Product Description
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your
Flash plugin.
Details
Format: Digital Audio CD
Label: PRO ORGANO
Catalog Number: CD 7212
Length: 64′ 11″
Tracks: 20
Organ: Aeolian-Skinner
Venue: Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California US
Recorded: 01/11/2007
Released: 11/01/2007
Producer: Frederick Hohman
Notes Author: Jeffrey Smith
Notes Language: English
Graphics Format: 16pp book, traycard, jewel box
UPC #: 636077721229
This album and its tracks are available digitally from the following streaming and download sources:
SPOTIFY
APPLE MUSIC
NAXOS MUSIC LIBRARY
One must be subscribed and logged-in at Naxos Music Library for the Naxos link to work.
Some of the selections on this delightful program are notable for sparkling, if tricky rhythms, including the Dance: Tomorrow Shall Be my dancing Day from the Carol Symphony of James Bassi and his ambitious Evening Canticles, not to mention Jeffrey’s “All riffed-up and swingin'” version of Go Tell It on the Mountain with piano realization by Matthew Edwards (“Not suitable for church,” as Jeffrey notes). A parish that is prepared for slightly less “swingin'” jazz would probably love “O Mary and the Baby” by Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott.
In contrast, That Hallowed Season and The Birds by John LaMontaine may be familiar to some readers, but are worth noting for a pleasant stylistic departure from the excessive sweetness of some Christmas music – not easy, but worth the rehearsal effort. Donald Nally’s Christ Child’s Lullabye sets a Scottish original in evocative style. A familiar Early American tune appears in an arrangement for men’s voices with the text The Hills Are Bare at Bethlehem. Other composers have set Robert Herrick’s fine text The Best of Rooms, but perhaps none so compellingly as Gerald Near, heard on this program.
Richard Wayne Dirksen’s energetic Chanticleer and some other recent original work and arrangements on this disc have become modern classics, but still sound fresh. The choral sound on this recording is likewise fresh, beautifully produced, wisely phrased, and always idiomatic.
Victor Hill – The Journal of the Anglican Association of Musicians (April 2008).
01 • Tomorrow shall be my dancing day • arr. Gerald Near • 2’4″
02 • Tomorrow shall be my dancing day – III. Dance from Carol Symphony • arr. James Bassi • 4’10”
03 • Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from The Evening Service (1996) – Magnificat • James Bassi • 4’22”
04 • Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from The Evening Service (1996) – Nunc dimittis • James Bassi • 3’52”
05 • O Mary and the Baby • arr. Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott • 2’38”
06 • Good King Wenceslas • arr. Leo Sowerby • 2’52”
07 • That Hallowed Season • John La Montaine • 3’1″
08 • The Birds • John La Montaine • 1’27”
09 • Christ Child’s Lullabye • arr. Donald Nally • 4’37”
10 • It came upon a Midnight Clear • arr. Richard Purvis, Jeffrey Smith • 3’32”
11 • Chanticleer • Richard Wayne Dirksen • 3’9″
12 • Infant Holy, Infant Lowly • arr. Gerre Hancock • 2’32”
13 • Gabriel to Mary came • arr. Jeffrey Smith • 3’16”
14 • The Hills are Bare at Bethlehem • arr. Ken Clark • 2’49”
15 • Lo, how a Rose e’er Blooming • arr. Gerald Near • 3’59”
16 • A Christmas Carol • Charles Ives, arr. Matthew Edwards • 3’16”
17 • Manger Carol • arr. Leo Sowerby, Jeffrey Smith • 3’43”
18 • The Best of Rooms • Gerald Near • 1’51”
19 • In the chill of bleak midwinter • McNeil Robinson • 2’35”
20 • Go Tell it on the Mountain • arr. Jeffrey Smith, piano by Matthew Edwards • 4’21”
Grace Cathedral Choir
The Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys The voice of a cathedral choir soaring upward, like the great building it fills, is a thrill and an inspiration to even the most unmusical listener. Grace Cathedral has had a men’s choir since its founding in 1906, but it was not until 1913 that boy’s voices were added. Learn more…
