 2019 (Faith and Hope). She has also been commissioned to write Makaton Mass, the first mass conceived to be integrally sung and signed. She conducts massed-children’s choir concerts for the charity Barnardo’s.

17. Greta Tomlins (1912–72)

Greta Tomlins was an English composer best known for her sacred choral music and carols. Tomlins was educated at Roedean School and read Music at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She continued her studies in composition at the Royal College of Music. Although Tomlins largely wrote vocal music, her Alpine Suite for percussion, piano and strings was also very well received.

Tomlins was a fervent champion of women’s education: in 1941 she was appointed as a lecturer in music at Homerton College, Cambridge (then a female-only establishment). She was greatly admired by her students, namely for introducing choral singing into the heart of the college’s musical life. Weekly choir attendance was compulsory. During these rehearsals on a Friday evening, Tomlins introduced the students to a wide range of music: from Hebridean love songs to Handel’s Messiah

18. Joanna Ward (b.1998)

Joanna Ward is a composer and performer from Newcastle upon Tyne. She is a choral singer, soloist and one half of the duo The Mermaid Café for whom she has written and commissioned new work. Her focus is on contemporary music written by women. While still an undergraduate at Jesus College, Cambridge, she composed music for Sound and Music, NMC Recordings, ensemble recherche, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, and more. She became one of the inaugural Young Composers with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain in 2018. Jesus College commissioned She is More Precious than Rubies to celebrate 40 years since admitting women in 1979. After graduation in 2019 she was accepted for a Master’s degree in Composition at Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a Scholarship and supported by a Vaughan Williams Bursary.

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19. Judith Weir (b.1954)

Judith Weir, born to Scottish parents in Cambridge, studied composition with John Tavener, Robin Holloway and Gunther Schuller. On leaving Cambridge University in 1976 she taught in England and Scotland, and in the mid-1990s became Associate Composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of Spitalfields Festival. She was a Visiting Professor at Princeton (2001) Harvard (2004) and Cardiff (2006–13) and in 2014 was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music. In 2015 she became Associate Composer to the BBC Singers. (provided by Peters Ed)

She is the composer of several operas (written for Kent Opera, Scottish Opera, ENO and Bregenz), which have been widely performed. She has written orchestral music for the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony and Minnesota Orchestras. Much of her music has been recorded and is available on the NMC, Delphian and Signum labels.

20. Janet Wheeler (b.1957)

Janet Wheeler read music at Cambridge and combines her composing career with a busy schedule of choral conducting.

Sacred music includes Beati Quorum Via (Homage to Stanford), commissioned by Sonoro, and We Sing to God, the Spring of Mirth (Friends of Cathedral Music competition winner), sung at the Three Choirs Festival opening service in 2019. Her Responses are sung regularly at Gloucester Cathedral, the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, and in Oxford and Cambridge college chapels.

Wheeler also composes larger works for chorus and orchestra. I Sing, and Ever Shall, commissioned by Southampton Philharmonic Choir, has proved popular elsewhere. In 2018 she wrote Imagine It! for the National Youth Choir and virtuoso percussionists O Duo. The Cries of Music was commissioned as test piece for the inaugural London © Multitude of Voyces’ Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers (2019)

International Choral Conducting Competition. Farnham Youth Choir performed A Poison Tree at the 2019 European Choir Games. (MazeMusic)

21. Helen Williams (b.1969)

Helen Williams combines being an ecclesiastical composer and embroiderer with regular employment as an NHS Music Therapist. Improvisation plays a large part in her work both with adults and children with intellectual disabilities and as a pianist-accompanist for Cecchetti ballet schools. She studied composition at Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Michael Omer. Becoming one of the first female Choral Scholars at St Peter’s College, Oxford, she began composing for choir. She also plays the viola and tenor viol. Living in Epsom, she has written mainly for St Martin’s Church, where her congregational psalm responses are used most weeks, and for Epsom Chamber Choir. ‘I enjoy creating and restoring anything, whether lasting or ephemeral, that makes emotional and spiritual connections.’

22. Alison Willis (b.1971)

Alison Willis is an award-winning composer whose works have been performed and broadcast internationally. Her music has been described as, ‘Intensely moving’, ‘Beautiful yet pragmatic’ and ‘Saying what you have to say and then stopping’. She finds particular inspiration in historical sources and events and social issues and enjoys working collaboratively with both young people and adults. Willis is also an experienced pianist, organist, folk musician and Musical Director, enjoys composing music for theatre and is a Trustee of the Martin Read Foundation, supporting young composers.

