Mantegna – Hymnody and beyond
Dulwich Choral Society, London Mozart Players / William Vann
James Orford (organ)
rec. 2025 St. Mildred’s Church, Addiscombe Croydon, England
Texts included
Albion Records ALBCD067 [75]
Anyone who has ever read CD booklet notes or a biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams will be aware of his important work as Editors of the English Hymnal, a task which occupied him between 1904 and1906. A crucial aspect of his work was the provision of new tunes, some of which were for familiar words. He commissioned some tunes from other composers and he himself composed a good number. Thus, some of the well-known hymn tunes we hear and sing today are RVW originals, or his adaptations of folk tunes.
I was raised in the Church of England, and up to the age of 18 attended schools where hymns were sung in morning assembly. That is how I became acquainted with hymn tunes from an early age, and naturally enough, developed a liking for particular hymns. I recall noticing in my hymn book, which had a couple of lines of tune printed above the words, mysterious phrases such as Down Ampney or Little Cornard alongside the music. I did not know then that these were the names of the tunes used, and that RWV provided some of them.
It was only years later, as my interest in classical music grew, when I realised that these mysterious words were allocated by the composers involved, and were often the names of the locations in which the melody was taken down or composed. As it happens, my favourite does not appear here: Little Cornard,to which the words “Hills of the North Rejoice” were set, is not by RVW but by Martin Shaw (1875-1965).
The disc contains not only sung hymns but arrangements of the tunes. The longest is a set of orchestral variations which last over 17 minutes.
The programme begins with All People That on Earth Do Dwell, set to The Old Hundredth which dates from the mid-16th century – a tune by Louis Bourgeois. This is the well-known hymn which RWV so movingly set for the 1953 Coronation. It is very well done here, in a reduced orchestration. Despite the full-throated efforts of the Dulwich Choral Society, their performance cannot quite match my favourite recording, now available as a Presto CD (originally Argo 4361202). It features the full Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with the Choir of Winchester Cathedral and the Waynfleet Singers, who together produce a fuller sound with greater impact than is present on this disc.
The title of the disc, Mantegna, puzzled me until I discovered that it too is the name of a hymn tune specifically composed by RVW and named after an Italian Renaissance painter, whose painting The Agony in the Garden reflected the words of the hymn. RVW’s tune was unfamiliar to me, but is one of those easy to grasp, so that on a second hearing I was humming along with it. It perfectly fits the opening words of the hymn: “Into the woods my master went.” As the booklet notes correctly say, “it is not difficult to grasp, once the inertia of novelty is overcome”. The hymn itself, as all the others, gets a really nice performance by all involved.
The next track, the longest, is in some ways the most interesting here: variations for orchestra on the Mantegna tune by Francis Jackson (1917-2022), entitled Homage to Vaughan Williams.The composer, who is quoted at length in the booklet, says that the set roughly follows the events in the Garden of Gethsemane. The score was found in the composer’s papers after his recent death. Malcolm Riley prepared it for this recording, incorporating changes made after the early performances. It received marked approval by Ursula Vaughan Williams, who heard a tape recording of one of the performances. This strong work subjects the tune to significant change. Perhaps most noted are the somewhat fractious events during the lead up to the arrest, and the final variation where a march, supplemented by the organ, slowly dies away.
Next up is Prelude on King’s Lynn. It originated as an organ work by Percy Whitlock, who had been a composition student of RVW in the early 1920s. He subjected the tune to a great deal of development, and infused it with optimism. The booklet notes say that it has been orchestrated by Malcolm Riley (he and his wife are Gold Supporters of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society). The orchestration certainly does this stirring piece justice, with its climax incorporating the organ. The tune itself was collected by Vaughan Williams in 1905 when he was in the town. He associated it with the hymn “O God of Earth and Altar” to G.K. Chesterton’s words.
There follows the choir singing lustily “O God of Earth and Altar” to the orchestration by William H. Harris. He was RVW’s assistant as organist at St.Barnabas, South Lambeth, and succeeded him in 1899. It would seem that, in my not recognising this tune, my hymnal education must be lacking; this can only be due to the church in my area, North West England.
Next comes Prelude on Down Ampney – “Come down O Love Divine”. It is easily the most celebrated of RVW’s hymn tunes. He named it after the village of his birth, thus defining it as an original composition, so it is one more example of his innate melodic skills. It is represented here by a solo organ prelude by Vaughan Williams’s good friend Henry Ley, penned shortly after RVW’s death in 1958.
Vaughan Williams composed few works for solo piano; his Hymn Tune Prelude on ‘Song 13’ by Orlando Gibbons is one of them.Helen Glatz orchestrated it for string ensemble; she was associated with Imogen Holst at Darllngton after WW2. It is a coolly effective piece.
