Eight madrigals by Thomas Morley SATB, SSAT, SSATB and SATTB Edited by E H Fellowes. Revised by Thurston Dart CONTENTS Clorinda false (SATB) Come lovers follow me (SSAT) Fire, fire my heart (SSATB) Leave, alas, this tormenting (SSATB) Love took his bow and arrow (SATTB) Now is the gentle season (with The fields abroad) (SATB) Now is the month of Maying (SATTB) Shoot false love, I care not (SSATB)

Composer's notes:The Fool is a time-honoured Orthodox religious figure: a Saint the highest of all who discards everything for Christ's sake. He discards all convention all decency all wealth actual and spiritual and turns himself into a figure of fun - defying all acceptable behaviour - and all religious decency. He stands in the square and lets down his trousers - he stuffs himself with food on Good Friday - he gets drunk - he 'appears'to fornicate wildly. There is a faint possibility (in not the highest of 'Fools') of gaining worldly popularity by such flagrant denial of all moral behaviour. Can such behaviour be too interesting? The true fool however embraces all of this and also (unseen) shrinks before the face of his God. By his behaviour he plucks out all hypocrisy false piety and corruption. He is a figure much needed in our times!!! The way I have tried to tacklethis extraordinary subject is to show him in seven stages from an obscene huge fat traditional clown who is drunk fornicating etc. through a stumbling frail agonized figure to a sallow-faced gaunt business man in a formalsuit staring at an empty glass. Having first revered him then mocked him the 'people' while they get drunk and jabber away at 'Christmas' and at the Feast of Feasts 'Easter' are no longer aware of him. But the audience seeshim - a tiny ragged scrap of mortality lying in a corner and faintly so faintly the voice of the Fool the true Fool for Christ's sake sings above the ribald crowd. 'He has given His life'. The Gogmagogs are the 'people' 'priests' 'singers' etc. and one male singer who can 'create' or 'uncreate' this vast role (singing and acting miming etc.) John Tavener Arranged for SSATBB chorus. Date of composition 2000. Chorus part only.

Cecilia McDowall's I Know That My Redeemer Liveth for SSA(A)TB unaccompanied. This attractive motet was written for performance alongside Brahms's Requiem following the precedent of Handel's famous setting of the same text being sung at the premiere of the Brahms in 1868. The gracefully sculpted music clothes the text with touching melodies expressive harmonies and varied sonorities.

Music runs through the story of Arion which begins with a singing competition in Sicily. Arion wins the prize and this puts his life in danger: his newfound wealth excites the greed of the sailors who are supposed to be bringing him back to Corinth and they threaten to kill him. They allow Arion to sing one last song and the power of his singing attracts dolphins to the ship.  At the end of his song he jumps overboard and one of the dolphins carries him to safety.  So Arion’s musical gift gets him into trouble but it is also his salvation.   The idea of being rescued by a music-loving dolphin is very appealing. In Robert Graves’account of the myth the dolphin could not bear to be parted from Arion and accompanied him back to court where “it soon succumbed to a life of luxury.”  However Herodotus says that after his rescue and return to Corinth Arion failed to return the dolphin to the sea and it died there.  Apollo placed the dolphin among the stars and next to it Arion’s lyre in recognition of his musical skill.  This is one of the mythical explanations of the origins of the constellations Delphinus and Lyra. It seems natural to sing a story that has singing at its heart. When I was asked by the Nicholas Berwin Charitable Trust to write a choral work for Making Music something that would be within reach of many choirs and involve children this story struck me as ideal: the men of the chorus could be the bloodthirsty sailors and the women could create an atmosphere of mystery for the arrival of the dolphins represented by children’s voices. There would be one solo voice: Arion the marvellous singer. Andrew Fardell the conductor who was advisor to this commission had suggested that I might use the same instrumentation as a popular arrangement of Orff’s Carmina Burana a work that as well as using children’s chorus features a solo countertenor. I thought the magical otherworldly quality of this

Edited by Geoffrey Bush and Michael Hurd Four glees and madrigals by Pearsall, Stafford, Smith, Walmisley and S. Wesley. SSATB CONTENTS PEARSALL, R.L. Why weeps, alas! my lady-love STAFFORD SMITH, J. Blest pair of sirens WALMISLEY, T.A. Sweete floweres! ye were too faire WESLEY, Samuel O sing unto mie Roundelaie

The popular hit Downtown, originally performed by Petula Clark is now arranged for Unaccompanied SSATB choir by Carsten Gerlitz. This pack contains 10 of the vocal scores.When writer Tony Hatch first walked down Broadway in New York in 1964, he got the inspiration to write this song, which immediately hit the top of the charts and helped Clark attain an international career. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and has not lost its magic, even after 50 years. / Choeur Mixte (SSATB)