Editors:

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(15) Maks Adach

Maks Adach read music as Organ Scholar of Oriel College, Oxford. Whilst he undertook postgraduate research at Oxford, he served as Director of Music at both St John’s College and Pusey House. Following his time as Organ Scholar of both Lichfield and Liverpool Cathedrals, he moved to the USA where he works as Assistant Director of Music at St Paul’s Roman Catholic Church and Choir School, Harvard Square – one of only a handful of American institutions to offer daily choral worship.

(10) Henry Lebedinsky

American historical keyboardist, composer and conductor Henry Lebedinsky has performed with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, Seraphic Fire, and Sonoma Bach, among others. He is the co-Artistic Director of Seattle’s Pacific MusicWorks and is the founder of PMW’s Underground concert series, dedicated to bringing old music to new audiences in unconventional, fun, and exciting venues. With the San Francisco-based band Agave Baroque, he has released two albums with countertenor Reginald L. Mobley on the VGo Recordings label. He and Mr Mobley have spent the past decade introducing audiences to music by Black composers from the past 250 years. An active composer and poet, his sacred music is published by Paraclete Press, Carus-Verlag Stuttgart, and CanticaNOVA. He currently serves as Organist and Choirmaster at Seattle’s historic Christ Episcopal Church.

(1) Christopher Shaw

Christopher Shaw provides downloadable desk-top editions of polychoral music available through his website www.notAmos.co.uk.

(4) Candace Smith

Candace Smith is an American editor and musicologist who has spent most of her life in Italy. She was particularly active in the field of contemporary music before going on to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland), where she specialized in medieval music under Andrea von Ramm. In Italy she studied and collaborated with the late singer Cathy Berberian, among others. In 1994 she earned a diploma in vocal pedagogy from the RabineInstitut für funktionale Stimmpädagogik in Germany. She is active as a teacher throughout Europe, working with singers of varying repertoires (both classical and not), as well as actors, music teachers, psychiatric patients and others. She teaches voice at the Bernstein School of Musical Theatre in Bologna and the Accademia Teatrale Veneta in Venice.

Smith has collaborated and recorded with numerous ensembles of early music. Her first experience with early music composed by women was with her ensemble, Concerto delle Dame (1978–89), one of the first to specialize in this repertoire. In 1991 she founded Cappella Artemisia, dedicated to performing the music of Italian convents of the 16th and 17th centuries (www.cappella-artemisia.com). The ensemble has currently nine recordings on the Tactus and Brilliant Classic labels.

In 1997, she began publishing the repertoire of her ensemble, together with her husband, American cornettist Bruce Dickey, under the name of Artemisia Editions.

Biographies of deceased composers; written by Eleanor Burke unless otherwise indicated.

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1. Angelus ad pastores ait

Raphaella Aleotti (c 1570–p 1646)

Edited by Chr istopher Shaw

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2. Crossing the Bar

Rani Arbo (b. 1968)

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Emilia Lanier (1569–1645)

3. The Pilg r imes Travels

Judith Bingham (b. 1952)

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hands, his feet, his bo dy - and his f ace,

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and from the li ving

takes a way - all cares,

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4. Stabat Mater

This edition has been transposed down a tone from the or ig inal – see Commentar y.

Sister Sulpitia Cesis (1577–c .1619) Edited by Candace Smith

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Sanc

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5. Gebet in der Chr istnacht

Wilhelm Müller (1794–1827) Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn) (1805–47) Edited and adapted by Olivia Sparkhall

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Lie Love be, who - die sent den Ster n for th ge the sandt star - hi in naus toin’s the fer dis ne tantMor O gen r iland, ent,die the & bb

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Lie Love be, who - die sent den for th Ster n ge the sandt star - hi in naus toin’s the fer dis ne tantMor O gen r iland, ent,die the

? bb

Lie Love be, who - die sent den Ster n for th ge the sandt star - hi in naus toin’s the fer dis ne tantMor O gen r iland, ent,die the

& bb

Kö Kings ni - ge - zu to r u sum fen; mon;Die who laut through durch the ih mouth of res its -

& bb

Kö Kings ni - ge - zu to r u sum fen; mon;Die who laut through durch the ih mouth of res its& ‹ bb

Kö Kings ni - ge - zu to r u sum fen; mon;Die who laut through durch the ih mouth of res its -

? bb

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Kö Kings ni - ge - zu to r u sum fen; mon;Die who laut through durch the ih mouth of res its& bb