The next piece is unfamiliar to me as well. Eternal Ruler (song 1) istaken from a 1623 hymnal,which contains a setting by Orlando Gibbons using words from Exodus 15. The same tune has been used with a paraphrase of Psalm 19 by John White Chadwick (1840-1904). The anthem recorded here is an extension of the latter by William Harris, “The heavens declare the glory of God”. RVW added some harmonisation and trimmed off a repeat at the end.
Fantasia on an English Folk Tune (Monk’s Gate) in an extended organ composition by William H. Harris, over 9 minutes. It subjects the famous tune to “He who would valiant be” to every sort of contrapuntal permutation of the melody. It is extremely effective, and – unusually for solo organ works – it held my attention. RVW collected the tune in 1904 in the hamlet of Monksgate. It is still described online as a hamlet, although a quick look at it from above using Google Earth shows some modern additions.
Another original RVW’s composition comes next. He wrote it at his new house called “White Gates” near Dorking. It is sung here to the words “Fierce Raged the Tempest o’er the deep.” Vaughan Williams was able to create a memorable tune that fitted the words splendidly. It represents the terror of the disciples in a boat as Jesus calms the waters, and it has been republished many times since then. It is followed by an exultant Carillon on the tune, composed by David Briggs. The organist on this recording, James Orford, gives it an “all guns-firing“ treatment which is very stirring.
The next piece, less than two minutes, is an introit for orchestral brass and percussion by Malcolm Riley, and was composed specially for this recording. It is dedicated to the conductor William Vann who does such sterling work here and on other discs on Chandos, SOMM, Delphian, Navona, Champs Hill and Albion Records. It is based on the hymn tune Magda. It is an original tune by Vaughan Williams, set here to the words “Lift up your hearts! We lift them, Lord, to thee.” The choir sing the hymn enthusiastically but the melody is one that I do not recognise, nice though it undoubtedly is. Magda is a foreshortened version of the name Mary Magdalene, which can be associated with the words of the original hymn: “Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise”.
The next two pieces were organ works, both arranged for strings by Malcolm Riley: a romanza The White Rock and a toccata St David’s Day. The former is an arrangement by RVW of a Welsh Hymn Tune Dafydd-y-Gareg Wen (David of the White Rock) by the Welsh harpist David Owen (1712-1741). Vaughan Williams published his arrangement for organ in 1956 together with the arrangement of a 17th century Welsh jig St.David’s Day.
The disc ends movingly with the famous For All the Saints (Sine Nomine). The Latin part of this refers to Vaughan Williams habit of ascribing his original works in the English Hymnal to anon. It is yet another example of his seemingly inexhaustible facility to generate good original melodies. The choir here is joined by four voices, singing solo or in a quartet.; they are very good.
The accompanying booklet is a model of its kind, well-illustrated with black-and-white (older) and colour photographs. The names of the members of the choir and orchestra are all listed, as well as the names of the principal donors to the project. Each tune and its words are copiously described. The editing and design of the entire booklet has clearly been a labour of love on the part of John Francis, who is the Chairman of The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society and Malcolm Riley, who plays the organ for the London Mozart Players.
It is worthy of note that the disc has been produced with support from The Vaughan Williams Foundation, whose web site is well worth a visit. While there, one can grind one’s teeth to discover that White Gates, the beautiful Dorking home of RVW from 1929-1953 was completely demolished for redevelopment in 1964. The booklet also contains notes about the history of the St. Mildred’s, Addiscombe organ played on the recording; staff at Nicholsons Pipe Organ Manufacturers were helpful here. The recording, very good indeed, captures the resonance of the church acoustic whilst retaining vocal and instrumental clarity.
Jim Westhead
Previous reviews: John France, Nick Barnard (both November 2025), John Quinn (December 2025)
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Contents
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
The Old Hundredth Psalm Tune ‘All people that on earth do dwell’
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Into the woods my master went
Francis Jackson (1917-2022)
Homage to Vaughan Williams
Percy Whitlock (1903-1946) orch. Malcolm Riley (b. 1960)
Prelude on King’s Lynn
Ralph Vaughan Williams orch. William H. Harris (1883 – 1973)
O God of earth and altar (King’s Lynn)
Henry Ley (1887 – 1962)
Prelude on Down Ampney
Orlando Gibbons (1583 – 1625)
Jesu, grant me this, I pray (Song 13)
Ralph Vaughan Williams arr. Helen Glatz (1908-1996)
Hymn Tune Prelude on Song 13
William H Harris
Eternal Ruler of the Ceaseless Round
Fantasia on Monk’s Gate
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Fierce Raged the Tempest (White Gates)
David Briggs (b.1962)
Carillon on White Gates
Malcolm Riley
Introit on Magda
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Lift Up Your Hearts (Magda)
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Romanza ‘The White Rock’ (Arr. for Strings by Malcolm Riley)
Toccata ‘St. David’s Day’ (Arr. for Strings by Malcolm Riley)
Ralph Vaughan Williams arr. Henry Ley orch. Malcolm Riley
For All the Saints (Sine Nomine)
