The Crown of Life
Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford / Owen Rees
Rudyard Cook (organ), Arthur Barton (organ)
rec. December 2024, Chapel of Merton College, Oxford, UK
Signum Classics SIGCD 979 [64]
The introduction to the liner notes explains that the disc continues the choir’s exploration of overlooked treasures of the twentieth century English choral repertoire. It follows That Sweet City (review) released in 2024, which featured Kenneth Leighton’s early cantata Veris Gratia and RVW’s An Oxford Elegy.
The heart of the new album is the world premiere recording of Leighton’s Missa Christi: Festival Mass completed in the year of his death. The work was commissioned by Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis to celebrate its sesquicentennial anniversary. It travels a trajectory from the anguished opening of the Kyrie to the serene coda of the Agnus Dei, which bookend the exuberant Gloria, the Sanctus with its bell-like rejoicing, triumphant Hosanna, and the introspective Benedictus. The Mass blends Leighton’s characteristic contemporary sharpness with the gentler, more rounded character of older styles.
Leighton’s two short anthems are included. The penitential Drop, drop, slow tears – originally the final chorus from the cantata Crucifixus pro nobis – is a perennial favourite. A Hymn to the Trinity is a glorious paean to the doctrine’s ultimate radiance: lots of syncopation and vocal fanfares.
The bulk of the programme explores composers who studied with Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music. A notable, lovely exception is the first recording of Imogen Holst’s Out of your sleep arise and wake based on an anonymous fifteenth-century carol.
The first of Gustav Holst’s four pieces here is the haunting miniature This have I done for my true love, dedicated to the ‘Red Vicar’ of Thaxted, Conrad Noel. Holst did not set much Anglican Liturgy: there is a Festival Te Deum and the present Nunc Dimittis. He wrote the latter probably at the behest of Richard Terry, Master of Music, at Westminster Cathedral. Holst set the Latin text from the Office of Compline rather than the one from the Book of Common Prayer. It was forgotten for many years until his daughter Imogen published it in 1979.
The Ave Maria for eight-part women’s voices was dedicated to Holst’s mother. It is a splendid example of the creation of stillness and rapt contemplation. The fourth number is a setting of Psalm 148, Lord, who hast made us for thine own. Based on the hymn tune ‘Lasst uns erfreun’ from the Geistliche Kirchengesänge (1623), this powerful anthem begins with an unaccompanied statement of the tune’ It builds up into a great song of praise which celebrates the psalm’s exuberant call for all creation to join in thanksgiving.
Rebecca Clarke’s beautiful Ave Maria reflects her study of Palestrina’s counterpoint. Scored for three-part women’s chorus, this short work was published some nineteen years after Clarke’s death.
On 16 April 1920, Clarke confided to her diary: “Didn’t do a blessed thing all day but sit and compose. Suddenly quite thrilled over a setting for another Psalm – He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High. Wrote like mad all day…” This challenging setting of Psalm 91 was not published until 2003. Marin Jacobson (The Choral Journal, April 2016) wrote that the structure of the anthem plays a significant role in developing the exposition of the text, which portrays God as one who shelters, protects, and rescues followers from evil. The use of SATB choir and SATB soloists “displays the greatest variety of textures […] and [a] complex sound tapestry”.
Harold Darke’s lovely unaccompanied anthem O brother man sets words by the American Quaker poet and abolitionist J.G. Whittier. This call to universal brotherhood – where love becomes true worship, heals humanity and brings lasting peace – was dedicated to fellow colleague at the RCM, William Harris.
Written in the middle of the First World War, Darke’s motet Blessed is the man that endureth temptation sets a catena of verses from the New Testament epistles of James and 1 Corinthians. The verses focus on themes of temptation and endurance. Dedicated “to the members of the Choir at St. James’s Paddington”, this five‑minute meditation well reflects early twentieth‑century English sacred style.
With the late Be strong and of good courage, Darke turned to the Biblical books of Joshua and Kings. Created for the Jubilee of the Diocese of Chelmsford, this inspiring festive anthem balances quieter moments with “stirring organ and choral fanfares”.
The booklet gives an essay-length discussion of the music, the complete texts and translations, and résumés of the Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford and their director Owen Rees. Dates of each piece in the track listing would have been helpful. There are no details about the two Organ Scholars Rudyard Cook and Arthur Barton, who both make a splendid contribution to the success of this album.
This thoughtful programme, handsomely performed, restores neglected twentieth‑century choral music to vivid life. It balances major new discoveries with smaller gems, and reaffirms the choir’s gift for revealing the depth and variety of England’s sacred repertoire.
John France
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Contents
Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
A Hymn to the Trinity (1973)
Harold Darke (1888-1976)
O brother man (1935)
Kenneth Leighton
Missa Christi: Festival Mass (1988)
Drop, drop, slow tears (1961)
Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
This have I done for my true love (1916)
Nunc Dimittis (1915)
Imogen Holst (1907-1984)
Out of your sleep arise and wake (1968)
Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)
Ave Maria (1937)
Harold Darke
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation (1916)
Gustav Holst
Ave Maria (1900)
Rebecca Clarke
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High (1920/1921)
Harold Darke
Be strong and of good courage (1964)
Gustav Holst
Lord, who hast made us for thine own (1912)