Bo mes mp ten senMund gersich an gab nouncedden with ar force to men the - Hir shep ten herdskund, poor, mf sub. p wie how & bb

Bo mes mp ten senMund gersich an gab nouncedden with ar force to men the - Hir shep ten herdskund, poor, mf sub. p wie how & ‹ bb

Bo mes mp ten senMund gersich an gab nouncedden with ar force to men the - Hir shep ten herdskund, poor, mf sub. p wie how ? bb

Bo mes mp ten senMund gersich an gab nouncedden with ar force to men the - Hir shep ten herdskund, poor, mf sub p wie how

bist qui -et du ly,still qui -et ge ly,wor youcame den, to - wie be, bist du how still qui -et ly - you ge wor cameto - -

& bb

bist qui -et du ly,still qui -et ge ly,wor youcame den, to - wie be, bist du how still qui -et ly - you ge wor cameto - -

& ‹ bb

bist qui -et ly, dustill qui -et ge ly,wor youcame den, to - wie be, bist du how still qui -et ly - you ge wor cameto - -

? bb

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bist qui -et du ly,still qui -et ge ly,wor youcame den, to - wie be, bist du still you, ge you wor cameto -& bb

den? be?

liegt -ess in lies & bb - den, be, pp ge you wor cameto den? be? -

-ess in lies & ‹ bb - den, be, pp ge you wor cameto den? be? -

be,

& bb

blin lulled den in - Schlum sight mer lessein slum ge - wiegt ber- und and träumt dreams von of g r ü g reen nen -

blin lulled den insight Schlum mer lessein slum ge - wiegt ber- und and träumt dreams von of g r ü g reen nen -

& ‹ bb

? bb

blin lulled den in - Schlum sight mer lessein slum ge - wiegt ber- und and träumt dreams von of g r ü g reen nen -

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blin lulled den insight Schlum mer lessein slum ge - wiegt ber- und and träumt dreams von of g r ü g reen nen& bb

Bäu trees.

men. - Singt And nicht does not vor in ih front of rem her - Fen win ster dowlein sing - ein an

En an gel: gel:Es Es ther, ther,-

& bb

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En an gel: gel:Es Es ther, ther,-

& ‹ bb

Bäu trees

men. - Singt And nicht does not vor in ih front of rem her - Fen win ster dowlein sing - ein an

En an gel: gel:Es Es ther, ther,-

? bb

Bäu trees men. - Singt And does nicht not vor in ih front of rem her - Fen win ster dowlein sing - ein an

En an gel: gel:Es Es ther, ther,-

laß let mich me ein, in, der the Hei Sav iour,land the - ist Sav iourge is bo bor n, - ren, - der the Hei Sav land, iour,der the

laß let mich me ein, in, der the Hei Sav land iour,ist Sav iourge is bo bor n, - ren, - der the Hei Sav land, iour,der the ? bb

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laß let mich me ein, in, der the Hei Sav land iour,ist Sav iourge is bo bor n, - ren, - der the Hei Sav land, iour,der the & bb

Hei Sav land - ist ge iour -bo is - ren? bor n?

& bb

Hei Sav land - istge iour bo is - ren, bor n, - - ge is bo bor n? - ren?& ‹ bb

Sav Hei land - ist ge iour -bo is - ren, bor n, - - ge is bo bor n? - ren? -

Sav Hei land - ist ge iour -bo is - ren, bor n, - - - ge is bo bor n? - ren? -

John Donne (1572–1631)

6. A Hymne to Chr ist

ver ses from A Hymne to Chr ist (1619)

Imogen Holst (1907–84)

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I land - un -to thee, And all whom I lov’d there, and who

I land - un -to thee, And all whom I lov’d there, and who lov’d mee;

I land - un -to thee, And all whom I lov’d there, & mp

When I have put our seas twixt them and mee, Put & mp

When I have put our seas twixt them and mee, Put & ‹ mp our seas twixt them and mee, Put ? mp our seas twixt them and mee, Put

thou thy sea be -twixt my sinnes and thee

As the trees sap doth

thou thy sea be -twixt my sinnes and thee. pp As the trees sap doth

‹ thou thy sea be -twixt my sinnes and thee pp As the trees sap doth

thou thy sea be -twixt my sinnes and thee. pp As the trees sap doth

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-low

ter - now I goe, Where cresc & none but thee, th’E ter - nall - root Of tr

Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

Emilia Lanier (1569–1645)

7. Cr ux ﬁdelis

Sarah MacDonald (b. 1968)

