The Shepherds' Song (2016, Boosey & Hawkes)

The Oxen (2017, Boosey & Hawkes)

Performed by The Gentlemen of St John's

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/thegentlemenofstjohns1

Indulgence

Deep River (2006)

Recorded live by the Fleet Street Consort.

Come live with me was composed as a wedding present for my dear friends George and Laura, and sets Christopher Marlowe’s archetype of the late renaissance “Pastoral Style”, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. The ceremony was held in the bucolic gardens of the Musikschule in Lindau, Germany, and when looking for a poem that could enrich this alfresco secular union, I wanted a text that would reflect both the mountainous backdrop that envelopes this magnificent town, as well as the blooming gardens of a hot Bavarian summer. As a nod to the great traditions of Elizabethan and Victorian partsong writing, I have kept my setting predominantly homophonic.  Taking an A-B-A-coda structure, the sweeping melody of the opening section (rising and falling like “craggy mountains”) is later reprieved in a more luscious harmonization, and continues to form the basis of the soprano and tenor duet during the coda. In the B section (“There will I make thee beds of roses”) the texture elaborates to more contrapuntal lines of dialogue between upper and lower voices, with the passion reaching a understated zenith in the soprano 1 and tenor 1 rhapsodic rising duet (“embroider’d all”), under which the parts twine themselves around each other like “leave of myrtle”.

Come Live With Me (2017, Boosey & Hawkes)

Recorded live by the Fleet Street Consort.

In Geertgen tot Sint Jans’ painting from 1490, Nativity, at Night, the intimate scene from within the stable is for me dominated by the kindly benevolence on the faces of the Oxen and the Ass. In this tiny oil painting, their characters are so much more than the background bit-parts so often assigned to them – here they are centre stage, and with their eyes opened wide and their warm breath close, they become solicitous and sympathetic protectors. The tradition that so beguiled the Victorians of animals being empowered with the ability to speak on the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve (supposedly the exact moment of Christ’s birth), along with Geertgen’s painting, forms the inspiration behind my carol, The Vigil.

 


In this instance, our bestial chorus includes cattle, birds and sheep, and in the stillness of that night, they keep a protective vigil out in the darkness that surrounds the stable, repeating the simple refrain: “Hush, now! Sleep, Child, sleep.” Under a “blanket of stars”, as represented by the opening keyboard motif, the natural elements begin to lend their sympathy, with the wind and clouds, the streams and flowers all looking on in gentle encouragement and devotion. The carol is always mindful of the sleeping (or perhaps nearly sleeping) child, and never rising above a mezzo forte, the hushed rippling accompaniment underpins a heartfelt and peaceful lullaby.

The Vigil (2016, RSCM Press)

Recorded live by the Fleet Street Consort.

Remember Bethlehem was conceived after a conversation on the works of the late story-telling songsmith, Jake Thackray. Thackray’s sometimes bawdy, sometimes satirical and often hilarious lyrics are delivered in a lugubrious baritone, and underpinned by a strong Yorkshire accent that led him to be dubbed the “North Country Noel Coward”. In his Remember Bethlehem, he shows a more tender side, and tells a story of a “shabby little country girl” completely broken by the ardours of her journey, arriving in Bethlehem as a distrusted stranger to give birth to baby boy called Jesus. What strikes and moves me most about Thackray’s telling of the familiar Nativity Narrative is the way in which he normalizes Mary. Rather than retrospectively beatifying her - telling her story full in the knowledge of the extraordinary thing she did (as many nativity stories do) – Thackray’s portrayal of her as young, afraid and cold makes her achievement all the more astonishing. Indeed, so out-of-the-ordinary is the gift given by this apparently ordinary girl, that no one and no thing can ever forget it: “Even the stony old hills […] your shaggy old trees […] the sulky old sun Remembers Bethlehem.”

My carol of the same name adopts a similar approach to telling Mary’s story. Musically, I have only thinly veiled my affection for Peter Warlock’s miniature masterpiece, Bethlehem Down, and evidence of this can be seen in my choice of key, the triple metre and the strophic setting, as well as the resemblance of some of the cadential figures.  A final strand of inspiration comes once more from Yorkshire, and specifically Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre. My wife is a literature scholar, and pointed out to me the parallels between Mary’s plight in Thackray’s story and a scene from the novel, in which Jane is wandering around the moors, quite lost and desperate. Through her distrust of man she feels outcast and dejected, and places herself in the benign maternal protection of nature, and by inference, of God. Brontë’s prose is too elegant and rich for me merely to emulate, and as such, the second verse of Remember Bethlehem is adapted directly from her words.

Remember Bethlehem (2017, RSCM Press)

Originally from London, Richard studied at the University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, and now shares his time between France and the UK, where he holds a conducting and teaching position at the Conservatoire a Rayonnement Régional de Paris (conducting the Jeune Choeur de Paris and the Maîtrise de Paris), chorus masters the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus and will be, from October 2018, Musical Director of the Cambridge University Symphony Chorus. 

His works are performed globally and have been recorded and broadcast by a number of leading choirs. For many years he was conductor of the Exon Singers and Director of the Hallé Youth Choir, and has conducted many of the UK's and France's foremost choirs. After an early success with the BBC Proms Young Composer Competition, Richard made composition the main focus of his time at Cambridge University, where he studied with Robin Holloway and Giles Swayne. His passion for writing for voices has been influenced by his first career as a countertenor, and one of his guiding ambitions as a composer is to write vocal lines that are rewarding for singers to sing, and melodies that are infectious!

Richard Wilberforce - Composer

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