Edited by Thurston Dart 23 madrigals for SSA by Bateson, Byrd, East, Hilton, Holborne, Johnson, Jones, Morley, Porter, Tomkins, Ward, Weelkes, Wilbye and Youll. CONTENTS BATESON, Thomas Nightingale BYRD, William Benedictus EAST, Michael See Amaryllis shamed How merrily we live HILTON, John If it be love HOLBORNE, William Gush forth, my tears Since Bonny-boots was dead JOHNSON, Robert Full fathom five Where the bee sucks JONES, Robert Sweet Kate MORLEY, Thomas It was a lover and his lass Lady, those eyes See mine own sweet jewel This love is but a wanton fit Though Philomela lost her love PORTER,Walter When first I saw thee TOMKINS, Thomas Sure there is no god of love WARD, John Fly not so fast Go wailing accents WEELKES, Thomas Those sweet delightful lilies Though my carriage be but careless WILBYE, John Away, thou shalt not love me YOULL, Henry While joyful springtime lasteth

Aus: Israelsbrünnlein. Geistliche Madrigale. Par SCHEIN JOHANN HERMANN. Johann Hermann Schein’s Israelsbrünnlein, published in Leipzig in 1623, is a supreme achievement not only among the works of this composer, who had been Thomaskantor in Leipzig since 1616, but also for the entire body of German music written during the first half of the 17th century. Among the 26 motets written “in the Italian madrigal manner” 23 are settings of Old Testament texts, a fact to which the collection owes its title. The source for the text of this collection is the “inexhaustible fountain” of the Psalms, the books of Moses, the Prophets, the Songs of Solomon, and other books of the Old Testament. / Mottet / Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

Aus: Israelsbrünnlein. Geistliche Madrigale. Par SCHEIN JOHANN HERMANN. Johann Hermann Schein’s Israelsbrünnlein, published in Leipzig in 1623, is a supreme achievement not only among the works of this composer, who had been Thomaskantor in Leipzig since 1616, but also for the entire body of German music written during the first half of the 17th century. Among the 26 motets written “in the Italian madrigal manner” 23 are settings of Old Testament texts, a fact to which the collection owes its title. The source for the text of this collection is the “inexhaustible fountain” of the Psalms, the books of Moses, the Prophets, the Songs of Solomon, and other books of the Old Testament./ Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

For Passion in 1680 Dieterich Buxtehude composed his largest work in the style of an oratorio the cantata cycle Membra Jesu nostri and he dedicated it to his friend the Swedish Court Music Director Gustav Düben. In each of the seven separate cantatas which in principle follow the scheme ?instrumental introduction ? choral movement with biblical texts ? vocal soli (aria) with a sacred text from the Middle Ages ? repetition of the choral movement ? the feet knees hands side chest heart and face of the crucified Christ are interpreted allegorically. The original scoring for strings in No. VI ('Ad Cor') consists of a consort of five gambas. If this group of instruments isnot available then violins I/II can be substituted for gamba I/II and the gamba V parts can be played by the violone (the music for these substitute parts is contained in each respective parts) so that in this case only two gambas (III IV) are needed. For such a performance only two copies of the Gamba performance score (Carus 36.013/16) are required.

Composer Orlando Gibbons was the leading English composer of his time the late 16th and early 17th century. This five-Voice SSATB madrigal is the best known of his many madrigals and remains compellingly beautiful.The sheet music also includes A Catch on Tobacco by theologian philosopher and composer Dr Henry Aldrich. It dates from 1685 when the composer was Dean of Christ Church Oxford and widely known among his contemporaries as a convivial soul who among his writings created a Latin epigramme listing five reasons for drinking. The performance notes stipulate that the round is to be sung by four men while smoking their pipes.

The harmonic turns and piano configurations in La vie ant?rieure ??? the ???former life??? ??? seem almost exuberantly lyrical. At the beginning the archaic sounds and words of the male choir conjure up a dream world that is soon flooded with the power of the waves and the rich polyphonic harmony of the choir and the piano. With the outcry ???C???est l? que j???ai v?cu!??? [I have lived there] which expresses the fervent yearning to return to a past life the collective desperately reinforces the longing for the past. Once more the women???s choir conjures up this lost paradise in an undulating soft sound before the desolate sadness is pierced by the power of the music of the piano postlude creating a moment that is completely in the present.

From Heaven Distilled a Clemency is the third movement of Triptych a cantata for choir and string orchestra. The aspirational text is underpinned by rhythmically-driving strings allowing the voices to soar excitedly overheard.

Choralmotette I. Par BORNEFELD HELMUT. BoWV 35 / Mottet / Répertoire / Choeur SSATB