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? bbb

Crosse they nailde,

Be tweene - two thieues, vn pi - tied, - vn -be& bbb

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and ter ror s - thus ap pailde,? bbb cr ux, mf with shar pest - pangs

and ter ror s - thus ap pailde,& bbb

Cr ux ff fi de - lis, - fi de - lis, - fi de - lis, - fi de - lismp To & bbb Cr ux ff fi de -

know just how he suf fered – - would be dear

know

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8. The Lord is Good

Lamentations of Jeremiah 3:25–7, 31–3

Hosea 14:1

Spacious, expressive q = c.63

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The Lord is good un to - them that wait for

p sonorous

The Lord is good un to - them that wait for & ‹ p sonorous

The Lord is good to them that ?

The Lord is good to them that

* The two soprano soloists should sound slightly distant and ethereal, as if ﬂoating above the chor us

Cecilia McDowall (b 1951)

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9. We Shall Walk through the Valley

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1 We 2. There shall will walk be through no the val tr i als leyin peace there. & bbb there. peace There We shall will be walk no through the tr i val als leyin there, peace, tr i in als& ‹ bbb there, peace, There

We shall will walk be through no the tr i val als leyin peace. there.

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bbb If Je sus - him self - shall be our lead er, -

& bbb there peace. If Je sus - him self - shall lead us, we shall walk through the

‹ bbb If Je sus - him self - shall lead us, we shall

bbb peace there. If Je sus - him self - shall lead, shall lead, we shall

shall walk in peace;

val ley - in peace, shall walk in peace;

bbb walk in peace,

shall walk in peace; ? bbb

walk in peace,

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shall walk in & bbb

Lord, we shall walk, shall walk in peace. & bbb we shall walk, shall walk in peace.

Lord, we shall walk, shall walk in peace ? bbb

peace; we shall walk, shall walk in peace.

10. Cessate tympana, cessate praelia

Edited by Henr y Lebedinsky

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11. Sing unto the Lord

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clap their hands, S.1 clap >

their S.2 hands, clap their

hands, Tutti clap clap

their their hands. hands

clap their hands, clap

their hands,

legg iero (e = e )

clap their hands, clap

their

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The watch -man shall lift up the

‹ clap their hands, clap

their hands

clap their hands, clap

their hands.

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Gail Randall (b. 1955)

Come, my Way, my Tr uth, my

The pp call, the call, p the call, the

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The call, the call, the call, the

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13. Weihnachtslied

(Chr istmas Carol)

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Er! In In the der Kr ip man ger pe- lies liegt der the Lord. Her r. Je He was dem - Volk bor n to ward ev Er ’r y ge - na bo

tion. ren.

14. Drop down, ye heavens

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- iour, br ing for th f a sav iourmp non espress.

Drop down, ye hea vens, - drop

- iour, br ing for th f a sav iour.mp non espress.

Drop down, ye hea vens,& a sav iour. fmolto

- iour, br ing for th. f molto mp non espress.

iour, - br ing f for th. molto

mp non espress.

Drop down,

Drop down, ye hea vens, -

mp non espress.

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Drop down, ye & down, ye hea vens, - drop down, drop & drop down, ye hea vens, - drop down, drop & ye hea vens, - drop down, ye hea vens, - drop down, & ‹ drop down, ye hea vens, - drop down,

hea vens, - drop down, ye hea vens, - drop down,

down,

pp down, down, & down,

pp down, down,

drop drop down, pp down, down, & ‹ drop down,

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senza r it.

& down, down, down, down, , drop ppp

down & ‹ pp down, down, down, down, , drop ppp down.

, drop ppp down.

Multitude of Voyces’ Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composer s (2019)

15. Komm süsser Tod

Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) (after the chorale by J.S. Bach) Edited by Maks Adach Anon c 1724

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George Herber t (1593–1633)

(The Temple 1633)

Greta Tomlins

(1912–72)

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cor ner - sing , , My

and King! The heav’ns are

cor ner - sing , , My God and King! The heav’ns are ? bbb

cor ner - sing , , My God and King! The heav’ns are & bbb ? bbb

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world

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cor ner - sing , My God and King! The Church with & bbb

cor ner - sing , My God and King! The Church with ? bbb

cor ner - sing , My God and King! The Church with

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psalms

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‘valde’ and ‘decora’ have been deliberately elided; no repetition of ‘de’ is desired.

