In their most recent recording of choral music by Sir James MacMillan, Phillip Cooke, Henrik Dahlgren, and Andrew Smith, the Caritas Chamber Choir gathers new works. All the works on the album are world premiere recordings.
The major composer on the album is Sir James MacMillan (b. 1959), and some of these works were commissioned for very distinguished events. If ye love me was commissioned in 2013 for the retirement of the South African bishop and theologian Desmond Tutu. For a thousand years was written in 2020 for St Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge, to celebrate its Millennium. In 2014, for the 750th anniversary of Merton College, Oxford, he wrote I will take you from the nations for the Merton College Choir.
James MacMillan: I will take you from the nations
The text comes from Ezekiel 36: 24-26, and it is the water reference (I will sprinkle clean water on you) that inspires its unusual drop-like articulation. The text comes to a climax with ‘I will … put a new spirit within you’, and MacMillan nicely encapsulates the whole feeling of the coming together of the world under one God.
The final two works by MacMillan as Be who God meant you to be, written for St Dominic’s Sixth Form College, Harrow-on-the-Hill, in 2022. In his message to the students, MacMillan urges them to take the next step: Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire. The final work is his The Highgate Motet, commissioned by Mrs Gina Goldhammer in memory of her husband. It was first performed for the blessing of the Robert Goldhammer Memorial Door for the Nave at the Grosvenor Chapel in London.
Alexnder Stoddart: The Robert Goldhammer Memorial Door, 2018 (Grosvenor Chapel)
The other composers on the album, Phillip Cooke, Henrik Dahlgren, and Andrew Smith, are less famous, but this overview of their recent work gives much to look at.
Swedish composer Henrik Dahlgen’s settings of three Marian hymns, Ave maris stellis, Ave regina, and Ave Maria, in his collective Three Latin Hymns are simple settings of texts known from medieval or pre-medieval times. Dahlgren’s settings cut through the increasingly complex settings of today to give us hymns that ‘enhance an existing melody and established lyrics’, as the composer wrote.
Phillip Cooke’s Christus resurgens and O Lord save thy people, were each written for the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music. The first is an Easter text from Romans, 6:9, verses 9-10, and the second comes from the Te Deum, and has an extensive section for humming. His third work on the album, Veni Sponsa Christi, had its premiere in 2016.
Phillip Cooke: Veni Sponsa Christi
This work is very much of the new school of choral writing – direct and pressing. The opening word, ‘Veni’ (Come), is a direct call to its hearers to take action. From its opening imperative command to its closing Alleluiahs, the work’s careful balancing of dissonance and climax gives us an exciting work.
Our last composer, Andrew Smtih, has written two hymns dedicated to St Olav, an important saint in Norway where Smith lives. In Rex et martyr triumphalis and Christi tractus in odore, monophonic sections alternate with harmonically complex sections.
The last work on the recording is Smith’s setting of the Old Irish Blessing (May the road rise to meet you…). Written for a wedding and an impromptu choir, the setting is a rich contribution to the many settings of the text.
Andrew Smith: Old Irish Blessing
Caritas Chamber Choir
Benedict Preece
The Caritas Chamber Choir, founded in 2011, is based around the city of Canterbury in Kent. They are active commissioners of new works and are audible advocates for new church music. They are directed on this recording by Benedict Preece.
A New Spirit
Ulysses Arts – UA240110
Release Date: 18 October 2024
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