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19. Leaf from leaf Chr ist knows

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Chr ist knows; p Him mp self - the Li ly - and the Rose: p

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Dove by dove, He calls

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Janet Wheeler (b. 1957)

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*Restate the ‘u’ vowel as necessar y

mf cresc as of thun d’r ings, - as of thun - d’r ings, as f of & bb mf cresc . as of thun d’r ings, - as of thun - d’r ings, as f of & ‹ bb

thun d’r ings, - as f of strong thun d’r ings, - as of ? bb

d’r ings, - as f of strong & bb

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thun d’r ings, - of strong thun ff d’r ings,& bb

thun d’r ings, - of strong thun ff d’r ings,& ‹ bb strong thun d’r ings, - as ff of thun d’r ings,? bb

thun d’r ings,ff as of strong thun d’r ings, -

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& bbbb

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21. Great is Your Faithfulness

Words adapted from Lamentations 2:17–19, 3: 23–24 (NRSV)

h = c.60 (bar lengths var y)

Bar itone Solo Soprano Alto Tenor Bass

Helen Williams (b 1969)

h = c 60 (bar lengths var y)

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The Lord has done what he pur posed, - he has

Scr ipture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Ver sion Bible, copyr ight © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Chr ist in the United States of Amer ica Used by per mission All r ights reser ved worldwide Music © Helen Williams Unauthor ised copying of this work is illegal

car r ied - out his threat; as he or dained - long a go, - he ? bbbb & bbbb mp ? bbbb & bbbb has de mo - -lished with out - pi ty; -

he has made the

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& bbbb ? bbbb & bbbb

e ne - my - re joice - o ver - you, mf and has ex alt - ed - the ? bbbb

& bbbb ? bbbb

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soul, ‘there fore - will I hope in him.’

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Commentary

1. Raphaella Aleotti – Angelus ad pastores ait

Angelus ad pastores ait is presented here at the original pitch with modern cleffing, halving of note values and barring. The edition has been made directly from the source – Sacrae cantiones: quinque, septem, octo, & decem vocibus decantande; Liber primus, published in Venice by Ricciardo Amandino in 1593. (Christopher Shaw)

The angel said to the shepherds: I bring you tidings of great joy, for the Saviour of the world has been born to you today. Alleluia.

2. Rani Arbo – Crossing the Bar

This arrangement has been especially prepared by Rani Arbo, for this volume. This setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s beautiful and moving poem was inspired by my husband’s grandmother, Elizabeth May. Its first words were the last words she spoke, at age 97, in her beloved home overlooking the Potomac River Valley in Maryland. The melody and arrangement echo the Episcopalian hymns I sang daily as a chorister at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City, where I grew up. I am overjoyed that this song has found a home in the hospice choir movement in the US, and that it has travelled across the pond to singers in the UK and beyond. In England, the trio Craig, Morgan and Robson set the melody to a slightly different chordal structure (which I also enjoy) – a wonderful example of the folk process. The melody and harmonization in this collection is true to the original composition. (Rani Arbo)

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3. Judith Bingham – The Pilgrimes Travels: Fantasy on four notes by Alfonso Ferrabosco II

The Reverend Lucy Winkett, who was the first female priest at St Paul’s Cathedral, commissioned this piece for the Cathedral Choir when she left her post as Precentor there in 2010. It felt appropriate to use a text by Emilia Lanier, the Elizabethan poet, who lived nearby to Old St Paul’s. Her poem, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, published in 1611, made her the first female professional poet in Britain. Her family on both sides were luthiers, and so the anthem is based on a simple four-note motif (A-B-D-C#) from a Fantasy for viols by her brother-in-law, Alfonso Ferrabosco.

This anthem, dedicated to Lucy Winkett, was first performed by St Paul’s Cathedral Consort on the Feast of St Mary Magdalene 22nd July 2010, conducted by Andrew Carwood, with Simon Johnson, organ. (Judith Bingham)

4. Sulpitia Cesis – Stabat Mater

Composed in an earlier style and without basso continuo, Cesis’ motets have more in common with the late sixteenth-century polychoral compositions of Andrea Gabrieli than they do with the concertato style of her contemporaries. Some of her motets, including the Stabat Mater, were printed in high clefs (so-called chiavette), a choice suitable to an ensemble of cloistered nuns.

But a performance outside the convents, or with instruments, was also foreseen, as is indicated by a rubric in the bass line: ‘alla quarta bassa’ (down a fourth). In this edition, we have struck a compromise and transposed the motet down a tone, allowing for a comfortable range for mixed voices. Though such a transposition might be considered unusual, it is interesting to note that two important treatises which provide instructions on how to transpose up or down by less common intervals (Cima’s Partito de’ Ricercari of 1606 and Lorenzo Penna’s Primi albori musicali of 1672) were both dedicated to nuns. (Candace Smith)

Stabat Mater dolorosa

iuxta crucem lacrimosa dum pendebat Filius. Cuius animam gementem, contristantem et dolentem, pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta fuit illa benedicta Mater unigeniti.

Quis est homo qui non fleret

Christi Matrem si videret in tanto supplicio?

Sancta Mater istud agas, crucifixi fige plagas cordi meo valide.

The sorrowful mother stood weeping beside the cross while her son was hanging there. Her grieving soul, sad and dolorous, was pierced through as by a sword. O how sad and afflicted was that blessed mother of an only son. Who is the man who would not weep if he saw the mother of Christ in such distress?

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Tui nati vulnerati, iam dignati pro me pati, pænas mecum divide.

Fac me plagis vulnerari, cruce hac inebriari ob amorem filii. Quando corpus morietur fac ut animæ donetur Paradisi gloria.

Holy Mother, hear me, and inflict the wounds of the cross deeply in my heart. Your son, covered with wounds, desired to suffer for me; may I share his pains. May his wounds hurt me, may I become intoxicated from the cross, for the love of your son. When my body dies may my soul be granted heavenly glory. (© Candace Smith)

5. Fanny Hensel – Gebet in der Christnacht (Prayer on Christmas Eve)

Gebet in der Christnacht (Prayer on Christmas Eve) is a solo song, now published by Furore as Eight Songs with Lyrics by Wilhelm Müller. Here it is arranged for SATB, showcasing the teenaged composer’s use of harmony that became synonymous with the early Romantics. Gebet in der Christnacht is one of at least eight songs Hensel composed in 1823 which set poems by Müller. It is from the cycle Johannes und Esther. (Im Frühling zu lesen.) (John and Esther. (To read in the spring.)) The translation in the score is by Olivia Sparkhall.

6. Imogen Holst – A Hymne to Christ

This is a setting of the first two verses of John Donne’s poem, A Hymne to Christ, at the Author’s last going into Germany, written shortly before he went to Germany in 1619 as © Multitude of Voyces’ Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers (2019)

chaplain to the Earl of Doncaster. It speaks of his search for God’s love to replace the love he has to leave behind. Imogen Holst’s homophonic and largely syllabic setting of the poem allows for clarity of meaning, and the use of identical harmony in verse two makes for an efficient rehearsal process. Composed in 1940, the sumptuous harmonies belie the inevitable comparisons between Donne’s perilous sea journey, and the horrors being endured, at home and abroad, since the outbreak of the Second World War.

7. Sarah MacDonald – Crux fidelis

An anthem for Passiontide, or for use on Holy Cross Day (14th September). This piece was especially written for this first volume of the Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers. I have used the Latin phrase ‘Faithful Cross’ as a meditative refrain, and I hope that the mantra-like repetition of this motif will evoke in listeners both an emotional and a prayerful response to the image of the crucifixion. By contrast, the narrative words of Emily Dickinson and Emilia Lanier tell the story of the cross more literally, from the point of view of the faithful thief, and of an observer. Emily Dickinson uses no punctuation apart from the dash (–), which I have rendered in the music with rests. Singers should observe the rests accurately, even when they occur in the middle of sentences, since that reflects Emily Dickinson’s own idiosyncratic and unconventional syntax, as she attempts – hesitatingly – to discern truth. (Sarah MacDonald)

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8. Cecilia McDowall – The Lord is Good

The Lord is Good was commissioned by Oxford choir Sospiri for their Naxos recording of settings of texts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. I chose verses in order to bring a sense of hope and longing rather than drawing from texts filled with desolation and deep despair. I have used the Latin phrase from Hosea, ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum’, with which Tallis concludes each of his Lamentations. The two soprano solos open the work with long intertwining melismatic phrases on the word, ‘Jerusalem’. In performance the two voices should be placed to sound distant, ethereal and to bring a sense of longing. These elaborate lines lie above the slow moving, expressive chordal passages sung by the choir. In the lighter textured middle section the men intone the Latin phrase as if chanting and the work slowly proceeds to an impassioned climax before making a strong affirmation with the words, ‘The Lord is Good’. The soloists’ lines rise above the final chord, suspended, as if in hope. (Cecilia McDowall)

9. Undine Smith Moore – We Shall Walk through the Valley

We Shall Walk through the Valley, composed in 1977, is one of Undine Smith Moore’s many arrangements of spirituals learned from her parents when she was a child. Her choralwriting style is said to be derived from southern American hymnody, and is rooted in the tonal tradition associated with hymns and spirituals. Many of her arrangements are intended for liturgical use, and reflect her deep religious faith.

10. Maria Xaveria Peruchona – Cessate tympana, cessate praelia

Cessate tympana, is taken from Sacri concerti de motetti a una, due, tre e quattro voci, parte con violini, e parte senza, published in Milan in 1675. It has been transcribed faithfully from a copy in Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna. (Henry Lebedinsky)

Silence your drums. Cease your warring cries, Silence! Today, the organ is triumphant. Alleluia!

Resound, all you trumpets; sing with joy, you beautiful stars, For the flame of the world is risen, the Sovereign of Heaven, who we adore. O how sweet it is to see Jesus, to witness the brilliant triumph of love. Therefore let all mortals rejoice for they are freed from the pains of death. In such happiness, in such delight, unbar the gates of the Kingdom, O most noble, O most illustrious inhabitants of Heaven. Show forth your joy, strew flowers and let their perfume fill the air. Sing ‘Gloria’, for the True Life has risen, who we adore. Alleluia! (© Henry Lebedinsky 2019)

11. Elizabeth Poston – Sing unto the Lord

This exuberant setting of words from the Book of Isaiah is full of evocative word-painting and exciting contrasts of texture and tempo. Sing unto the Lord was commissioned by Stanley Vann and the Choirs of the Centenary Festival of the Peterborough Diocesan Choral Association in 1959. The festival continues to this day.

12. Gail Randall – The Call

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Composed for solo soprano and SATB, The Call is a setting of the text by George Herbert, one of his many sacred English poems classified under the heading of ‘The Church.’ George Herbert is extremely economical in his writing and I have tried to complement this by a restrained use of harmony and by creating interplay between soloist and choir to express the sense of the poet’s adoration and petition. In the first line of each of his three stanzas he announces three attributes of the divine inspired by Biblical passages and in the third stanza ‘Love’ has the final word, hence my repetition in the closing bars. My inclusion of the title words in the first and third verses was to emphasize the poet’s call to the Almighty as well as to add balance and structure to the music. (Gail Randall)

13. Louise Reichardt – Weihnachtslied (Christmas Carol)

Weihnachtslied was originally published as No. 5 from Six sacred songs by our best poets, Hamburg, 1823. It is from a much longer poem by Friedrich Leopold, Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg. The original song was for upper voices (Louise Reichardt directed a women’s chorus in Hamburg), although it appears in many 19th century hymnals in various different arrangements. The main source for this SATB version, arranged, and translated, by Olivia Sparkhall, is the German Song Book compiled by Julius Hofmann in 1895.

14. Anna Semple – Drop down, ye heavens

Drop down, ye heavens was written over the Christmas of 2018. It plays on the opening motif of Byrd’s Rorate Coeli, with imitation which aims to emulate drops of rain. Unlike Byrd’s anthem, this is a more personal petition, aiming to create space for meditation and reflection. (Anna Semple)

15. Ethel Smyth – Komm süsser Tod

Edited by Maks Adach for Martyn Rawles – the Girl Choristers and Lay Vicars choral of the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Chad, Lichfield.

Original Source Material: British Library Add. MS. 46861 ff. 3 - 19v

Komm süsser Tod is the first of a group of five settings of Lutheran chorales, which were considered for publication, long after their composition, as the Five Sacred Partsongs. Dating from Smyth’s Leipzig period (1877–85) where she studied under Carl Reinecke and Heinrich von Herzogenberg and was introduced to many of the great musical figures of the day such as Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann and Hubert Parry, the partsongs are written in an intense and lush Brahmsian idiom. The dynamic scheme indicated within this edition is Smyth’s own. (Maks Adach)

Come, sweet death, come blessed rest!

And lead me to peace

For I am weary of the world, Oh come! I wait for you, Come soon, and lead me, Close my eyes.

Come, blessed rest!

16. Olivia Sparkhall – Dona nobis pacem (Grant us peace)

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In 2018 Cappella Nova held a competition inviting women composers to submit a score for an a cappella work setting the text ‘dona nobis pacem’. The winning piece was to be performed alongside Robert Carver’s Mass, L’Homme armé. Sparkhall’s composition was short-listed in the competition. Carver was the only British composer to base a Mass-setting on the medieval European ‘pop’ song L’Homme armé. In light of this, Sparkhall took the ‘dona nobis pacem’ from Carver’s Missa L’Homme armé as a literal starting point. The piece is enveloped in the soundworld of Carver, whilst embracing more contemporary choral sounds, to give a sense of it being as much about the ‘here and now’ as a homage to the past. Dona nobis pacem is suffused with direct quotations from the medieval song L’Homme armé, albeit in a harmonic language which is at once contemporary whilst also harking back to the parallel harmony of the distant past.

17. Greta Tomlins – Let all the world in every corner sing

Tomlins’ setting of George Herbert’s Antiphon, Let all the world in every corner sing, is dedicated to Margaret Deneke and the choir of Lady Margaret Hall (LMH). Whilst Tomlins ran the choir at Homerton, Cambridge, Deneke was her counterpart at LMH, Oxford University’s first women’s college. Published in 1945, this setting makes ingenious use of an alternating time signature, addressing the unusual poetic metre with apparent ease, and allowing the important words to fall on the first beat of the bar. The chorus, ‘Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King’, is heard four times in Tomlins’ setting. Whilst the same melody is used each time, Tomlins gives the other vocal parts different music, in particular by changing the melodic direction of their parts. The mostly-conjunct vocal writing makes this setting a joy to sing for every voicepart, and the strophic structure delivers an effective anthem that is pleasingly quick to learn.

18. Joanna Ward – Hail, O Queen

The Marian anthem Hail, O Queen is a setting of the well-known text Ave, Regina Caelorum. The piece begins sparsely, with the text broken up and shared around the voices using a downwards step motif which permeates the piece. As the text progresses, the texture becomes denser and the harmony slowly shifts, before returning to the sparse © Multitude of Voyces’ Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers (2019)

major-second motif of the opening. Rather than writing a gentle and melodic piece around the idea of the benevolent mother Mary, I rather created a close, focussed sound-world, responding to the power and magic of the Mary figure. (Joanna Ward)

Hail, O Queen of Heav’n enthron’d, Hail, by angels Mistress own’d Root of Jesse, Gate of morn, Whence the world’s true light was born. (Translation by Fr. Edward Caswall (1814–78))

19. Judith Weir – Leaf from leaf Christ knows

Leaf from leaf Christ knows (2016) was commissioned by Matthew Owens for one of his groundbreaking ‘New Music Wells’ festivals at Wells Cathedral. The commission was supported by around fifty people from the local community in Wells, Somerset, and first performed by the Cathedral’s full vocal complement, including girl and boy choristers.

20. Janet Wheeler – Alleluia, I heard a voice

This is a setting for unaccompanied mixed choir (SATB with some divided soprano) of Revelation 19:1 and 6, a text familiar from the Renaissance setting by Thomas Weelkes. This version begins with slow-moving contemplative music expanding from a unison C. The central section is more lively, sometimes syncopated, and is built around a series of ostinati, some in canon, in the lower and then middle voices. The ending returns to the opening music, converging on the unison C to finish. Written in 2004, the piece has received many performances in the UK, France and Belgium. Its up-beat style, coupled with a sensitivity to the text, means it sits as well in a summer concert of part-songs and spirituals as in Evensong. (MazeMusic)

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21. Helen Williams – Great is Your Faithfulness

Great is Your Faithfulness was written as a birthday present for Richard Semmens, baritone and Director of Music at St Martin’s Church, Epsom.

The text is from the Lamentations of Jeremiah; the prophet attempts to come to terms with the disaster that has befallen him and his people and finds consolation in the faithfulness of the Lord. Suitable occasions for use include Passiontide, Remembrance and times of distress or disaster. (Helen Williams)

22. Alison Willis – I sing of a maiden

The text for I sing of a maiden comes from an anonymous fifteenth-century Middle English lyric poem about the Virgin Mary – Sloane Manuscript 2593. The original manuscript is held in the British Library. This setting reflects elements of the medieval through use of open fifths at the start and end and largely modal harmonies but with a distinctly twentieth-century flavour to the harmonies. The choir frequently uses vocalizations in order to let the words be heard and whilst some of the harmony is complex it is always led by the individual vocal lines.

First performed by The Music Makers of London (directed by Hilary Campbell) in December 2016, it was the winner of the Nick Edwards prize at its première. (Alison Willis)

Commentary; written by Olivia Sparkhall unless otherwise indicated. © Multitude of Voyces’ Anthology of Sacred Music by Women Composers (2019)